BREAKING: UFL Launches Expansion Process for 2026 and Beyond!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Well, this is exciting here today. Happy Monday everyone, Thanksgiving
American Thanksgiving Week here. I thought we'd have a couple
of weeks off here, especially getting through the holiday. We
were waiting on the UFL schedule. We just got done
with all our CFL coverage. But here we are today
the UFL officially announcing you with their process for expansion

(00:55):
here in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
So you know, I.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Wasn't even going to do anything, quite sure if we're
going to do this. We got John Lewis here. Max
was like you got to talk about it today, like
Mike Mitchell's like you got to talk about today. So John,
I wasn't sure if we were going to do the stream.
This time of year, there's sicknesses floating around, right, People
get sick this time of year. John, I have a
fever today, and the only prescription that can help it

(01:21):
is expansion.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
And you got it, and you finally got it.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
And we got it today. But no, this is interesting.
So John Lewis welcome.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
We have a lot of new subscribers going through all
the CFL stuff. We just got done with our great
cup show. John Lewis has his own YouTube. John Lewis
Sports appreciate him coming on today. John does a really
good job, but really kind of more manageable size to
content coming out, which I think is always great. And
then obviously we do a little bit longer form on here,
so I'm sure John will be doing that.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
We will discuss everything today.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
I have the press release, we can talk about the
Switzerland try out, we have going on next year, a
lot of stuff, so this is going to kind of
a catch on John.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
How are you doing, sir?

Speaker 3 (01:58):
I'm doing great. It's just amazing. We have have an
international event with the UFL. We've got expansion now, but
we still don't have the twenty twenty five schedule. Just
anytime now, the coming weeks. It's coming. We've heard that
for over a month now, so hopefully maybe this is
they're kind of ushering us in with some news like, hey,
expansion's coming. Then maybe next week we'll get hey, here's

(02:19):
the schedule for twenty twenty four.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Well it's interesting.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
It's interesting time.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
I mean, yeah, I know, and I well, I was
doing that today because I put out the thing. I'm like,
expansion in twenty five and I'm not going no, we're
going into twenty five. The expansion twenty six, so the
kind of and we'll pull it up here I have
all the details and then we'll you know, we'll do
we'll do a little bit more kind of a deep
dive here through all this stuff. But uh, yeah, it
is kind of a bizarre schedule release kind of here.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
We thought we were waiting on the schedule.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
I think we're waiting on MLS schedules here in December,
so maybe we'll get all of that stuff going on
and then we can kind of release all that we're
obviously of like the extit foul or excuse me, if
the UFL release like the Defenders scheduled and they would
know games at Audi Field and that disrupts all the
other plays going with all this. But John, I do
think this is unique. Obviously we've had in the past

(03:05):
the UFL talking expansion.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Okay, we're taking away teams right, the USFL.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Okay, we're putting the Tampa Bay you know, the Bandits
on the hold. Okay, we're relocating things in the merger, right,
we lost part of the franchises here we're bringing back.
But to me, this is the first like we are
looking to expand here for the UFL at lease as
far as I know, kind of a recent memory of
like actually written up kind of curiously.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Your thoughts on that first and foremost.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah, I was. I was interested to see that it
was a press release. It wasn't, you know, And it
was a it was a you know, as they usually
do their media storm. There you see the press release.
You know, it was on Instagram, it was on all
social media. And you're right, something that you said last year,
that we talked about in the preseason before it's you said,

(03:50):
and I completely agreed. You need we needed to see
some kind of progress from the UFL from season one
to season two, and we thought maybe that would be
expansion to kind of show that here's a signal that
this is growing. So the expansion obviously didn't happen, but
now we're starting to look at this and say, okay,
they're positioning themselves to maybe add a couple of teams,

(04:12):
maybe add four teams, as Mike Mitchell said, it could happen,
you know, two teams in twenty six and another two
teams in twenty seven. We'll see how it all shakes out.
But the optimism of this to really put a press
release out, you know, with quotes that it's open right
now and that either we don't really know what the
situation is as far as it does say launches the

(04:35):
expansion process, we don't really know. I didn't get from
this read that is it going to be the UFL
is going to reach out to cities or they want
cities to reach out to the UFL, Like what's going
to be the process?

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Well, it looks like it is, and I think that's
interesting to go through here. Something else can keep in mind,
And I hate to be the DeBie on all this stuff.
You know, we're talking to Switzerland Showcase next year and
we're talking. I think there was like the under armor
green meant to win through, Like this is all kind
of fluid things. So the UFL goes through this year,
if ratings aren't up, if anythings whatever. You know, this

(05:09):
is very much like I'm on the rocks with my girlfriend.
We're planning the vacation next summer. But we could still
get like I understand, and this is super exciting and
we're on board with all that stuff, like can subscribe
to if you're checking this out the first time. I
know we've got a lot of people coming in from
the CFL hopefully, you know, all this alternati football stuff
kind of fills you in with all that we should

(05:29):
be pretty heavy UFL now and then trying to get
some CFL off you know, off season kind of postseason
whatever interviews. But like, I just want to emphasize that,
like because I see this all the time, like, oh,
they're talking twenty twenty eight, like that means we have
a fight. Yeah, I mean, it's all plans on there.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
But as Stephen A. Smith always says, like, you know, kind.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Of the list is fluid, and so this is good,
but at least we're talking about it. And I said,
we can talk about it today because of this was
put out. I'll kind of do a little try my
reading comprehension here and John you can pop in. We'll
kind of get through this press release and then thoughts
because I have very specific thoughts, hopefully not as negative
as yours. UFL you defableaget out today. It's especially launce
its first expansion process. The UFL is accepting proposals from

(06:11):
perspective markets. We'll get to bring football spring football to
their communities and be part of the growth of the sport.
So I think that's interesting to kind of answer the
initial question like, uh, hey, we're soliciting right, our doors
are open. We saw the CFL with the XFL years ago, like, hey,
you know the XFL reached out to the CFL.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Their doors are open.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
And now it's you know, Russ Brandon and company, like, hey,
you know you want to spring football here. Curious your
thoughts on that first and foremost, because to me, that's
an interesting way to approach this.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
It is you know when I read that, when I
see that though accepting proposals again, I'd like to know
what the process is. Do they contact you know, let's say,
for instance, I don't know, I'll just throw out Louisville,
Kentucky out there, which is where I'm sitting. So it's like,
do they will they contact Louisville or do I just
you know, Now, maybe we're getting into the weeds here

(06:59):
and maybe I'm just out of a nerd and want
to know, like really like what the process is. But
I will say I do like that they want to
It's there they talk about perspective markets looking to bring
spring football to their communities and be part of the
growth of the sport. I think they're seeing this sport grow.
I mean, frankly, let's think about this. We're in see

(07:19):
how many years now that we're going into of actual
spring football that we're you know that's legitimate on network
television spring football. It's it's been a long time since
we've had that. So I think they are starting to
see the growth. And you know, again, like I said,
I like the optimism of this to to really just
go out there. Not they're not doing this behind the scenes.
You know, maybe there have been talks already, but they're

(07:41):
putting this out front. So you know, maybe this is
a call to you to UFL fans to start talking
to their cities to say, hey, listen this they're looking
for expansion. Maybe we're the right market. You know, a
lot of that can go a long way.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
Well, it's interesting to me about this, and I'll read
the quote here in the second, but you know, Mike
Mitchell has talked our UFL insider all the way back
to all the XFL and the USFL stuff and everything that,
even as far back as the USFL twenty twenty two
that went in the.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
Place of the XFL.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
It's always been an audition, right for Like, if you
would you like to own one of these franchises. Would
you like to be a part of this trying to
sell off or attract owners and things that way. We
are in twenty approaching twenty twenty five. Now, clearly that
has not happened yet. Right, there was talks with FedEx,
you know in Memphis, right, and we're going to move
everything in there and all that. But so this is

(08:35):
kind of I feel like, been ongoing in some regard
at least just to try to get people involved, at
least on the ownership side. Now it seems like, okay,
now we want to get cities involved, you know, like
you were saying, you call your local congressman or woman,
kind of get them involved. One thing interesting to point out, though,
is when you start accepting bids, bids come or they don't. Right,
we just saw the CFL twenty would be the twenty

(08:57):
sixth Great Cup got awarded to Calgary. I think they
were the only city of the nine CFL teams that
bid on that that wanted to put together a proposal, right,
and obviously hosting the Gray Cup is a little different.
I would be curious kind of the qualifications of this.
You are we looking at different stadium sizes or we're
looking at demographics.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
Things like that.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
Maybe we can do you know more dive into that later.
But you know, when you open it up for proposals,
you got to be you know, not all of that
were going to come in there.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
They might not be up to enough for what you
what you're looking for.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
Well, and you have to go into a community too
that you know, that can support it. I think obviously
you know, we've talked about this being a TV product
and that's true, but you need to go into a community,
as he says, be part of the growth of the
as the press release says, to be part of the
growth of the sport. And you know, I think there
are a lot of communities out there that are poised

(09:49):
to do this that might you know, not have pro
sports or they might be you know, be a larger
you know, football community. I think that's what we've seen
in Birmingham, you know, Forever, Saint Louis as well well.
All I mean really, when you're looking at the at
the eight teams right now, you know they're part of
that community, even though the hubs in Arlington. So but

(10:10):
you're right, you I mean, any I guess you know
there are a lot of places that could say, yeah,
we'll put a bit in, but it's got to be serious.
And I think you have to have some corporate backing
to make this happen. And I think there are a
lot of communities out there that are really right to
do this.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Right now, what I do like about this, and then
I want to read this quote and I'll put this
away so we can see both of our faces gone here.
But what I do like about this is, at least
now we're putting thought process into what cities do we
want to operate in. My biggest criticism all the way
back up into the USFL A twenty twenty two and
they relaunched, was well, these were kind of the trademarks

(10:45):
we were able to get from the eighties and those
were cities that kind of worked, and that's what we have.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
Now, let's kind of reuse.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
Those assets or that ip that we have, you know,
no real thought to like, you know, does Tampa Bay
want this spring football team?

Speaker 3 (10:57):
You know?

Speaker 2 (10:58):
And whatever? I know, the XFL is part of outlet,
you know, like the Memphis thing.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
Kind of all these rolling out and now obviously through
the merger, we've gotten this Miss mash and kind of
the XFL franchises and the US and nothing.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
Really I've said this before in here.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
There's very few cities in the eight that currently play
in the UFL that you would sit there on your
top thirty list of cities that you want to be
in and have a lot of those. So I at
least like now that it's not leftovers from things that
kind of work before we have it. Let's put thoughts
into what we want. Let me just read this qull.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
By the way.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
As the UFL lays the groundwork for future growth, we're
excited to begin exploring new markets for expansion expansion where
spring football can not only live but thrive. The CFL
uses that trademark now live and thriving, so maybe we'll
have an IP dispute, UFL President CEO Russ Brandon. These
expansion efforts validate our vision of early success, demonstrating how

(11:52):
spring football resonates with fans, reinforcing our commitment to broadening
its reach. With strength and structure of our ownership group
along with our media partners, we are well positioned for
the long haul and look forward to identifying communities that
have the potential and desire to host the UFL team
and it search to identify the strongest markets. UFL is
looking at several core attributes including fan interest, existing sports culture, geography, population, venue,

(12:16):
and infrastructure availability. And it talks about the eight right
now and they will all be playing this year. This
would be for a potential twenty twenty six season.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
Do we get everything through that press release?

Speaker 3 (12:26):
I think we've We've gotten a lot through there. And
it's interesting that they put new cities in there, which
you know, there was some concern I think on my
end when I first saw this that they were going
to expand it's like, well, they owned the IP as
you talked about there with the USFL and you know,
even the XFL. I do wonder if that, you know,
do they lean on that, Do they try that again?

