Daryl Johnston Cites Caitlin Clark in Disappointing UFL Attendance
UFL executive Daryl “Moose” Johnston admitted the league was “disappointed” with attendance at games for the inaugural season, citing women's basketball star Caitlin Clark among other factors in the struggles to get fans into stadiums.
The league’s executive vice president of football operations and Dallas Cowboys legend also pointed to the UFL’s short ramp up as a main reason for the relative lack people of in stands while praising TV ratings an interview with Fox 4 in Dallas-Fort Worth.
“I think we were all probably a little bit disappointed, especially in the attendance,” Johnston said. “The TV numbers are fantastic and I think that’s one the things. I think we were insulated with TV because of the merger coming together late.
“I think we were an entity for 72 days when we kicked off on our first game, so the fact that we were late, the fact that we had competition in the market for people to attend the games was challenging, but what the broadcast does and the transparency and the way we push the envelope with technology, I think the viewer at home really enjoys the presentation that we put on.”
The UFL averaged nearly 1.6 million viewers for its championship game between the Birmingham Stallions and San Antonio Brahmas on FOX and reached 32 million unique viewers over the course of the season.
On the attendance side, UFL's 43 games from late March through mid-June averaged 13,512 fans, with the overall number at 581,016. That fell short of what the XFL did in 2023.
“Getting people to go to the games this year was a bit of a challenge and I think we need to own a little bit of that because we were late with the merger, we were late with the schedule, there were things that go on,” Johnston added.
“We’re in a very competitive environment when you talk about spring sports – soccer continues to grow in this country, Caitlin Clark is a phenom that kind of swept the spring athletic scene, so there is a lot of different things our there challenging and competing for eyes, so when you talk about ratings it was good, but the attendance is the one we’ve got to get figured out.”
Johnston made similar comments in May about the UFL being to blame for the attendance issues in Year 1 of the merged XFL and USFL.
He does expect 2025 to be a better gauge when it comes to butts in seats. The addition of Friday night games, better time slots and better understanding of other events in local markets, plus having more time to plan, should help attendance next season, he said.
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