The United Football League (UFL) is a

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

minor league scheduled to start play in March 2024. The league was created following the merger of the XFL and

USFL The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

Background

In 2017,

Vince McMahon Vincent Kennedy McMahon (; born August 24, 1945) is an American media proprietor and retired professional wrestling promoter, executive, and performer. From 1982 to 2022, he served as the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of WWE, the ...

, who had previously launched the XFL in 2001 as a partnership with NBC Sports, registered a

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from othe ...

for the United Football League name. An unrelated United Football League, founded by Bill Hambrecht, had played four abbreviated seasons from 2009 to 2012. McMahon ultimately did not use the UFL trademark, as response to the

ESPN Films ESPN Films, formerly known as ESPN Original Entertainment (EOE), is an American production company which produces and distributes sports films and documentaries. It is owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which ...

'' 30 for 30'' documentary "This Was the XFL" in 2017 showed that the XFL brand was still viable, and in February 2020, McMahon relaunched the XFL with a similar business structure (though, unlike the 2001 XFL, operated as a

sole proprietorship A sole proprietorship, also known as a sole tradership, individual entrepreneurship or proprietorship, is a type of enterprise owned and run by one person and in which there is no legal distinction between the owner and the business entity. A sole ...

of McMahon's separate from his professional wrestling corporation,

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vari ...

) and an emphasis on speed and innovation. The XFL, which was largely successful with its attendance and television ratings, was forced to shut down halfway through its 2020 season in March due to

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s imposed during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

and declared bankruptcy in April; later that year, McMahon sold the league to a consortium led by businesswoman

Dany Garcia Dany Garcia (born November 29, 1968) is an American businesswoman, film producer, and IFBB professional bodybuilder. Garcia is the founder of GSTQ, and the CEO and chair of The Garcia Companies and TGC Management, overseeing a portfolio of bra ...

, Garcia's ex-husband

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(a former WWE wrestler under the name "The Rock"), and private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners. The XFL chose not to play a 2021 season (most gathering restrictions would not be lifted until spring of that year) and cancelled the 2022 season after partnership discussions with the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

collapsed without any agreement in fall 2021. While the XFL was on hiatus,

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

—which had been one of the XFL's broadcast partners along with

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

in 2020—entered into a partnership with Brian Woods, who had been operating

The Spring League The Spring League was an American football developmental league and scouting event (pro showcase) that played from 2017 to 2021 and was founded by Brian Woods. Aimed at professional athletes but not paying a salary or expenses, the league's go ...

as a non-paying, pay-to-play developmental showcase for professional players under a single-campus

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format since 2017. Fox aired the autumn 2020 and spring 2021 seasons of The Spring League. Following the 2021 season, Woods and Fox announced they had acquired the trademarks of the original 1980s incarnation of the

United States Football League The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

and would be launching a reboot of the USFL in spring 2022. The 2022 USFL season, though its eight teams nominally bore the names of eight former USFL franchises including their cities, continued to use the bubble format with all eight teams based in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

, in the 2022 season. The playoffs were held in Canton, Ohio. Woods eventually backed out of the USFL after the 2022 season. The XFL and USFL played separate, partially overlapping seasons in 2023, to roughly similar television viewership numbers. The USFL expanded to four home cities, adding

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(backed by former

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owner Fred Smith) and

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to Birmingham and Canton, with each city hosting two teams, while the XFL moved three of its eight teams to new cities and held all eight teams' practices at a hub in Arlington, Texas. In September 2023, ''

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'' reported that the XFL was in advanced talks with the USFL to merge the two leagues prior to the start of their 2024 seasons. On September 28, 2023, the XFL and USFL announced their intent to merge with details surrounding the merger to be announced at a later date. The merger would also require regulatory approval. In October 2023 the XFL filed a trademark application for the name ''"United Football League"''. On November 30, 2023, Garcia announced via her Instagram page that the leagues had received regulatory approval for the merger and were finalizing plans for a " combined season" to begin March 30, 2024. The merger was formally announced on ''

Fox NFL Sunday ''Fox NFL Sunday'' is an American sports television program broadcast on the Fox television network. The show debuted on September 4, 1994, and serves as the pre-game show for the network's National Football League (NFL) game telecasts under t ...

'' on December 31, 2023. The eight surviving teams were announced the following day on '' College GameDay'', along with the alignment; the XFL and USFL will survive as separate

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Teams

Four teams came from the XFL and three came from the USFL, while each league's Houston, Texas-based team was merged with its counterpart to create one. The XFL's Roughnecks take the Gamblers' place in the USFL while keeping the Roughnecks brand and Gamblers' player rights and coaching staff.

Timeline

" * " indicates championship season
" • " indicates team USFL or XFL championship
2020 – formation of the XFL
2022 – formation of the USFL
2024 – USFL–XFL merger
Deactivated teams in grey

Broadcasting

In the United States, broadcasting rights will be held by

and

. NBC Sports, which had carried the USFL in 2022 and 2023, dropped out of its contract a year before its expiration, citing an increase in schedule conflicts. ESPN's coverage is part of a five-year agreement signed with the XFL in 2023.

References

External links

* {{ESPN United Football League (2024) American football leagues in the United States 2023 establishments in the United States Sports leagues established in 2023 Minor and developmental leagues in professional sports