(12:48):
Do they try Orlando again? Do they try to put
a team in New Orleans because of the ip You know,
I don't know. I hope that they've that this is
a process. Whereas they said in this release that these
they have a desire to be in the communities, have
a desire to be for the UFL to be there.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yeah, we're just going to read exactly what James says there.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yes, Yeah, the definition, because that's the thing.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
It's just been this weird kind of miss mash the
question that you brought up as well, and we were
talking to the group chat kind of getting.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
Ready for this.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
Yeah, do we see like do we go back to
New Orleans and maybe it's the Breakers or maybe it's
something else.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
Do we incorporate you know, we.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
Have the LA Wildcats and the Guardians and obviously they
went to Orlando, but like, yeah, are we like if
I'm a Seattle fan, why I'm a Saffan but like
if I'm my friends that texted me today, of course,
like and this will get into why I think they
did this, But you know, if I'm a Seattle fan
knowing that the team got taken away and they end
up putting the team in you know, San Diego or whatever, right,

(13:53):
shout out and you're like, am I mad that?

Speaker 2 (13:55):
Like?

Speaker 1 (13:55):
San Diego got an opportunity at this before we did,
and we were part of this and we kind of
got mixed, you know, cut off in the chopping block there.
What what do you make of if you're a fan
of one of these existing franchises went away and then
you don't get them coming back?

Speaker 3 (14:08):
Yeah, and I think, you know, are you going to
have some sore people in Orlando, which you know that
you know that was just such a bad team. I
don't know that a lot of people wanted to show
up to watch them. I mean, frankly, that's just you
know how it was. But you know, are you going
to have some some people who are going to be upset,
you know in some of these other markets. I think
Tampa Bay is another market where it sounds like there
are a lot of people who really wanted the Tampa

(14:29):
Bay bandits back, you know, in that community. I mean,
I think that's going to be no matter you know who.
You mentioned that we're former XFL or USFL teams, So yeah,
I mean, you you do run that gamut of you know,
or that risk of you know, maybe alienating a fan
base and losing those fans because oh yeah, you gave
us a taste of this and then you took it

(14:50):
away and now we're not getting the back, so why
would we be invested in it?

Speaker 1 (14:53):
My camera here is tricking that maybe there. I think
I got like the hand control under and I think
it's like tracking my head on here, so curious and
then what we get I put in the comments, you know,
cities kind of opportunities.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
We'll go through all that.

Speaker 1 (15:06):
We'll kind of workshop all that. This is fun kind
of our brainstorming today. We'll get to all of that.
So you know, where you live, where you want. I'm
already seeing you know, New Orleans, Huntsville, Mississippi to put
that in the comments.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
We'll kind of go through some of that workshop.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
But why now, John, I want to ask you, and
I'll give my thoughts. Why now on November twenty fifth,
we don't have any of this other stuff going on?
Why why did we decide to announce this today and
put out of official press release.

Speaker 3 (15:32):
The timing I don't understand, especially when we're still waiting
for you know, this schedule, and maybe you know, as
I kind of alluded to earlier, maybe it was like, Okay,
well we're going to try to ease into we think
the schedule release is going to be the big deal.
But hey, let's you know, let's maybe try to get
a few headlines here. Listen, And if that's what they

(15:52):
were trying to do at work, go ahead. I mean,
if you look up you know, UFL expansion right now
on Google and hit the news tab. You're going to
see a lot of a lot of responses, so it
never hurts to maybe get that out there. I would listen.
I was a little excited Sunday. Uh in the Fox
pregame It's like, we're gonna return with a Fox exclusive announcement,
and I thought, maybe they're gonna do it right now.

(16:14):
But it was something about some race car thing and
I don't know what it was, but you know, maybe
that is Maybe it's they're trying to just you know,
drum up a little, like Okay, let's get UFL on
the headlines and then have the schedule or release coming up.
I mean, you know, you're trying to you're trying to guess,
you know, what they're doing. If maybe there is a
strategy there, I don't know, what do you think?

Speaker 2 (16:36):
Well that's what I think.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
And and we were talking in the group today because I,
of course I wake up. Dorothy was doing conferences today.
She's a teacher, and so I get up and I
I just put in the group chat, you know what
the F is wrong with this league? Like I just
and I know that I get the mystery negativity and
all the time I got, but I'm like, why are
we focused on this? Can we just get into year two?
You want these cities to you know, put the work

(16:59):
in to get the bit. You haven't even really proven
that you can do sustainable right. Year after year on
all these we saw dwindling numbers on most of the markets, right,
I mean even Saint Louis and DC, which Greg Parks
just put out a good article on UFL board talking
that they were at one of the Sports Business Journal
conference or something. Russ and whoever was there and Greg,

(17:20):
if you want to go look up Greg Parks as
I was just reading that before you know, they're talking about,
oh the success we had in Saint Louis and DC.

Speaker 2 (17:27):
I'm like, you guys didn't make that.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
None of the current successful UFL markets had anything to
do with current management, right, that was all carry over
from twenty twenty. So let's just put that mine. But
it's this is like you said, this is free marketing.
We're going into this season. There's not a lot of buzz.
We don't have a new hub, we don't have a merger,
we don't have additional cities, but like now, we kind
of have the promise of a new of potentially new

(17:52):
cities here in twenty twenty six and seven, like to me,
like I said, my buddy's texting me this morning. Days,
I mean, the sea dragons are coming back.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
You already have people that were last span and now go.
And is it disingenuous? No, I mean I think that
this is a real thing. I'm not saying that, and
I understand why they're doing this, but this is a
hell of a lot cheaper than actually expanding this year
or actually adding cities, like hey, we're just gonna have
a press release, like.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
You know, if you want to if you want to
be involved in this.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
It's kind of like I see a lot on like
Twitter now where someone will be like, well, if a
team's looking for a football player or something like, well
they're currently like looking at their options forever.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
And you see these people like hey, if Sidney Sweeney
wants to day.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
Me like I'm available, Like yeah, sure, but you know
the different than that, But I think that there's part
of that in there, and you're setting up this like hey,
we're so desirable now if you want us to come
to your city.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
I like that, right.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
It's a little bit of gravitas whatever, a little bit
of like, hey, we have something to offer. I like that,
but this does just feel like, how can we kind
of get some buzz? And I would say, yeah, as
soon as the MLS schedule comes out, and maybe we
have something next week. Irregardless of that, just after the
Thanksgiving break, maybe we get another kind of random news leak.

Speaker 2 (19:06):
But it does seem like just kind of a way
that this kind of a slow week people are around.
Let's see him talking about the UFL.

Speaker 3 (19:12):
Well, and I will say too, you know, you talked
about the success there, you know, of those markets, but
you know, let's look at the success maybe some of
the benchmarks of the UFL for maybe not just attendance
but also for you know, TV ratings and revenue, And
I think you have to if you look at that overall,
you have to say that was successful, especially when you

(19:33):
think about where that league started with the merger that
seemed like it just happened overnight, and then they're trying
to get off the ground and trying to get the
you know, trying to get these venues going and trying
to get these teams together. I think overall, that was
a success. So you know, to me, maybe this is
a little bit of you know, rah rah, Listen, we

(19:55):
had some success last year. Now, look we are growing,
so we want tell you that we're going to expand.
And again I think, you know, we I think that
the endgame here is to have franchise owners. So if
you know, if that's the case, where there are maybe
some potentials out there, some potential owners, they'll say like, Okay,

(20:15):
they had their initial season after the merger, it was
a success. When you look at a lot of different
bench marks, maybe this is something that I will want
to invest in because here's an opportunity.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
There's just there's a lot of double speak here, right,
we were told in addition to the trademark kind of
them having all that back, the USFL was putting cities
in places where they thought they had potential ownership hasn't
seen to be. You know, there's a lot of double
speak here. And now as to your point, okay, maybe
now we want the cities to reach out, but then
do we have anyone in that city that wants to

(20:48):
buy a team and franchise it.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
I mean, we've seen in.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
The CFL, and I don't know if I've always said
that I hope that the UFL is starting to look
at itself more like the CFL and not like the NFL,
where hey, we can put on whatever we want any
of the other the week people are going to watch.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
You know.

Speaker 1 (21:05):
We it's bde you know, come in here. We're going
to kind of take care of everything. We're the CFL.
It's we got to build in the local communities. We
got to engage, you know, the communities. We got to
send up players. If you own one of these teams,
you got to.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
Put in a ton of work.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
We were just a great cup in BC ownership there
put in a ton of work more so than the
three previous We and no besmirchman on any of those,
but like put in additional to kind of show like, hey,
we're really invested in this. And so now, yeah, let's
say you end up going to Tulsa and then you
know you still don't have anyone there that wants to
own the team, Like I guess the league can just
I just I don't know. It still feels a little

(21:40):
messy to me. It still feels like heart before the horse,
and we kind of got to get something out here.
But I don't you know, if you pick Portland and
then you put a team there. Do you have anyone
in Portland and wants to own a team in the
next five years?

Speaker 2 (21:51):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (21:52):
Well, you know, uh, none of this is not unprecedented.
I want to read you something here just really quick.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
YEP.

Speaker 3 (22:01):
Looking to add up to two new clubs to the
eighteen league as early as next season. The XFL is
put together a platoon of expansion experts that will visit Washington,
DC on Tuesday. That was from March twenty third, two
thousand and one. So, you know, like you, I don't
want to be Debbie Downer, but these things have happened before. Now.
I'm not comparing the UFL to XFL two thousand and

(22:24):
one because that was a you know, that went straight
that way. I think the UFL is going this way.
But when we start to talk about expansion, you know,
I think there will be First of all, I think
there will be a league in twenty twenty six, but
twenty twenty five is going to be very important to
see if this expansion and these ideas and talking to

(22:44):
these cities will work because they need to see something
that they want to buy into. So I think there
does need to be some maybe some benchmarks that they
have to meet and exceed in twenty twenty five to
make that happen well.

Speaker 1 (22:57):
And I guess that also leads me to kind of
ass follow up because we've had Mike Mitchell on here
a lot talk about Okay, this year is make or
break for the UFL, for Fox, for everyone involved. Okay,
last year we kind of got through it, and it
was the late merger. We couldn't do any of that.
We're still on kind of the delayed timeline again this
year and we don't have the merger, so that leads

(23:17):
to be desired. But I still think this is a
make or break. I saw comments immediately with when Mike Mitchell,
I think he quote tweeted the press release and then
he was adding his additional context, and you had people
asking like, oh, well, this means we're set to go
this year. Absolutely not like I said, this could all
go away in an instant.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
I didn't think it was funny.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
I had because we're getting all these rollouts, and you know,
we had the season tickets were available, and then we
had like the home and away matchups, and then we
had the theme nights and I don't I am nowhere
near like a Mike or An Evan or a Sam Shady.
I'm talking with a lot of players and coaches. I mean,
people will reach out and I got I got friends
that kind of I talked to, but I'm not I

(24:00):
would never pretend that I'm in that whatever. But I
did have a UFL coach reach out to me. Well,
we don't have coaches, but we have theme nights. So
I just you know, I thought that was interesting. And
I don't know if that's a shared sentiment or if
that's an individual opinion, but I thought that was interesting
that like, yeah, you know, I mean, we're this is
all kind of glitz and glamour, but at the end

(24:21):
of the day, we want to we want to put
that we still got to put football team on the field.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
So well, and you know, we're starting to close in here.
I mean, what was in March twenty eighth is is
going to be the kickoff? So yeah, I don't think
it's going to I think the main thing is and
I asked Darryl Johnson this question about does it feel
like you're miles ahead already because the merger's over now
and now you're starting to plan. So I'm okay with

(24:45):
this rollout right now, because there are obviously some things
behind the scenes that they have got to get ironed out.
And you know, like you said, they're probably waiting on
the MLS schedule so they can figure out with you know,
DC and some other places and how they're gonna move
things around. But but yeah, I'm okay with this because

(25:06):
they can focus on these kind I think they can
focus on these kinds of things, maybe not to our liking,
but you know, to the to the fan base in general,
where they can say, yeah, you know, hey, here's we
got this happening. We're already planning for this, which were
probably things that they couldn't even begin to think about
this time last year as they got ready to go
into the first season of the UFL.

