The UFL is off to a solid start.
Yes, the attendance leaves something to be desired, in every city except St. Louis. The TV ratings are solid, especially given the competition.
Via Mike Mitchell of SI.com, the four UFL games for Week 2 had average viewership of 842,000. It’s a 38-percent bump over the average viewership of the XFL and USFL for their Week 2 ratings a year ago.
On Saturday, San Antonio at Memphis averaged 718,000 viewers on ESPN. Arlington at St. Louis drew 908,000.
On Sunday, Birmingham at Michigan drew 903,000 on ESPN. Houston at D.C. on Fox got 849,000 viewers.
The Houston-D.C. game started at 4:00 p.m. ET, putting it up against the women’s NCAA basketball championship, which averaged 18.7 million viewers.
None of the Week 2 games cracked seven figures. Two of the Week 1 games did.
Next week, there’s no college basketball. Which should help.
What ultimately will help even more is the creation and cultivation of star players. Guys people will tune in to watch.
Of course, that would be temporary. Anyone who stands out in the UFL will end up in the NFL, quickly.
That’s still the challenge. Folks tune in for stars. If the UFL hopes to thrive, it needs them.
