UFL Coming to a City Near You: Possible Expansion in the Cards for the UFL

Since you are here on this blog, you can not get enough spring football like me. Good news for you, the United Football League seems to be amassing the possibility of expansion in 2025 and beyond. In March, USFL Enterprises LLC filed for two new trademarks for possible teams. The Canton (or Ohio) Bulldogs and the Nashville Tuners are both being acquired by the company which has got UFL thinking, when is the UFL expanding? And where will these new teams call home? With the UFL being a hodgepodge of the USFL and XFL 3.0, there are many different paths the UFL could take to expand.

Starting with the recently defunct teams of each league. There are so many amazing options to choose from, the USFL discontinued the use of the New Jersey Generals (as a native New Jerseyan, please bring them back), the Philadelphia Stars, the Pittsburgh Maulers, the New Orleans Breakers, and the Tampa Bay Bandits (now the Memphis Showboats).

On the XFL side of things, we got to see the Seattle Sea Dragons, Vegas Vipers, and Orlando/New York (2019) Guardians as well as the Los Angeles Wildcats from XFL 2.0 shutdown coming into this year. These teams already have fanbases so they may be easier to bring back rather than creating a new fanbase entirely. If the United Football League decides a different route the defunct teams from the original leagues could be used as well.

The original XFL, which was in operation for the 2001 season has the rights to Chicago Enforcers, Orlando Rage, Las Vegas Outlaws, Los Angeles Xtreme, and San Francisco Demons in their back pocket if they felt a throwback was needed.

On the USFL side, all of the teams that are being used today are original franchises from the 1980s but they could still add teams like the Arizona Wranglers, Chicago Blitz, Denver Gold, Jacksonville Bulls, Los Angeles Express, and Oakland Invaders to their arsenal if needed.

The point is, there are almost too many options for the UFL going forward, the speculative plan moving forward would be to expand to 12 teams in 2025 and then 16 in 2026. There is no basis to this but it has been hinted at by officials within the league with even DC Defenders Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams saying that the league will go from 8 to 12 and then 16 in the coming years.

I do not know about you, but that makes me excited! I hope to be seeing a franchise coming to either New Jersey or New York soon and me and my Dad will be first in line for season tickets. If it were up to me, I would bring back the New Jersey Generals and Seattle Sea Dragons while adding the proposed Canton Bulldogs and Nashville Tuners. There are many details to shift through like where the team would play and whether there would be enough support in those markets among other issues but I hope and wish this league stays successful so it can keep growing!

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