Speaker 1 (25:27):
Yeah, it's also it's you always want to have a
public out, publicly outward facing kind of positive image, right,
And this does speak to you like, hey see we're
looking we're doing as opposed to like had in hand
them calling the CFL excuse me a couple of years ago,
like hey, would you like to talk about it? And
stuff like this feels like, you know, like I'm a freelancer,

(25:49):
I do weddings. When you go to events and you're
like networking things. Everybody's doing great, right everyone. I got
lots of gigs and I'm so booked, and I got
all the like you know, it's it's a thing, I mean, perception.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
You know, you fake it till you make it.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
And I even like when I started the company, there
was a lot of like we and us and whatever,
you know, even though it was just me for a
long time.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
But so I'm saying all that.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
We have some comments here, and we kind of helped
spur any any other conversation here talking about team numbers
and cities and all that. I did, like this our
friend Gregory, and then we were just talking about Gregory
the other day. He goes, why expansion Now they fell
at the Stallions competition. So I like that, like, well
we beat all the teams. We gotta we gotta need

(26:33):
some teams to be right.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
I like it. But you know, uh yeah, and I thought,
I'm out, I can keep going to other comments here.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
Yeah, I mean, you know, the Stallions have been the
the Yankees of this, uh of these all these leagues
here for a while. So uh uh no, I get it.
You know, I think Birmingham, Uh Mike Mitchell wrote something
I think it was before this past season started, about
how Birmingham was the gold standard. Uh, and it's true,
and it's just too bad that that city. I thought

(27:05):
should have embraced Birmingham a little more. But I think
some of that is comes to, you know, talking to
some people in Birmingham when I was down there this
past spring. It's they, frankly did some people in the
general public didn't know that the Birmingham Stallions existed. So
there's something, you know, there is there's something to that.
To your point, as you were talking earlier, you got

(27:25):
to get into these communities and you've got to really
start working on these things. I you know, I got
there the day before and went out to the stadium
just kind of walking around. The only Birmingham Stallions sign
that I saw was a small sign over the ticket
window and the meet where the media passes were that
said Birmingham Stallions. You know, media credential pickups. So uh,
you know, there could be a lot more things, and

(27:46):
I think that I think that was the case in
a lot of cities, that the marketing efforts, you know,
they need to be there and maybe not just be
seasonal workers.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
What I would like.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
Is some sort of the DA to come out of
like this is what a UFL team, Yeah, they have
the pressure release sky, we're looking for you certain demographics
or whatever.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
I would like that to be a little bit more public.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
I thought, just speaking to Birmingham, that really spurred my
memory of when we used to have Roy S.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
Johnson. Then we could come on a lot and he
wrote for al dot com. He did a lot.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
Of the research there with the Birmingham what was at
the BJCC or whatever kind of the conglomberation around there,
but you know he had numbers of it. You know,
there was this much increase in attendance over a comparable
period years before, and there was this much more revenue,
and I think parking made this much more. We had
all these different kind of infusions of that to.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
Show the benefits.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
There was of a spring foot at that point a
USFL franchise being there, And so I would like, you know,
can we get either from the league. What do they
feel like some of these teams are worth?

Speaker 2 (28:51):
Right?

Speaker 1 (28:51):
I think obviously you were talking to CFL here and
this is a very similar just having just gone through
this bidding process with Winnipeg and the Calgary getting the
great as you know, I just view it similarly that way,
but obviously we have way more track record knowing what
the Gray Cup kind of means to an influx. But
what does this mean from the teams? And then, like
you said, whether they looking for I mean, we have

(29:11):
the press release and it says, you know, we want
you know, we just put back up here. You know,
we're looking for fan interest, exhibitions, sports culture, geography, population
and venue and infrastructure availability. That's kind of a weird
statement anyway. I don't know who rust is Ross, come on, Russ,
but like what does that mean specifically? I would love

(29:33):
to know. Fans of this league that are tracking its
growth would love to know, like what exactly are you
looking for? What kinds of fans are you looking for?
What kind of populations are you looking for? Do you
want to be in markets with an NFL team? Do
you want to be in only markets that don't have
an NFL franchise? Or like I would just love more
transparency of that. I know that we always want that
in the spring leagues, but like just more data and

(29:56):
analytics that way, because we did get a really good
picture and the USFL at least that first and I
think it was the first two years there in Birmingham,
Roy was able to track positive growth, you know, throughout
even if you know, we poo poo the attendance or whatever,
but it meant a lot to the city. So I
would just be curious now, like now that we have
even more years of kind of research under our belts

(30:18):
and like, well, yeah, what does a DC Defenders home
game average bring in? You know, what kind of revenue
are we know, what kind of concessions are we getting there?
What kind of gate revenue?

Speaker 2 (30:26):
I would just like to know that are people coming
into town? Are there? You know, are you traveling with
the team right to.

Speaker 1 (30:32):
Come in or are you live on the east goest?
I don't know, I'm rambling there, but does that make sense?

Speaker 3 (30:36):
It doesn't you know? When I read that passage there,
it sounds like they are looking for data, like whether
they're trying to gather that data themselves or they want
the cities to come back and give them that data.
You know there, what should we be looking for?

Speaker 2 (30:49):
Please?

Speaker 3 (30:49):
Right right right, It's right, It's like, can you give
us this information or you know, how is that going
to work again. That kind of goes back to my
question of how this process that they were talking about,
you know, really works. Are are they going into these markets?
You know, is there is there some you know, corporate
matchmaker happening here. I just I'd like to know, like

(31:10):
those are the things they want when they talk about
you know, infrastructure and they talk about uh, you know,
really like population and demographics and the fan interests and
the culture and all that of these cities, then you know,
where does that data come from? And who's who's trying
to gather that? Are they trying to gather that? Do
they want the cities to provide that? I don't know
a couple of questions here. This was for I'm do

(31:31):
all this this funny a UFL with a lot of
XFL the first week they probably would not the last
week very true, you know, And I said, well, we're just.

Speaker 2 (31:40):
On it, you know, like it subscribe, joined the channel,
help support.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
I think we can put them some new We got
a ton of subscribers with the CFL S, which is great.
I think we even added a couple of new members
there that ninety nine cents of mind that's getting that
extra twelve bucks or whatever in my pocket and all that.
But John Tanner has a question here. I think it's
really good. What do you think the team cap should
be for their foreseeable few I become spoiled with the
quantity of talent the UFL currently has. I don't want

(32:03):
to delude it.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
I think it's very important.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
Right we're still dealing with this second third tier right athlete. However,
you want to look at it here with the CFL
and all these alt leagues, you know, we kind of
can see that we can put a decent seven eight
teams on the field here, But are you worried about
expansion kind of deluding that talent base.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
Yeah, that's a really good question. I think Tanner brings
up a good point because it's that's what's going to happen,
Because I mean, when you look at what happened with
you had the USFL and the XFL playing the one
year at the same time. There were some bad teams
in there, and we really didn't see that to that point.
Or you know, even if teams didn't have a great record,

(32:43):
you didn't see a lot of bad play. I didn't
feel like like that was an exception rather than the rule.
When you saw a team that just had, you know,
just bad play or get overwhelmed by something. Now we
did see that in the in the UFL Championship, But
but you're right, I think there probably needs to be
a little little bit of an influx of you know,
you you want them to come in here to you know,

(33:05):
all things being equal, you you're gonna have to have
some more funds to pay these players. I mean, that's
just math. But I think you want it where you're
gonna get. Let's say there's ten teams in twenty twenty six.
You want ten good quarterbacks, you want ten good coaches.
You know, I don't know if there what kind of
cap you're going to put on you know, the team

(33:26):
as a whole, or is there going to be maybe
a different cap or or just a straight salary for
the coaches. That's you know, that's something I don't understand
how any of the mathematics and finance finances work there.
But I agree Tanner has a good point there. You
don't want to just you know, bring in teams, maybe
you know, lower how much you're gonna pay, because you're
then you're gonna you're just not gonna have a great league.

(33:47):
And that's the one thing that I really liked about
the UFL last year was we saw a lot of
good play over over the entire season.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
I think there was a lot of comments when we
when we had both leagues going back and you know
the same time kind of compete, like there might not
be sixteen spring football quality starting quarterbacks right now, right
there might not be whatever that number would be offensive
lineman quality. I remember we had Eric galco on years
ago if you want to look at the past YouTube step,

(34:16):
but we had him on the former DPP back in
the XFL twenty twenty eight. They're involved in that with
Sam and everyone, and like, you know, what were the
biggest concerns for him in terms of roster building, the
numbers and kind of all that stuff. Denzel, I see
your question here. We'll talk AJ at the end. I want,
I do want to mention the AJ stuff and I
don't want to forget about the Switzerland and stuff. So Denzel,

(34:37):
I've got your thing whatever, Gregory here and this is
my other Seriously, now that the NFL probably wants to
see her best springs football, every team wants their Jake
Biggs and Brandon Aubrey side note, really a roller coaster
for Reid yesterday. Oh, Dallas Cowboys special teams. I hate
all of them just because they're the Cowboys. Brandon Aubrey's

(34:59):
been on the show like great guy. We joke a
lot in the chat about I hope he misses just
because it's the Cowboys if he played for any other team.
I hate the Cowboys Commanders fan. But we had Brandon
Aubrey blocked field goal, missed extra point, and then I
think he almost missed one of the field goals. Yeah,
I'm like living life, living life. And then that damn

(35:20):
Cavante Turaman with the game ceiling kick return, incredible ninety
nine yard that spin movie went through his legs and
they always talk about that disrupts the timing everyone's coming
down that extra app Anyway, I was, I was. I
almost threw my phone against the wall.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
I was very very much.

Speaker 3 (35:38):
I can imagine. And there, you know, there's a former
New Jersey general right there who's getting it done. You're right,
and when you you know, you saw like I can't
remember what the final numbers were, but how many UFL
players ended up you know, at least getting a shot
at practice, you know, in camp, being a practice player

(35:59):
ended up on a roster. I mean, there were a
lot and I think I think he's right. I think
the NFL does want viable spring football because it's it.
You know, certainly college football, NCAA, college football that is there,
that's their free uh you know, training camp, that's their
free farm teams that for the NFL. But I think,

(36:20):
you know, if you have some players who aren't NFL
ready but could really enhance their play and become good players,
as we've seen this year through spring football, why would
they not want it. I do worry though, that if
the NFL decides to dip in on it, if they
lose a dollar, they're going to shut it down. We've
seen that too often. So I'm kind of on the

(36:41):
fence there about how much do I want the NFL
involved with the UFL.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
It's just hard, like, and I know this would never
happen just because of injuries and everything, but like we
see what's happened this season with like an Anthony Richardson right, Right,
wouldn't that be awesome if you and I understand like
football wasn't nearly as violent, right? You know, we see
this all the time in hockey, right where you draft
a player, even the Cracker right now, we draft a
player they're not ready, we go send them to playing

(37:07):
Europe kind of does the track that way. We send
them to the miners, you know, and then we bring
them up. Like look at someone like Ante and someone
had just put Indianapolis and here was kind of maybe
thinking about it in terms of teams. Send someone like
him to the spring League, get ten weeks of rep,
get you know, get kind of comfortable with it. You know,
can the can the Colts loan someone? Can we make
some relationships that way? I understand it's totally different, but

(37:28):
like hockey does that a lot. I just think that
works as you get all these guys coming in and
they just aren't ready to go, and then you know
they can.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
They kind of fall to that. I had a comment
I lost on that.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
Uh yeah, here was Indianapolis will be spending thirty thousand
on MLS style stadium entertainment district.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
I believe they'll be interested. They already hosted half of
the spring League back in what was that the.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
Tree one season. Brian Woods famously, Uh, how's the players
there in the hotel district? Not pay his bills and
left the city with like a one point two million
dollars in debt. So Indianapolis might be a little bit
on the fence about getting back involved in the spring football.
If you missed, Brian Scott, a great Cup winning champion

(38:13):
quarterback here a third third on the depth chart with
the argos. His name will be on the trophy. Chack
Hilles will not this season, which is interesting. Was part
of the CFL show. If you want to catch up
with Brian, that's on our it's all time coded on there.
But wonderful talk with Brian about the CFL. You know,
Brian Woods building a cardboard building this spremely out of
cardboard boxes in his garage. Really great to catch up

(38:33):
with Brian. My mom, he was the shining point. My
mom said, I really that boy at the end was
really nice.

