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Week 3 UFL Results, Standings, Attendance

April 15, 2024 by CollegeFootballPoll.com Staff

The future of the UFL depends on two things - bodies in seats and eyes on screens.

Ratings are doing OK, which is kind of strange given that four of the eight teams are all in Texas and the other four are in Michigan, Tennessee (Memphis), Alabama (Birmingham, and the nation's capital (DC). There aren't any teams in the west or the northeast.

Low attendance has afflicted the league from the outset and has been dropping weekly, despite a pretty good product on the field with many recognizable names. The league was formed from a merger of two spring football leagues that had been battling each other - the UFL and more successful XFL. Each former league retained 4 of its 8 franchises in the new formation and have their own conference within the league.

Both the USFL and XFL have performed quite well at getting players a shot at NFL rosters, but they've mostly been added to practice squads. For example, USFL Championship-winning QB Alex McGough, who played college ball at FIU, signed with the Packers after last season. No one expects to see McGough in place of Jordan Love.

As of the final week of NFL play in January, there were 23 players that had moved top the NFL from XFL 2023 rosters, and 16 from the USFL. Additionally, 16 players from the XFL's 2020 reboot season were still on NFL teams.

So far, the XFL/USFL and now UFL are no competition for the NFL draft decisions of the Packers or any other club.

Fox and ABC/ESPN are doing their best to promote the league since they hold majority interest. National Spring Football League Enterprises LLC (Fox Corporation) was owned the USFL and has an outright 50% stake in the UFL after the league was formed from a merger with the XFL. ABC took the financial load off XFL Properties LLC which was a consortium of RedBird Capital Partners, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and his former wife Dany Garcia. All of those entities combined now have the other 50% stake.

The group is looking for outside investors to share in the capital risk, and hopefully profit from the venture.

Attendance

Week 3 attendance was nothing to write home about at any of the four home stadiums.

Michigan opened the 10-game regular season with 3 straight home games and has drawn the worst attendance figures each of the past two weeks. The Panthers had 9,444 on opening weekend, followed by 7,475 in week 2, and a dismal 6,952 on Sunday. The team is 2-1.

San Antonio had 11,790 fans at the Alamodome after drawing 13,164 in its home opener.

Birmingham, which won both USFL season championships and is off to a 3-0 start in the UFL, drew just 12,265 for its home opener.

Arlington, which had 13,164 on opening weekend, saw a precipitous drop to just 8,411 for its second home game.

St. Louis is, by far, the league attendance leader with a modern-day Spring Football League record of 40,317 showing up for last week's game. The Battlehawks will get their second home game this Saturday when they host Memphis.

UFL Standings

Here is how the league breaks down, and the standings after Week 3:

XFL Conference

Team	Won	Lost	Pct.	PF	PA	Home	Road	Conf.	Streak
St. Louis Battlehawks	2	1	.667	74	66	1-0	1-1	2-0	W2
San Antonio Brahmas	2	1	.667	71	62	1-1	1-0	1-1	L1
DC Defenders	2	1	.667	64	73	1-0	1-1	1-1	W2
Arlington Renegades	0	3	.000	66	83	0-2	0-1	0-2	L3

USFL Conference

Team	Won	Lost	Pct.	PF	PA	Home	Road	Conf.	Streak
Birmingham Stallions	3	0	1.000	80	41	1-0	2-0	2-0	W3
Michigan Panthers	2	1	.667	65	56	2-1	0-0	1-1	W1
Memphis Showboats	1	2	.333	51	65	0-1	1-1	1-1	L2
Houston Roughnecks	0	3	.000	50	75	0-1	0-2	0-2	L3

Week 3 Results (Home Team in BOLD:

Saturday
DC 29, Arlington 28
Birmingham 33, Memphis 14

Sunday
St. Louis 31, San Antonio 24
Michigan 34, Houston 20

Week 4 Games

*Check local listings for market regionalization

Week 3 Game Recaps

(Sunday at San Antonio) St. Louis 31, San Antonio 24 - Three straight thrillers through the first three weeks of the 2024 UFL season. That’s what the San Antonio Brahmas (2-1, 1-1 XFL) have managed to orchestrate. The first two weeks ended with wins and a 2-0 start. Sunday at the Alamodome, the Brahmas came close to staying undefeated but the St. Louis Battlehawks (2-1, 2-0 XFL) held off a fourth quarter rally to defeat San Antonio, 31-24.

SEE: Brahmas’ Rally Falls Short in 31-24 Loss to St. Louis Battlehawks

(Sunday at Detroit) Michigan 34, Houston 20 - Michigan's Jake Bates kicked a 55-yard field goal as time expired in the first half for a 12-11 lead at the break, and ran away with it in the second half. The Panthers extended their lead to 34-14 with 8 seconds left in the 3rd period. Last week, Bates kicked a 62-yarder as time ran out in the first half. On opening weekend, he made a walk-off 64-yard field goal.

SEE: Roughnecks fall short to Panthers

New to the Pro Football Hall of Fame:

The official game ball that @jakebates30 of the @USFLPanthers kicked for a 64-yard field goal during the opening weekend of @TheUFL.

Full story: https://t.co/Cw2I81CuV6 pic.twitter.com/67vjP2nokR
— Pro Football Hall of Fame (@ProFootballHOF) April 12, 2024

(Saturday at Arlington) DC 29, Arlington 28 - In a rematch of the 2023 XFL Championship Game, the Arlington Renegades (0-3) failed to clinch their first win of the season on Saturday afternoon as they fell to the D.C. Defenders (2-1), 29-28, at Choctaw Stadium. The total attendance for the game was 8,411.

Arlington Drops Heartbreaker at Home; D.C. Comes Back to Keep Renegades Winless

(Saturday at Birmingham) Birmingham 33, Memphis 14 - Birmingham's domination of the league continued as the Stallions' defense had 8 sacks and limited the Showboats to just 20 rushing yards for the game. Adrian Martinez was 18-of-28 for 344 yards as he threw for 2 touchdowns and ran for another. Deon Cain led the receivers with 144 yards.

SEE: Birmingham Stallions Ride Past the Showboats in Impressive Home Open