The second year of the UFL did not match the first year.
Via Ben Fischer of _Sports Business Journal_, the UFL’s in-person attendance was down by five percent in 2025. The TV audience [dropped by a whopping 20 percent](https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/sb-blogs/newsletter-football/2025/06/05/?publicationSource=newsletters&utm_source=sbj&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=utmCampaignPlaceholder).
Attendance in all markets was down, except one. Michigan had a 30.4-percent bump, to 11,681 fans per game. Memphis took a 42.1 percent nosedive.
Even St. Louis was down, by 14 percent. The Battlehawks games averaged 29,537 per game.
TV performance was affected in part by the shift of the weekly Fox game to Friday nights, thanks to the network’s F1 contract.
The UFL insists that it’s in it for the long haul. Still, the trend is not good. Next year becomes critical to projecting the league’s long-term viability.