Speaker 3 (38:39):
That's great. But yeah, you know, Andy, Indy could be
one of those teams. You're right, they might be a
little gun shot there with that, but I think there
are a lot of opportunities. The question is, you know,
if what and Mike Mitchell is in the know, you
know is if it's going to be two in twenties
twenty six and maybe two in twenty twenty seven, you know,

(39:02):
who were the four and how how much of an
eye are they going to keep on this? And you
got to think about geography too. There's a lot that
goes into this because more than likely, unless something changes,
these teams aren't going to you know, be housed there
in their cities. I mean, I'd love to see that
because you just have so much community support, especially in

(39:22):
a lot of places, you know, like I mean take
you know, take Andy for example. Obviously their football crazy
in the fall, but you know they have they do
have a lot of spring sports there, but they could
they can be you know, that could be community centric.
There are a lot of there are a lot of
places like that. As we were talking earlier, twenty twenty
five is going to be a resume for these cities

(39:45):
and this expansion for the next two years.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
All right, So let's look here at cities.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
I had a comment from Leon and just speaking with
Mike Bitch and all that. Yeah, here, the Ohio is
a strong possibility.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
That's very true.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
So Mike Mitchell reporting before kind of the merger, and
the cities came out and doubled down on that afterwards,
Ohio very much in the mix there. I there could
have been ten teams going into the merger. They ended
up settling for eight, So you know, we bounce back
to ten. Kind of do that slow impact, you know,
kind of slow increase that way, you know, we do Ohio,

(40:18):
Andy Murray, san Diego resident seems down on San Diego
now do we you know, we've lived through Vegas. I
don't think you go back to Seattle. Loom is too expensive,
it's too far travel. Do you look in Oakland somewhere?
I think that would be kind of cool spurred fan
base there. I just John, where do you see if
you do Ohio, which I think is like pretty a

(40:40):
no brainer to add back into this just because it
was originally. But where do you do that? East Coast?
I don't think Portland works. I don't think Seattle works.
I think that's too far north.

Speaker 3 (40:48):
Yeah, I love Oakland, and I know there are so
many issues there with California. There's been a lot of
talk about a lot of governmental you know, there's restrictions
and iNTS and a lot of things that happened there
with California where it might price the ufl out of business.
As far as trying to put a team there. But
you know, all things being equal, it seems to me

(41:09):
what what what worked for Saint Louis was a team
that was jilted and they have a very strong base.
To me, San Diego or Oakland would certainly fit that
bill if you've got the right venue. So but the
thing is, too, if you have a West Coast team,
do you need two out there or do you try

(41:32):
to do a you know, another Midwestern like Ohio, which
I think Columbus would be the area to do it,
and have you know, your two expansions be one over
here and one over here. To me, the UFL needs
a West Coast presence and if it's not Seattle or Portland,
to me, it's got to be southern California.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
At the other Just and just to kind of go
back to this is I'm in my head here kind
of just trying to picture the map and everything and
these teams and okay, of these we have DC right,
we're not in New York and New Jersey, but we're
kind of there right, trying to get the West coast
this whole, like, Okay, we're soliciting, give us your bids,
Like the contrarian, like, shouldn't the UFL kind of know

(42:14):
what markets work for them now as opposed to like
you tell us if you want.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
I don't want to be back to go back to that.
But like, shouldn't they have analytics now? Shouldn't Redbird and
Fox and just it's like the CFL with the Genius sports,
like we have all this, Like shouldn't they know kind
of where they want to where they want.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
To play now? You know?

Speaker 3 (42:32):
And maybe they do. I mean, maybe this is this
is a press release to get a few headlines and
and to let people know we are growing and we're
going to start trying to look you know, in these
different communities. I don't think they flew blind into this.
I don't think someone woke up this morning and said,
let's put out a press release. I think there's probably
a little bit more thinking behind it. So I have

(42:52):
to think that they at least have some target cities.
I know, you know, even when the previous UFL back
in the mid two thousands, you know, they aimed at
like twenty I think there were twenty one different cities
they were aiming at. It was it was weird that
UFL was weird because they actually played in the fall.
They didn't play against the NFL. They played, you know,

(43:14):
around the NFL, which the commissioner, Michael Hughes said he
didn't think spring football would ever work because of the
time you needed to play in the fall. That's another story.
But you know, so you have to think that there
is they have a lot more information than hey, let
us know, if you want a team, we'll come talk
to you. I have to think there are some target

(43:34):
markets that they have in some dossier somewhere that Redbird
and Disney and Fox have put together.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
This is interesting.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
I was just kind of so a couple of things here,
just what I'm working on in the back here. So
you had talked about kind of just wanting to kind
of get in the news period and all this that here.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
I mean, you look at that. This is more people
they wrote about the US or UFL in you know months.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
You're right, I got sparied because Wort illustrated Bleacher Report.
The newsrooms for a business journal. We even have you know,
one oh four four point three. I hope I know
what good you have there? You go, but you know,
you're getting all these involved through You're having mixed, but
I thought it was interesting, so I pulled up obviously,
friends with our people over at Sportico. I don't know

(44:16):
Jason Klinkstale, but I've had a lot of the Sporting
Core reporters on It looks like he did a phone
interview with Russ Brandon kind of in conjunction with all
of this, and so obviously they have the original quote here.
This is from the press release talking about that. But
I thought it was interesting and phone interview. Brandon declined
to reveal which city is The league is considering more
information on expansion fees.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
We're going to stick with the integrity of the.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
Process, that is, that is having an open mind and
good communications with our fellow markets to see where it
takes us.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
Talked about Saint Louis having.

Speaker 1 (44:46):
Both, you know strong, I've given my thoughts on all
that stuff, but Saint Louis has obviously been a model franchise.
You've had tremendous support there from the legacy into the
UFA Legacy, XFL into the UFL. We've seen across many
of our markets will be patient, very disciplined with our process,
and we'll can you internally to work through all the
metrics that we've set ourselves.

Speaker 3 (45:04):
Uh that those are a whole lot of words. I
don't know that it really reveals much of a strategy.
That's good, open mind, good communication. I mean we should
all have that in our professional and personal lives. But
I mean it's it's fine. He declined to reveal which
cities the league's considering. So to me, there a.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
Couple when you leak a couple of this to be like, yeah,
we're thinking, well.

Speaker 3 (45:32):
You know, frankly, maybe maybe this is maybe they're they're
floating this to see like, Okay, there was a lot
of interest here, we're starting to see some returns. People
are talking about that maybe we leak something out there,
especially one that they might really like, a city they
really covet that could very well, you know, be kind
of the strategy behind this. You know, we're playing a

(45:54):
guessing game because we're not in those rooms, so it's
really hard hard to say, like what strategy is here.
But at least you know they are talking international forum,
they are talking to the fans and the general public
in a press release. I mean those are all good
things to me.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
Leon has a question here, and I have another inch.

Speaker 1 (46:13):
I'm not going I'm doing this, so then a sports
business channel has some quotes as well, different quotes.

Speaker 2 (46:17):
I like that, I'm kind of doing this in the background.
But Leon has a question.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
How many trademarks? I can put that very how many trademarks?
Is the UFL still have the rights to a lot?
I am on and you I can't even remember how
the heck guy signed it. But you can sign up
for like basically notifications of like any time the XFL.
I mean now it's kind of been grandfather then, but
anytime the exit the UFL. But I get stuff all
the time, like I was getting stuff the other day.

(46:41):
You know, the Orlando Renegades. They're still working through the
check process. The Showboats are still working through. That was it.

Speaker 3 (46:50):
Denver Gold in there.

Speaker 1 (46:51):
Denver Gold's in there, Tampa Bay Viper is still working through.
Let me just read through real quick.

Speaker 2 (46:56):
I don't know if this is interesting, John Vaan for
this is second why I pulled this up.

Speaker 3 (47:00):
Okay, yeah, I mean that that was and I remember
you told me the website and I started going in
there and it was a rabbit hole of all the
trademarks that they had, and you know, it started to
cause a lot of speculation too, because people were going
in there, especially like Denver Gold. I mean, I would
love to see a team at Denver. That would be great.
But just because you owned the trademarks doesn't mean that

(47:22):
you're necessarily like that's that's you owned that to keep
it in your back pocket, I think, not necessarily like Okay,
they're going to go to Denver, or they're bringing back
the Orlando Renegade or anything like that.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
No, I got quite a few domains and terry marks,
and but yeah, I mean, just like I said, this
is just going back to let's just go back.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
I get a lot of emails from this. I just
kind of junk them all in the back.

Speaker 1 (47:46):
But got the Renegade, show Boats, Vipers, Alpha Entertainment, We've
got the Bandits, Birmingham Stallions either all working through updates
on their stuff, the La Express, the La Express, Denver Gold,
New Orleans Breakers still working too. That the Blitz Arizona
Outlaws the Gold in conjunction with the Denver Gold.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
I think Canton was part of that too, the Canton Gold.
Oh yeah, we're still working through.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
We have a fifth statement request for extension to use
he hate Me. That was updated a as of October
for the love of Football.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
We're so working there.

Speaker 1 (48:19):
I did want to buy that one. I was trying
to at one point when they were working through. I
was like, Man, if they let that lapse, I'm picking
up for love of football. I want to have that
trademark Jacksonville Football. So you know, there's a lot the
outlaw is still working through. So yes, to answer Leanne's question,
they still have quite a few. Like John said, they
aren't all like guarantees. It's very cheap, especially if you

(48:39):
have Fox lawyers to kind of file and work through
all of these things.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
But it is something interesting to keep in mind.

Speaker 3 (48:46):
Yeah, it's you know, it's fun to talk about and
it's fun to dream about, like, oh my goodness, can
you imagine the you know again the Denver Gold which
was which was an interesting franchise and the story in itself.
But yeah, I think you keep a lot of those
in your back pocket just in case, and you know,
maybe one of those cities are like, hey, you guys

(49:07):
already owned this. Let's sit down and talk.

Speaker 1 (49:09):
So the other article wanted to pull up here, So
this is from the Sports Business Journal. Again, similar quotes
and everything from the pressure release, but talking get another
phone interview.

