Declared before the United Football League’s first 2024 season, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson said the new spring football league will be successful and he was right.
Friday marks the United Football League (UFL) return for its second season when the St. Louis Battlehawks play the Houston Roughnecks in Texas.
Taking place during the NFL offseason, the football league concluded its first season last June with a record-breaking event that exceeded audience expectations and confirmed Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s bold declaration.
Last June’s UFL Championship Game had the San Antonio Brahmas go head-to-head with the Birmingham Stallions, averaging 1.60 million on FOX. Since the 2001 XFL’s “Million Dollar Game,” where NBC drew 2.91 million people, the game grabbed the title for most-watched spring football championship.
Notwithstanding a one-sided affair whereby the Stallions readily secured their third consecutive pro football championship over the Brahmas with a decisive 25-0 victory, the outstanding number of spectators tuning in is still an encouraging sign for the league.
Particularly, the championship audience for last year shows a notable 38 percent increase from the USFL final game between the Pittsburgh Maulers and Stallions that attracted 1.6 million viewers on NBC. It even represented an 11 percent rise beyond the 1.44 million ABC viewers who saw the Arlington Renegades’ 2023 XFL Championship game against the D.C. Defenders.
With a 30% rise in viewership over its predecessors, the XFL and USFL, in 2022 the UFL Championship Game marked the end of a prosperous season for the just established league. While the conference championship games received 1.18 million viewers, the regular season’s average across major networks was 816,000.
The XFL and USFL came together to create the UFL, and the league has showed encouraging indicators of ongoing viability. Key member of the UFL ownership consortium Johnson voiced his optimism for the league’s future in an ESPN interview last year.
“I think it’s going to work out; we have a real shot with this now that we have combined XFL and USFL to produce UFL,” he remarked. “Last season, we had fantastic success with the XFL; USFL on their side also had some very outstanding results.
“Put my hands in the dirt, that was my desire as a man who simply loves a game of football. Nothing like this happened for me. Now, though, when life circles around, we may create these chances.
A shoulder injury ended Johnson’s college career even though he played football at the University of Miami. He sympathizes with UFL players going through similar hardships since he never made it into the NFL.
“Fifty-three men on an NFL roster; I always ranked number 54. “DJ, you’re good; if you were a little better, if you had more experience then you would have made it,'” he added. “We offer that kind of experience. Being a No. 54 produced an enduring chip on my shoulder. The players that show up here are using that chip.