Week 2 of UFL Results, Attendance and More

News/Commentary

Week 2 of UFL Results, Attendance and More

April 8, 2024 by CollegeFootballPoll.com Staff

Saturday's UFL game in St. Louis saw a modern-day spring league record of 40,317 people pack the seats, and Sunday's game at Audi Field had a crowd of 15,052 to cheer on the DC Defenders. On the down side, the Memphis attendance checked in at just 8,791 and Michigan only attracted 7,475.

St. Louis plays at The Dome at America's Center which had planned to close off the upper deck, but had to open sections 436 to 445 to handle demand for season tickets. The city and its football fans are pulling out the stops to show the NFL why it is worthy of a franchise to replace the Rams who left in 2015 and moved back to LA after a 21-season existence. While in St. Louis, the Rams won the Super Bowl XXXIV (1999 season) lost Super Bowl XXXVI (2001 season). The Rams are also 1-1 in Super Bowls since returning to Los Angeles, but have just the 14th-best Super Bowl odds for 2024.

Faced by the prospect of a devastating lawsuit from the city of St. Louis in 2022, Rams owner Stan Kroenke and the NFL opted to settle for $790 million, closing that chapter of city-league relations permanently. It was a huge win for St. Louis, but to many it felt bittersweet. The Rams had left on bad terms. It had come to light that the team was covertly planning to move, and as a result, the city’s good-faith efforts to keep the team fell on deaf ears. (Source, link: Battlehawks Prove St. Louis Deserves an NFL Franchise).

The DC Defenders play in a much smaller venue, utilizing the 20-seat capacity Audi Field was built a soccer stadium for DC United. So with just over 15,000 fans attending, the stadium was 75% full.

Meanwhile, Memphis and Michigan each looked like they were playing under Covid restrictions, except for the lack of masks and social distancing. A 'crowd' of 8,791 at the 58,325-seat Liberty Bowl is just 15% of capacity, and the 7,475 who speckled Ford Field equates to just 11.5% of that stadiums 65,000 seats.

Attendance is a major concern as it serves as a barometer for the success of the league. TV Ratings are also important and they have been terrible. Despite the number of voices that claim to like spring leagues as a bridge between NFL seasons, fans don't back it up with bodies in seats and eyes on screens. In week 1, Arlington vs. Birmingham had 1.18 million viewers on FOX and the Michigan vs. St. Louis game had 1.349 million viewers, also on FOX.

The Women's basketball tournament, and even many regular season games, drew better numbers.

Of course, it's hard to build support from fans who have supported other leagues and teams, only to watch them disappear in a very short amount of time. The USFL, the World League of American Football, the original XFL, and the Alliance of American Football are just a few of those that have failed in 3 or fewer seasons. The UFL is a merger of the combined failures of XFL 2.0 and USFL 2.0.

Week 2 Results

Of the 8 teams in the UFL, only Birmingham in the USFL Conference and San Antonio in the XFL Conference have won their first two games.

Perfect at Home - On Sunday, the DC Defenders to 10-0 all-time at Audi Field since entering as a XFL 2.0 team in 2020. Houston took an 18-12 lead into the final period, but the home team outscored the visitors 11-0 in the period for the 23-18 win. The go-ahead and final points came on Jordan Ta’amu’s 17-yard TD pass to Ty Scott with 6:04 left in the game.

DC is 1-1 on the season in the XFL Conference while Houston slumped to 0-2 in the USFL Conference

Get your kicks - Also on Sunday, Chris Blewitt was 4-for-4 on field goals as Birmingham (2-0) dropped Michigan to 1-1 with the 20-13 win at Detroit. Michigan's Jake Bates hit a 62-yard field goal a week after stroking a 64-yard game winner. He hadn't attempted a field goal since high school. Last week, he actually nailed the 64-yarder twice because St. Louis called time-out on the first kick. In the NFL, Brett Maher hit back-to-back kicks of 60+ yards in weeks 6 and 7 for the Cowboys and he's the only NFL kicker to ever do it.

Dee-Fense: The Michigan Panthers fell to the Birmingham Stallions 20-13 on Sunday, April 7 at Ford Field. The Panthers move to 1-1 on the season while Birmingham (2-0) remains undefeated. Birmingham held Michigan to just 205 total yards.

Present and Accounted For: The 40,317 fans at The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis were rewarded with a 27-24 win over Arlington in a game that had 5 lead changes and was twice tied. An Andrew Szmyt's 22-yard field goal as time expired won the game for St. Louis after his 47-yarder with 6:47 to play had tied the game at 24-apiece.

UFL Standings

Here is how the league breaks down, and the standings after Week 2:

XFL Conference

Team	Won	Lost	Pct.	PF	PA	Home	Road	Conf.	Streak
San Antonio Brahmas	2	0	1.000	47	31	1-0	1-0	1-0	W2
DC Defenders	1	1	.500	35	45	1-0	0-1	0-1	W1
St. Louis Battlehawks	1	1	.500	43	42	1-0	0-1	1-0	W1
Arlington Renegades	0	2	.000	38	54	0-1	0-1	0-1	L2

USFL Conference

Team	Won	Lost	Pct.	PF	PA	Home	Road	Conf.	Streak
Birmingham Stallions	2	0	1.000	47	27	0-0	2-0	1-0	W2
Michigan Panthers	1	1	.500	31	36	1-1	0-0	0-1	L1
Memphis Showboats	1	1	.500	37	32	0-1	1-0	1-0	L1
Houston Roughnecks	0	2	.000	30	41	0-1	0-1	0-1	L2

Week 2 Results (Home Team in BOLD:

Saturday
San Antonio 20, Memphis19
St. Louis 27, Arlington 24

Sunday
Birmingham 20, Michigan 13
DC 23, Houston 18

Week 3 Games

News/Commentary

Week 2 of UFL Results, Attendance and More

April 8, 2024 by CollegeFootballPoll.com Staff

Week 2 Results

UFL Standings

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