Speaker 2 (49:19):
Brand In sided the league's ratings following.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
Its initial twenty twenty four season as to why it
feels comfortable attempting to add more franchises. We've had a
lot of early initial quote. Now, we've had a lot
of early excitement around the league. Obviously that's been shown
with our ratings all the measurements. From an engagement standpoint,
the UFL average eight hundred and fifty thousand viewers over
its forty telecasts in twenty four. You know it came
from the merger. Spring football may have been too saturated

(49:44):
with both. They averaged thirty four percent fewer viewers when
you we both were in there. They believe they'll find
an optimal number. We're going to see what the sweet
spot is, continue to do our due diligence and see
where that plays out. The league has not consulted any
banks or lawyers on the expansion process. As Brandon leaves,
its network of leaders and investors gives the league what
it needs. We're doing everything internally right now with the

(50:06):
power of the individuals that can prize our leadership group.
We're going through this first phase initially, then we'll see
what resources we need.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
That's interesting that was below the fold.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
I hadn't even gotten that far. I like that we're
not involved in anyone We know what we're doing.

Speaker 3 (50:20):
We're just kind of sitting around a table at the
office and talking about it, kind of like we're doing
right here, right here, and trying to figure out that
sounds right?

Speaker 2 (50:27):
Yeah, you know that meme where it's the guy that's like,
what are you doing? Like me nothing, just hanging around.
That's what it kind of feels like what this is
right now.

Speaker 3 (50:39):
Yeah, there's there's more to this, I really think, uh,
and hopefully we'll see that kind of unfold as we
get closer. I don't think we're gonna hear a lot.
This might be as much as we hear, unless they
do leak a couple of cities that they might be
looking at. But I think this was to get UFL
in the headlines maybe and then you know, a schedule,

(50:59):
so people are talking about the UFL and then you know,
maybe we'll get a schedule release because you know, frankly,
when the Home and Away you know schedule came out,
that was just you know which teams are playing, which
I mean, I don't know that did a lot of
traction outside of our niche or that you might be right, like,

(51:20):
I mean, how many people were really interested in that
because it was like, Okay, well, you know, birming patslaying
here and they're playing here. Well, I mean it's eight teams.
You kind of got that figured out. But I think
this could be a process of getting the name out there,
getting the UFL and headlines even though it's we're in
the middle of NFL c or UFL. We're in the

(51:41):
middle of NFL season, and then as we kind of
move forward, here is Fox have the Super Bowl this year?
I can't ye, So so there's some opportunity there. There's
some opportunity for the UFL once again to get you know,
a lot of eyeballs and and maybe people who didn't
even realize it was a thing last year. In fact,
I had someone in sports media asked me today, the

(52:03):
UFL is that the thing that Vince McMahon is involved in,
So it's you know, this is someone in sports media.
So they can get some more eyeballs and involved here,
and hopefully maybe the Super Bowl can help that as
well well.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
And we even have a Mike Mitchell was talking today.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
He's been talking with a lot of his CFL people,
and you know they claim to know this or know
that Andy and I and Evan had more people asking
us about the UFL from the CFL media, so they
don't you know, they.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
Sit there all this in the league and all this
kind of stuff. Yeah, Leon having comment here. What's Vince
McMann doing.

Speaker 1 (52:38):
Definitely out on Vince, I hope even keeping track him
all the news lately.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
But they just had a Vister McMahon documentary. I'm very
out of that.

Speaker 3 (52:46):
It was really good. The Netflix documentary series was actually
really good. But if you watch that, you don't want
anything to do with Vince McMahon.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
If you did already abdul and bring back Vegas, I
still think if you kind have figured out something with
Sam Boyd or somewhere else, they had that loyal six
thousand people there. The other comment I wanted to bring
up here, I don't know how long you want to
stay on this, and you know, for a few minutes
hopefully will kind.

Speaker 3 (53:13):
Of van I'm here with you, brother.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
The other there was in the article Greg's share then
maybe I can pull that up, but they were talking
about the it was about Russ Brandon talking this season
about kind of the work they have going on in
the markets.

Speaker 2 (53:28):
We've seen hiring for all that. I know Greg's been
kind of tracking all of that, and just.

Speaker 1 (53:34):
Like, can we get two or three years of just
like sustainable UFL offseason living. I mean, I know this
is such the sugar rush and everything else, but like, yeah,
can we get eight people in each market just building?
I think San Antonio is going to be awful this
year just because of the lack of the additional home game.
The four home games they have are really backloaded to

(53:55):
the end of this season, Like there's already issues that
play here without kind of anything else.

Speaker 3 (54:00):
Yeah, but I think it is a positive sign. I
follow you know, you're on LinkedIn too, you know, and
UFL will pop up and it's like, hey, we're hiring
for this, We're hiring for that. I think those are
all good signs. But I think too, as we started
this conversation of twenty twenty five is make or break.
So I think that you really could, you know, if

(54:21):
this is another successful season they hit those benchmarks, meet
or exceed a lot of other things that they're trying
to look at this year. I think you do see that.
I think you start to see more than seasonal hirings.
I think you see them getting to the communities, especially
if you're going to go into expansion, if you have
an expansion team, and I don't care where it is. Again,
you know, as we were talking about Birmingham were there

(54:43):
were a lot of people in the general public that
didn't know what the stallions were. So if you can
get into these, you know, whatever expansion communities you want
to get into. And maybe I'm putting the cart before
the horse, but you've got to get it, get in
there in the community. And you can't do it by
hiring people. And you know, November and December or January,
you've got to get those people in there, like you know,
ready to go through the season, and then as soon

(55:05):
as the season's over, you know, to start showing out
at these you know, different events that are in the community.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
A couple of comments here abdual Santoni issue. We're just
talking kind of the backlay. It could happen with Panthers.
Ford Field is hosting the Final four in twenty seven.
Let's get to twenty seven. That was like when the
Kraken were looking for their offseason, they were hiring a
new coach. In the off season, we were talking to
like Rob Brendan Moore was over with the Carolina Hurricanes,
and they.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
Go, well, Rob's good, but he's he can't make a
deep playoff run. It's like, let me get a coach
that can get us to the playoffs. Then we can
deal with that. Let's get to twenty seven. Sam here
loll twenty five is a make or break? Shut up.

Speaker 1 (55:44):
Yeah, we don't need that kind of language, but I
would like to know why Sam doesn't feel that way.

Speaker 3 (55:48):
And that's been bad vibes on a holiday week man.
But you know, if you don't think that twenty twenty
five is not make or break, I don't know. I mean,
I mean we're on completely polar opposite of opinion here,
because if they don't have a good twenty twenty five,
do you really think that they're going to set They're

(56:09):
going to put more you know, good money after bad.
Now I'm optimistic. I think, you know, I was kind
of you know, we used to talk about the welfare
check when we would talk about before the season and
with the UFL man who knew I didn't know. I
didn't know but like, after what I saw in twenty
twenty four, I'm certainly optimistic about twenty twenty five. But
it can't be a disaster and it's you know, certainly,

(56:32):
but it can't be below some a certain thresholds I
think of ratings and revenue and those kinds of things,
because they're not going to continue to invest in it.

Speaker 1 (56:41):
Yeah, it's think the whole like, oh, we're working on
merchandise and we're working on this, like we just need
and people like read you just need to give them time.
Spring football that never has the benefit of time, never
has the benefit that we need to make the best
we can run. Now, that's where we talk about it,
because if you sit around and say everything is fine,
then this that goes away. Here where's Leon? The twenty

(57:02):
five is definitely make or break the other thing. So
I want to talk to this sports business Shuril thing. Yeah,
Leon caught the Sports Business Shott video. They seem very bullish. Again,
every freelancer I know is booked all the time and
business is crazy and all that stuff, but this was interesting,
just some quote. So they were here at the SVETO
Sports Business Journals of Media Innovators conference that's nice. We're

(57:26):
talking through all this stuff, this rest brand, and it's
about money and execution. Now with the backers we have,
capital won't be an issue. Patients isn't going to be
an issue, even though we're moving to expand here before
maybe we were ready for it, but I don't think
execution is going to be the issue. The other thing
I just thought was interesting in this again, this is
Greg Parks over here. I would encourage everyone to check

(57:47):
this out on ufl board. This just came out today.
We're set up as a single entity. We did so
the maximized speed and flexibility for us as collective in
terms of exits and how we think about return on
there's number of outcomes we get. Definitely sell franchises, we
keep it as a single entity. So it's just kind
of I know, we know that, but I just always

(58:08):
appreciate that kind of the vocalizing kind of just how
they're viewing this, how they're viewing potential, you know, expansion
and franchising kind of all that stuff.

Speaker 3 (58:16):
Yeah, and I liked that because this was in Sports
Business Journal. You see that there were a lot of
where they talked about, you know, some of the numbers
behind it that we don't always see. I do want
to point out something. If you'll scroll down just a
little bit, you see that Dick Sporting Good UFL store.
I'm just gonna say that thanks to Greg's page. I

(58:37):
was on there and I was like, what is this?
And I clicked on there and they had like deeply
discounted under Armor UFL stuff. So I hope that I
really hope that Greg got like a cut of that.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
It was.

Speaker 3 (58:49):
It was they had like some incredible prices and I
went on there and bought some stuff. But yeah, to
you to your point there about like you know, the
Sports Business Journal, those forums are exactly like you said
about freelancers. Those are to get up there and kind
of market yourself because it's really kind of a marketing thing.
But I love where they can really talk about a
lot of the a lot of the numbers, and you see,

(59:11):
like one of the things the digital users on the
ESPN app, which sometimes we didn't get a lot of
those numbers. I would love to know, like overall, you know,
what's the you know, the the viewing public, not just
percentage wise, but like who you know who's watching on
these apps, and and that's where you get into demos too,
and maybe that's just something I'm interested in, but it
it feeds into the bigger question of how many people

(59:34):
are watching the UFL and I'm sure they probably you know,
put that into the eight hundred and fifty thousand, but
you know, we really don't get streaming numbers that often,
if ever, so that would be interesting to know.

Speaker 1 (59:47):
We're so Sam's the you know, they handter Sam so
ty we have massive backers all this stuff. Keep in mind,
Disney just canceled the Accolade after one hundred and eighty
million dollar Star Wars here is here I think it
was one hundred and eighty five million dollars Star Wars
here as they were working on because.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
It didn't meet it didn't meet the viewership and.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
There was a lot of backlash and everything in terms
of like kind of them kind of woking Star Wars,
but like they just scraped that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
They're like, we're done.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
So if you don't think they're having money involved in
this from these leagues or from these companies, and now
you know that's Disney ABC, right, obviously they're not. You know,
they're they're a part owner and kind of the stuff
I mean use slash product products all the time. I mean,
this isn't just because oh we've put two years and
thirty million dollars into the UFL.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
Like Acolyte was gone like that, and that's a lot
bigger project.

Speaker 3 (01:00:34):
It's and it's not losing money. It's not the only factor. Uh,
it is a big factor. Paramount has had layoffs. We're
starting to see large you know, these large TV you
know owner ownership groups who are starting to gut stations
right now because and it's you know, and it's because
it's all money. Start if you look at the media

(01:00:56):
layoffs that have happened this year. CNN had an article
recently out and they ran down all the media companies
that had layoffs. Remember there are two media companies that
are involved in this. So when you if they start
losing money, it might not be the only factor saying,
but it's going to be a big factor.

Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
The other enginesing thing here just to kind of round
this out that the moderator, moderator, this is all of
the panels. So the moderator took questions of the audience.
One asked for a breakdown and focus between the local
revenue and tickets versus television viewership, which I would that
would also be my question.

Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
And why do we care about all this?

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):
They goes random told a story of the battle Hawks
fan tailgate hours before home game. Be times about wanting
to build the local markets, you know, using the hub
and they wanting to get.

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
People in there.

Speaker 1 (01:01:42):
They know they have staff of eight to ten people
in each market building the basis for our league. We've
enormously pleased with the reach and engagement by like that,
Like Russ, what can you give us about this?

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
You know the tailgates and say Louis are really crazy
because we talk about that all the time. Do you
care more? Is this it built for TV? Product? Talk
about you know, we get all.

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
The time the comments and all this. Oh attendant says
it matter they're making so much money on TV. But
then yet there's still now in all of these now
this expansion, all these talks and what markets we want
to go to is we need fans, we want hungry fans.
This isn't just to tell I would love to know
that the breakdown of that. But anytime anyone says that
attendant says it matter because they make all their money

(01:02:22):
on TV, is just foolish to me.

Speaker 3 (01:02:24):
Well, the USFL, you know that that was a TV product,
and what was the big knock on the USFL. People
didn't want to watch it because there was no one in.
There were no one at There's no one at the
games except for the Stallion's games. Those like in twenty
twenty two, the Stallions games were packed. Everyone else it

(01:02:45):
looks like they it was a high school practice, like
there were a few people in the stands.

Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
I was there.

Speaker 3 (01:02:49):
I went there for an entire weekend and it was unbelievable.
Birmingham's there, It's like a awesome atmosphere, and then every
other game there's like, you know, one hundred people there.
So that was the big knock because the visuals weren't
very good on network television and it was a TV product.
The XFL, I felt, was trying to build a more
traditional one with not just a great TV product, but

(01:03:11):
they were trying to put these teams in the communities.
And then that's what you have, the conglomeration of both
these leagues together and it's not just a TV product.
Because the USFL it didn't look good, it didn't work
that way. So yeah, so I think attendance does matter,
and maybe not even to the revenue side of it.

(01:03:32):
It matters to the optics side of it when you're
watching on television, because if anyone who's not who doesn't
really know about the UFL and they turn it on,
like well, nobody cares to show up, why would I
care to watch it?

Speaker 2 (01:03:44):
Yeah? John, here, Jan just confirming with you. Yeah, that
was Fox. They were cost cutting first rather than I
think any marketing. Put your comments in the chat.

Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
I want to touch on the Switzerland stuff, and then
I want to touch on the AJ Battlehawk stuff, and
then if anyone else has anything that way, I've lost
my green break down here?

Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
What do you think?

Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
I want to see if I can just pull up
the press release? What do you think of this showcase?

Speaker 2 (01:04:05):
What is it?

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
Next fall in uh uh in Switzerland? I don't even
think they put it on the website. Let me see
if I can get the press release up?

Speaker 2 (01:04:14):
What do you think?

Speaker 3 (01:04:15):
I don't know what to think of it. It's like,
what how much football talent comes out of Switzerland? Number one?
Number two?

Speaker 2 (01:04:25):
Are you?

Speaker 3 (01:04:27):
Is that a market that you're trying to reach internationally?
I just I don't understand why this is why this
is happening. I mean, I really don't. And if there's
a press release, maybe they are. They explained that I didn't.
I don't remember seeing a press release. That's what I saw. Yeah,
So I don't, you know, mark your calendars for what?

(01:04:48):
I don't understand, Like what we're marketing our calendars for.
Is it going to be some kind of televised event.
I mean that might be kind of cool, but I
don't understand. Like why Switzerland, I mean, I don't get it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:02):
Philip here says the UFL purchases ELFU the UFL wishes
they had the intendants and hands and money and teams
at elpads. I think that would be the that's the other.

Speaker 2 (01:05:14):
Way around of ELF moving into the stands for a movie.

Speaker 3 (01:05:17):
I'm telling you why the ELF is not. I can't
imagine that the pay per view thing is really working
out here in the States. How they don't have a
TV contract here yet. I don't. I don't get it
because I mean, when you see some of the highlights,
and I watched some of the videos from over there,
it's incredible. But yeah, uh yeah, you're right, it might
be the other way around on that one.

Speaker 2 (01:05:39):
But yeah, no, the I think that's interesting about this.

Speaker 1 (01:05:41):
And I had someone involved back in ACTUFL twenty twenty
reach out to me when this came about, and they said, basically,
you know, if you wanted to talk about.

Speaker 2 (01:05:49):
Germany or somewhere maybe that there was maybe a proven
record of Tom.

Speaker 1 (01:05:53):
But to them it felt like this is executives wanting
to plan a vacation, like we can so.

Speaker 3 (01:06:00):
Surprised the Hawaii or the Bahamas.

Speaker 1 (01:06:04):
But remember remember how pissy people were when the it
was the XFL did the showcase in Hawaii because the
Rock was there and they wanted to do a track,
but a, I mean, the Rock lives there, so that
was okay, how can we get the Rock involved in this.
We're going to use this as a marketing thing, right.
They utilized a lot of that, But then also like
there is a lot of players like in Hawaii and

(01:06:25):
the Islands and kind of in that area of the
world that came in and they.

Speaker 2 (01:06:29):
Spoiler a little.

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
I think that was the most the talent there signed
to the League of any of the showcases, right, I
mean it was it was high in terms of any
showcases or part visibility, part making money, part trying to
just you know, we're filling press releases and do whatever.
But it actually was successful. But I just I can't
figure out how this uh especial thing's gonna work out.

Speaker 3 (01:06:52):
I don't had the player fifty four episode from Hawaii
was really good and that was like probably that was
one of the most memorable ones that was. That was
a really good episode where the where the Rock went
back to some of his old stomping grounds. It was emotional.
It was really good. Uh Switzerland, Yeah, I don't get
Maybe it is a vacation. Like well, Adam Sandler signs
these movie deals and he sets them all in Hawaii

(01:07:13):
or all these tropical islands, so he gets to go
there and you know, shoot for six months and something.

Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
We're doing a romantic comedy of a couple with but
it's going to be in Africa. John, you know the
story can only be told in the SENGANI you want
to go on the planes here and we want to
do all that stuff. Yelady did Hawaii. It's almost like
Max maybe listening to the show, I don't know, Christina here, Hellelujah,

(01:07:38):
it's great to hear newsback Spanshion. Now remember Christina to
say a member here. You always get your comments right
if you're remember here ninety nine cents a month.

Speaker 2 (01:07:45):
I appreciate Christina reaching out for that.

Speaker 1 (01:07:48):
I think I did see too. I think I'm eligible
now for like the Twitter memberships. I was like, Oh,
I'm going to start making all my secrets. Yeah, I
still here. I like this showcase episode in Switch.

Speaker 3 (01:07:59):
I did it. That's a that's a great ideas off.

Speaker 2 (01:08:03):
We did well, it is one, but we did. We
did the showcase in Arizona.

Speaker 1 (01:08:07):
It just sucks because you can't you can't really tell
what's going, you know, and they always get like, oh,
are you seeing players or like you're not really they're
running drills and stuff. We got to I mean, we
had fun talking to the coaches and it was just
more of a kind of a cool experience that way.
But it's not like you're, oh, the secret unknown Swiss
quarterback is just gonna be dye.

Speaker 2 (01:08:28):
I just isn't gonna happen that way. I think Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:08:32):
I think pat Rafino went to uh there was one
in Saint Louis maybe, and like there was a lot
of access to or in that area, and there was
a lot of access to coaches and Uh. I don't
know about players, but you know they got some really
good stuff. He got some really good stuff with some
of the coaches. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:08:47):
Yeah, Pat's always in Saint Louis, except when we went
to the championship game.

Speaker 3 (01:08:50):
Of course, be a say Louis. That was good saying
when I was in Saint Louis, he was working or somewhere,
he was somewhere else.

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
Yeah, speaking of I want to touch on it. If
anyone has an equatquestions about this, we'll probably get.

Speaker 2 (01:09:01):
Down here at the bottom of the hour.

Speaker 1 (01:09:04):
Like this whole AJ battle Hawks thing, I am curious
your thoughts on this. You've been to the battle Hawks,
you know games, and obviously with the merch out like
this to me is the biggest pissy pants story I've
ever seen here.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
What's your thoughts on the AJ thing?

Speaker 3 (01:09:17):
Yeah? I didn't. I didn't really like it.

Speaker 2 (01:09:20):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:09:22):
And frankly, I didn't like it from AJ mccern's perspective.
And you know, maybe he was he was wronged, and
you know that could have been the case. I don't
think he handled it great. Uh, even with the response,
like I think that the social media post it might
have been on Twitter that he put out about like
some about it, I didn't get a phone call or

(01:09:42):
it doesn't work both ways, but thank you Saint Louis.
And it was just it was, I just I didn't
like it. I didn't like it from any part. Sometimes
you know, I understand this is uh, this is not
the NFL. I mean, even NFL players they sometimes don't
handle things great. Uh So I just I thought it

(01:10:02):
was I didn't like it. You're right, it was kind
of pissy, it was, and I and and I think
Beck tried to clean it up a little bit, but
I mean they said they wanted to like send him
out the right way, but they needed to do some
other things. I don't know. Uh, it just I didn't
like it. It didn't feel good. And I know the
one thing he said about like not wanting to ride

(01:10:23):
the plane with the opposing team, It's like, you can
still be competitive and right now, listen, I've never taken
a snap of professional football, but you can still ride
the plane and be competitive with the other team. You know,
you're all kind of in the same boat together here.
You're all trying to work toward the same goal. I mean,
you live and you live in the same city. And
you're probably practicing. And I remember there was there was

(01:10:46):
a I think it was with the with the first
season of the UFL that there was some other players
that kind of wandered into the stadium watching practice and
didn't realize that they weren't supposed to be there. So
it's you know, it is what it is. It's it's
it's not the NFL, so but you can. I thought
he could have handled it a little better, especially publicly.

Speaker 1 (01:11:07):
Yeah, I just have a questions or who you guys
think replaces aj A y'all in here. Ag has to
understand the stance of the league. It's development. If he
wants more money or the NFL, go find another lead.
You're tasting. I mean, that's what kills me. Philip here,
silversus out the door. I wouldn't count on Bretty the
White Night here riding into that, but that like that,
that's what kills me.

Speaker 2 (01:11:27):
Is the like again, just talking to freelance.

Speaker 1 (01:11:32):
Saying, like I do a lot of gigs, and I
do a lot of weddings, and some weddings a really
nice and some weddings are not so nice, and some
things are really like you know, going in and if
you're a J McCarron and you're like, I'm going to
into this UFL and I want my you know, my
kids to see me play.

Speaker 2 (01:11:48):
Like then you can't then be like, well it wasn't
for my kids, I would have walked the hell out
of this league.

Speaker 1 (01:11:53):
Like right, okay, Like you can do that, Like you
have your an adult man, and you can do anything
you want. You chose to come, but I just don't
like that later you knew what you're getting involved in.
It was kind of like the whole pizza gate and
all that stuff, Like you know you're going into these
spring leagues. They kind of got the history. I like,
I just I wouldn't be surprised by any of.

Speaker 3 (01:12:12):
This, but it you know, and he even asked for
his release from the Bengals because he wanted to play
in the He wanted to play in the UFL and
you know, with his and his kids, and you know,
I was, I was there before one of the games,
and you know, he's coming in, walking in to all
the fans and there's you know, his kids are there

(01:12:33):
and his and his whole family and it was really
cool and uh, but yeah, it's it's not you know,
I I don't like to. I don't like to call
the UFL minor league. A lot of people do. It's
a professional football league. I don't think it's minor to anything.
It's unless you're trying to compare it to the NFL,
and I don't know a lot of people are doing that.
But like you said, it's not the top tier of

(01:12:56):
professional football. You knew what you're getting into, and then
to compleat playing about it afterward because you kind of
got jilted by your team, I don't I don't know.
I mean this, I just thought it was bad. But listen,
here's one thing. If he does stay in the UFL,
like he says he wants to, and he's not, nothing's
gonna change. But he says, you know, he's gonna get
an opportunity to beat the battle Hawks, you know, twice

(01:13:18):
or whatever. So at least it gives you some kind
of storyline.

Speaker 2 (01:13:21):
I don't know. Yeah, I just I don't know. I
don't like that.

Speaker 1 (01:13:25):
It seems a little weird to me. I phillip here
Silvers is a legend rough actually the b Arlington if
he had played rolling back to the the I guess
the expansion talk today before we get out of here,
anyone else has any comments, because like, I'm kind of
over you know my thoughts on the battle Hawks anyway, and.

Speaker 3 (01:13:43):
Listene, I guess notorious USFL hater, notorious XFL hater, notorious
Saint Louis BattleHawks hater.

Speaker 2 (01:13:51):
I got it, I did.

Speaker 1 (01:13:52):
I actually I did have one quick credit I forgot
so I will be curious going forward here the rocks
of involvement in this league, just because this Red One
movie has totally flopped right shocked early. But like, also
it costs two hundred and fifty million dollars, like I
believe I saw like the first Avengers movie cost like

(01:14:14):
one hundred and sixty million, So like the fact that
like Red One costs more than and don't quote me
on that, but the Red One costs more than the
first Avengers movie.

Speaker 2 (01:14:24):
But you know that crashed.

Speaker 1 (01:14:26):
Obviously, the Black Adam thing wasn't working out. They See
You Universe. I watched that movie really bad. Rock just
had an article about like he wants to do more
indie movies and kind of disappear and he's kind of
tired of always playing the same role and all that
kind of stuff. I'm just curious, like where the UFL
fits into this, like you know, the like this new

(01:14:46):
twenty twenty five Rock's curious your thoughts on that, And
I have another Russ Brandon comment we can go through.

Speaker 3 (01:14:51):
Yeah, I do wonder and if he is gonna maybe
take a more hands because it felt like he and
Danny Garcia were gonna be they talked about being really
hands on with this and being involved. I never felt
that they were that involved this year, certainly publicly. You know,
I don't know. I wasn't there behind the scenes. I

(01:15:11):
just thought I would see a lot more of them
other than you know, kind of what we saw before
the season started. And he's on you know, college game
Day and he's on all these different shows on Fox,
NFL pregame to talk about the league that I think
it was like January first or whatever it was. But
I do wonder, And frankly, like you said, like his

(01:15:35):
I don't. I mean, he's still a bankable star, don't
get me wrong, but like it's his his star is
not as shiny as it was when he first came
into this. So maybe I think. I think he's a
really good actor. And if you've watched Ballers I mean,
I thought he was great, and he's been good in
a lot of movies. But I do wonder if maybe
he will concentrate more on that and they have people

(01:15:57):
there that they don't necessarily need or Daty Garcia for
the day to day stuff. Frankly, I think Daryl Johnston
might be more hands on involved with it than anybody
of the public facing people that we've seen, for better.

Speaker 1 (01:16:10):
Or worse, I would say, sorry, I did. I did
think it was funny that Brandon Aubrey missed. You know,
there's not many NFL games this season where they missed
the kickoff zone right.

Speaker 2 (01:16:25):
Either they right and they still.

Speaker 1 (01:16:26):
Touched back in or they land and then But I
thought it was funny that Brandon Aubrey missed the kickoff
zone and I.

Speaker 2 (01:16:33):
Was so that was the other thing. I forgot the
gaps of the game.

Speaker 1 (01:16:35):
But like, hey, Brandon Aubrey was in the XMOL maybe
he would have known how to do that stuff. The
other Yeah, but just with the Rocks thing, Yeah, I
don't know if it's kind of revamp here focusing on that,
but yeah, I think his public perception has has really
hit a dive on that. The other article I wanted
to talk about here, and I was just kind of
looking through this news and a lot of these websites

(01:16:56):
are just regurgitations of the press release. Front Office Sports
has some quotes year and I thought it was nice
to sport the Coen you know, sports business show, like
they have a you know, additional kind of quotes on
here talk about all this stuff. You know, this is
uh right, Eric Fisher with Front Office Sports. But they're
bringing the additional franchises, building, the a, the moving, and
there's not a specific timetable governing the process or a

(01:17:17):
targeted number of franchises. The UFL president and CEO Rush
brandons that there'll be fewer than eight teams, and at
least at least on the outset, something related to expansion
might be in place.

Speaker 2 (01:17:26):
For twenty twenty six. We're open for business, very open minded.

Speaker 1 (01:17:30):
We are taking the very holistic approach to the market,
look at the market and everything.

Speaker 2 (01:17:33):
That needs to be done to stand up to a
new team. So it is kind of curious on that
you no timetable.

Speaker 1 (01:17:38):
We've heard conflicting reports, you know, like just since today,
you know it's at twenty twenty six seven.

Speaker 2 (01:17:43):
I just think we're kind of looking through.

Speaker 1 (01:17:45):
It was kind of like in the CFL XFL talks
when it was we're talking about talking, and I think
that was like, I think that was their public facing
kind of like what what you know, Hey, the xbos
calling the CFL, like what does that mean?

Speaker 2 (01:17:58):
And they go, well, we're talking about talking.

Speaker 1 (01:18:00):
That was their thing, and so, you know, to me,
it feels very similar here where we don't really know
what we're doing, but this is something kind of working
on in the future.

Speaker 3 (01:18:09):
We're having a meeting about some future meetings that we
might have later on. It's what that's a lot what
it sounds like. But I will say it was a
press release that was short on a lot of details,
but it had one big overarching theme, and it was that,
I think maybe the subtle theme of we are successful,

(01:18:30):
we are we are growing, so people you need to
talk talk about us right now even though it's ANFL season.
That's kind of the more we've talked about this and
like kind of diving into some of these articles, that's
what it really feels like. It's like, hey, let's send
something out there to get our name out a little
bit and.

Speaker 1 (01:18:45):
Just you know, float it and see how it goes
all right, last thing here, let's see the last ten
minutes on this or more you know less probably, but
figure out here.

Speaker 2 (01:18:53):
So in terms of like do we in your ideal
world here? Right? So we get through this and we
move forward, We're gonna have eighteens.

Speaker 1 (01:19:01):
We've talked to Ohio. We do we move the Roughnecks
back over to the XFL conference?

Speaker 2 (01:19:08):
Do we redo that? Do we keep them?

Speaker 1 (01:19:09):
Now?

Speaker 2 (01:19:10):
Is that too disruptive? Yeah? Like I said, Seattle, kind
of all that stuff in the mix.

Speaker 1 (01:19:14):
But where do you I guess ideally now as we've
kind of read through everything before we get out, like,
what would you like to see here moving into six
and twenty seven?

Speaker 3 (01:19:21):
Well, I would like to see a West Coast presence
like we talked about. I would like to see the
Houston Gamblers come back and be in the and be
in the USFL conference. I mean, I that was a
We've talked about this a lot about how that just
felt like a compromise somehow. I'm not sure the rough
Necks ip was as strong as the gamblers or vice versa.
Wherever the reason was mad chatter, thank you? Uh, but

(01:19:45):
I think you know what I would like to see
as we get into I would love to see four
more teams. That might be a lot to take on
an initial expansion. So what I do like about this
is if they stick to the plan what we think
they will, it'll be two teams in twenty six and
two teams in twenty seven. Now, again let's hope they're
still a league. I'm optimistic. I want to see a

(01:20:07):
lot of good things happen this year. First. That's one
thing I want to see is I want to see
even if the viewership is flat, I think it was
good enough that it was. It was successful with the
eight hundred and fifty thousand, and again we don't know
if that really included some of the streaming numbers. But
I think there's a lot of opportunity because as we know,

(01:20:28):
it is a league of opportunity. But I think there's
a lot of opportunity to have a stronger year than
they had last year, which I still think was a
very successful year and get to that where where expansion
makes sense and that these are you know, it's a
strong league that would will have a strong brand that's
not just the people that are you and I and

(01:20:49):
the people watching this. It's maybe a little bit more
more so and kind of growing in public perception. And
when you add teams, you add communities and cities, and
I think you add fans and that all that's that's
a rising tide right there.

Speaker 2 (01:21:04):
Curious your thoughts.

Speaker 1 (01:21:05):
And then Pat has a question about kind of reaching
out to ownership here. But I think in the in
the initial reports out and forgive me, now, it's like
a fever dream of go. But when the initial reports
came out of the merger and all that, and the
Ohio was in the mix, But then I believe Arizona
was in the mix, and I do.

Speaker 3 (01:21:22):
Yeah, yeah, whether you know.

Speaker 1 (01:21:23):
You relocate Seattle there you add a team, is that
far enough west coast? You're still Texas kind of adjacent there?
You're you're building, you know, it's like the Oregon Trail.

Speaker 2 (01:21:32):
We're kind of building more. Does that do anything for you?

Speaker 1 (01:21:36):
I don't love Arizona as a market. I mean, like,
the Cardinals are a great team, beat them yesterday, but
like it doesn't arizonthing doesn't feel like a hotbed of
I mean even the Diamondbacks like the World Series contending
right two seasons ago, Uh, really big drop off, right
and attendance all that. I mean, it feels like they're

(01:21:56):
more of a casual kind of market. There is my
point kind of thoughts on that of Arizona fits.

Speaker 3 (01:21:59):
That I I like it. If it's not gonna be Seattle, Portland,
Oakland or San Diego. I think it is west enough.
You know, the Las Vegas thing. We got to stop
with this no more. But I mean, yes, it's west
enough I think to have for me. Anyway, as you asked,

(01:22:21):
if for a West coast presence, which I just think
you've got to get, you you've got to get something
more than you know, mostly Central time zone and a
couple in the Eastern time zone.

Speaker 1 (01:22:32):
Yeah, yeah, in here says the Seattle, Oakland, San Diego, Vegas.

Speaker 2 (01:22:36):
H I like Oakland. I think you can ride out,
especially falling off the A's now and everything. We were
just there for the Mariners.

Speaker 1 (01:22:43):
Kind of last last homes, their last you know, whenever
home playing in Oakland and kind of all that stuff.
But man, that's a brutal market right now if you're
a sports fan there right The Warriors have moved the obviously,
the Raiders have moved that. The A's are moved, like
I think that's a no brainer. If you do the Coliseum,
they're probably not right.

Speaker 2 (01:23:02):
That's huge. But other areas, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:23:05):
I think, to me, Oakland, if you're not going to
do San Diego. But I do think I've heard this, like.

Speaker 2 (01:23:10):
You can't do California and the taxes, and they were like,
you gotta suck it up and do it, like you
you have to.

Speaker 1 (01:23:16):
I think at this point you have to say, Okay,
we're making an effort. If we care enough about expanding
and finding the right markets, we got to pay and
maybe you have to play those players and extra eight
percent or whatever the counterbalance that I don't think any
player would argue. If you're like if you and I
are both playing and I'm on the Texas team and
you're like, you're getting paid an extra six hundred dollars

(01:23:37):
a month, You're like, yeah, but they're going to take
it down taxes Like okay, Like we understand these things,
you know.

Speaker 3 (01:23:42):
And maybe this is the old school thinking that we
don't need anymore. But to me, it's like, if you're
going to be a league that is taken seriously. I've
always thought you've got to have a Southern California team,
and you've got to have a Northeastern team where really
New York, I think you are New York, New Jersey

(01:24:02):
to me, I mean maybe that's not the mindset anymore.
I mean because again, we saw a lot of success
I think in a lot of and they hit a
lot of numbers here in the UFL this past year.
Without that, I think that could only add to it.
And when you have a place like Oakland. To me,
on the surface, now again I don't know the financials,

(01:24:23):
and as you said, I'm one of those guys like
I don't know about the taxes and all that. I
it to me just seems like, on the surface, what
a perfect market to put a team in because there's
so much opportunity there and there's got to be a
fan base who's hungry for professional sports. Again that you
know may be on any level.

Speaker 1 (01:24:43):
Yeah, on here says, do you think they suck up
a New York cost before a West Coast expansion?

Speaker 3 (01:24:48):
I if the West Coast is in California, they might
be you know, again we're talking finances. You're right, but
I think a New York cost would probably be a
lot less because they're not going to be They're not
going to be housed there. You know, they fly in
and you know, play the game, then fly back to Arlington.
So it might actually be cheaper to do that to

(01:25:09):
be in the New York, New Jersey area, and there's
a lot of places that they go that might be
a lot more cost effective than playing Unfortunately in a
place like Oakland.

Speaker 2 (01:25:19):
Adil says, don't respect cashm and Field. John Lewis cash
that place.

Speaker 3 (01:25:24):
A buddy of mine was on the broadcast crew of
the of one of the Las Vegas games, and he
does all kinds of of He he does all kinds
of you know, from Major League Baseball to to everything else.
He actually was worked. He actually worked on one of
the Alliance of American Football crews, which was a story
to itself, but he said Cashman Field was one of
the worst places he's ever been and it just the

(01:25:46):
sight lines were bad. The place was just not good
and it was so weird in Los I guess they
kept having bad weather there.

Speaker 1 (01:25:54):
Well, I can't remember who it was, if it was
Matt Berry or someone else who was on the call,
and like he was on our show that next week,
like one of the guys that was I can't remember
it was him or uh Tom lougan Beilt one of
the guys they came on the show, but they were
in that structure.

Speaker 2 (01:26:08):
I'm like, oh, how like what was that? They're like, dude,
that was scary like watching it on the show. Yeah,
it was very terrim I know, you know you can't
do that, but no, I yeah, I'm with you there.

Speaker 1 (01:26:19):
But you know they got this stud ut vag we
got look at this, We got Van checking in here
in the chat. Van, I wore your jacket all over Vancouver,
your Marcus jacket with the your sleeves. I didn't get
as many comments from Evan and Andy as I would
have liked, but I did. And there was a stop
with San Diego. USSD has much less capacity, is currently
doing carecter about I would play it like like what

(01:26:41):
who was it is like we'll play in the parking
all on the soide of the road.

Speaker 3 (01:26:44):
We don't right well? And I think, if I'm not mistaken,
was it San Diego. There was one of the markets
that had been kind of bandied about even you know
before all this, where they were building a new a
new soccer stadium that was either I think it was
a USL Stadium, So it feels like, you know some
of those venues, like well, there was some talk about,

(01:27:04):
you know in this that Louisville was a place that
had been brought up, and a lot of people were like, well,
Cardinal Stadium sixty thousand people, which Cardinal Stadium would be
great if you played a team there, but you also
have Lynn Family Stadium, which seats fifteen thousand and is
one of the nicest USL stadiums around. The only problem
is you have a USL team and an NWUSL team

(01:27:25):
that plays at Lynn Family Stadium, which would scheduling would
be a nightmare. And I don't know if they'd ever
let them do it, but I think some of these
USL teams, even though they play kind of at the
same time, there could be some opportunity to play in
those kinds of places. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:27:40):
Yeah, I'm still talking about New York and I agree.
I've talked a lot with Sath in the front of
the show and all of that, and having both coasts,
but especially having New York and LA but really helps
your bottom line of TV ratings just having games from
New York, from the New York market, even if you're
only attracting you know, five percent of whatever the people like,
I just it's no offense to the memphisis of the world,

(01:28:02):
or even New Orleans or Birmingham. Like, you need markets
with a lot of people, even if it's if it's
the sixteenth thing on the minds of some of the
people there. You saw the Guardians games kind of might
cover them back in twenty twenty, Like even if you're
only getting a fraction, which is is funny to me
because that's kind of the thought process of spring football
in general. Right, the NFL gets, you know, one hundred

(01:28:24):
million people, and if we could just get a fraction
of that, like.

Speaker 3 (01:28:27):
Here you go.

Speaker 1 (01:28:28):
You know, just even if you're into New York, even
if you just get a fraction of that, Phillip, they're
not doing another Texas team.

Speaker 2 (01:28:34):
We don't need more.

Speaker 3 (01:28:35):
No, that's enough. Yeah, And it's not a zero sum game.
I mean you if you if you add a you know,
team in New York or whatever, it's not going to
take away from the Memphis or Birmingham's or Saint Louis
or anyone. I mean again, it's it's to me, it's
a rising tide.

Speaker 2 (01:28:52):
Let's see here, Matt chatter.

Speaker 1 (01:28:53):
I was talking about Buffalo and now we're getting some
things about this and then you know, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:28:59):
Rest branding, that's there is a Buffalo connection. You're right,
absolutely get that.

Speaker 1 (01:29:04):
These I still don't understand that stadium they're building, Like
we're building a stadium that's smaller than the one we
have and it's not a dome and we're not I
just I don't I don't understand the thought. That's the
sorry for another day, Yeah, Jennifers. No, like it's I
mean all the way back to the Guardians again, and
people pooh pooh, right, like back in twenty twenty, everyone.

Speaker 2 (01:29:21):
Pooh poo oh. The XFL attendants here is terrible.

Speaker 1 (01:29:24):
Like you would die for Tampa Bay Viper attendants right now,
you would die for New York Guardians attendants. You would
die for the LA Wildcats attendants when you look at
like Memphis, right, So it's all relative. And I know
we talked the XFL viewership back in oh one versus whatever,
but this is a lot more apples to apples, So
you would.

Speaker 2 (01:29:42):
Die for some of these ones that were deemed not
good enough back in twenty twenty.

Speaker 3 (01:29:46):
Yeah, and you know that was the twenty twenty. I mean,
people will remember that was a that was kind of
a huge deal when they were because it was like, oh,
you know, spring football is really coming back.

Speaker 1 (01:29:55):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:29:56):
The AAF was just a non contender, like this is
this is the real deal and yeah, and you you
had the New York and the LA markets and it
was just it was to me, that makes it bigger again.
And maybe that's old school me thinking that when you
have a league you got to have you know, a
New York in LA. But it just seems to me

(01:30:17):
like it just has always worked out that way.

Speaker 1 (01:30:20):
Uh, We're for thirty now. Anything else, anything else, we
want to make sure I'm going to shower here before.
We got money at football. We've got right rocking there playing,
we got things having Dorothy's either way, anything else we
want to touch on any other thoughts here today?

Speaker 3 (01:30:33):
No, But I'm always jealous of people on the West
Coast who get to watch Monday night football at like
what like five point fifteen. It's like seven thirty. It's
seven thirty here in Louisville right now, so I got
to wait, you know, it's I usually fall asleep by halftime.
So I'm jealous of you. So, but you know read,
I always love being on your show, and you and
I talk a lot offline. It's fun to talk here

(01:30:54):
and uh, you know, keep it PG rated as we
usually don't in our uh in our text chains and everything,
but it is it's always fun to talk about this
and this is newsworthy. This is not trying to make
something up. This is the UFL is talking about expansion,
and I think that is really good news for a
lot of Spring football fans because to me, spring football

(01:31:15):
has been as viable as it's ever been, you know,
maybe since the original USFL. And you know, even then
it was it was iffy, and there are a lot
of stories from that. But I just think that you know,
with this network ownership and and everybody behind it, that
it has an opportunity to grow. And we're starting to
see players go to the NFL. I just think this

(01:31:35):
is I think it's all positive right now, we'll see
what happens.

Speaker 2 (01:31:38):
Yeah, and again, I really in this in this space,
and the same with the CFL. I mean, this is anything.
I mean, even the NFL, but they have a lot
of other stuff like this is.

Speaker 1 (01:31:48):
The biggest click bait sugar candy rush, we're board, let's
talk expansion that you can do. So I hate to
get on that all the time because I just clake,
you know, even this Switzerland thing, like oh you're a
Sperder and you're like, you know you can do but
so but you know, when there's a press release, because
again I weren't going to do the stream. I mean

(01:32:10):
I I treated it out and I said, this leak's crazy.
I'm going back to bed, and Mac's like, oh, I
think we should talk about it, Mike, and they're all
going in the chat all day and like I said,
I was getting the text, but I laughed because in
our group chat and John, if you if you ever
got back on Twitter, we could incorporate you into that
on the Twitter.

Speaker 3 (01:32:26):
Maybe maybe maybe one of these days.

Speaker 2 (01:32:28):
But but but even on there, right, and this is
like the you know, the the UFL media.

Speaker 1 (01:32:33):
I mean, as much as you want to joke about that,
but you know, this is a group and all day
in there, all the way about this and what about this.
I'm like, you guys, you know, because at the end
of the day, we're fans and we're all fans and
all that stuff, like you're just like.

Speaker 2 (01:32:45):
You bought in. Like it worked. We're all talking about
the UFL today. I didn't think I'd be doing the podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:32:51):
If that was the strategy, then yeah, it certainly worked.
And that's what a lot of people need to understand.
You know, we if we criticize the UFL or whatever,
it's because we want it to succeed. We're not. If
we didn't care, we wouldn't be talking. We wouldn't have
talked for an hour and a half about it. So, yeah,
we wanted to succeed. You're right, we're fans and you know,
hopefully there'll be a lot more that come aboard of

(01:33:11):
you know, in twenty twenty five, and you know this
thing might take off.

Speaker 1 (01:33:15):
Uh So yeah, So anyone get ready for football. Everyone
I like and give a thumbs up to the stream.
Please if you can like and subscribe, subscribe if you
have it, we're gonna give away. Actually hung out with
Dustin in Vancouver. Dustin was there of Royal Retros. He
was there with his CFL PA. They've got that big
partnership now with Royal Retros.

Speaker 2 (01:33:33):
But he was up there.

Speaker 1 (01:33:34):
I we bysd with Dustin for about half an hour
at the bar, had a beer, and hung out.

Speaker 2 (01:33:38):
Dorothy and I and him. So that was fun.

Speaker 1 (01:33:39):
But we're gonna give away two custom jerseys when we
hit four thousand subscribers. We'll do a CFL one and
the UFL or we can do see it doesn't matter
to me, but we'll do two. So if you are like,
I don't I want to STFL, we can do all that.
But that's again I got I mean, he's already on
board and it's it's a great giveaway for me because
then he can just ship them right out to you.
You know, you can get custom whatever you want. I'll

(01:34:00):
cover all the costs and he'll ship it right out.
So like and subscribe if you want to be a
part of that. And then we're kind of TBD right now.
Once we get back into regular you know, kind of
preseason UFL probably in the new year, we'll be doing
the regular kind of weekly episodes, but right now it's
just whenever news came out.

Speaker 2 (01:34:17):
I was traveling a lot this summer.

Speaker 1 (01:34:19):
We kind of did the tail end of the CFL
through the Great Cup, but like, I wasn't home a
Monday or Friday like any of September October, so it
was hard to get all that done.

Speaker 2 (01:34:30):
But we're back on the horse now, John, anything else
fround the plug? No.

Speaker 3 (01:34:33):
I just really appreciate you having me on. It's always
good to talk to you about all things UFL and
everything else.

Speaker 2 (01:34:39):
All Right, everyone, take care, let's go cracking. Let's go.
Who do we got is this age? We need chargers tonight.
We need Andy Murray, So we're pro.

Speaker 3 (01:34:48):
Chargers, pro chargers. Okay, I'll go with it.

Speaker 2 (01:34:51):
All right, We'll see you guys. John, Thanks, and we'll
see you next time.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

The Herd with Colin Cowherd

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}BREAKING: UFL Launches Expansion Process for 2026 and Beyond!

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

The Herd with Colin Cowherd

All Episodes

BREAKING: UFL Launches Expansion Process for 2026 and Beyond!

Stuff You Should Know