OT: Can the Houston Roughnecks Survive?

Football
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For the first 3 home games, the Houston Roughnecks haven’t had 10,000 fans. Roughneck attendance in 2025:

St. Louis - 7,124
Birmingham - 6,613
Memphis - 4,234

These numbers include paid and comp tickets. The weather certainly wasn’t a factor for today’s low attendance.

The Roughnecks have a small but fervent fan base, but I am sensing we are seeing a slow death of the UFL in Houston.

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That 4200 is really really generous. I went today and there couldnt have been more than 1000 people there.

Best chance for UFL teams is to be in non-NFL cities.

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Too big of a facility - play that at the rugby field or a nice hs stadium in a burb where people may come out to - treat it like minor league baseball

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4

Most of the teams in the league the games look empty.

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The talent and the hype isn’t as good as it was the first season they played.

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It’s Minor League Football no matter how they try and portray it. The WFL and USFL with some established stars couldn’t make it. Copy MiLB, move it to small markets and might make it on a much smaller scale. Forget about trying to broadcast it on major TV, fans are not going to watch Minor League Ball…MiLB has been around for 125 years, follow their lead

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I’ll occasionally turn on some of these games if I’m hanging out in the pool and just want something on I don’t really have to pay attention to. The one time I tried to actually watch a game I couldn’t make myself care.

I can usually watch any level of football and be entertained. For some reason I just don’t care about the minor league. The one exception was the San Antonio team with Ward and Farrow.

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Their head coach is doing them no favors. He’s won NOWHERE.

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really woulda thought houston woulda supported them better being a pro city and football state, houston has pro sports standards of what they will support; i’m suprised.

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XFL 2 before Covid was the best shot at Spring Football there was. The energy and excitement not just in Houston but in all the other stadiums was unmatched.

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I agree with that. COVID destroyed what was probably the best shot at creating a new pro league in the USA.

That said.

I realize that attendance is bad, but how are the TV ratings for this new league?

I ask that because I wonder if the league could still survive based on its ratings and ad dollars.

I’m guessing the answer is no, but I don’t have the data.

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The thing that hurts these leagues is QB play there aren’t enough good QB’s for the NFL and these minor leagues are worse.

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Actually, after doing a few searches, it appears that ratings are declining as well.

The future doesn’t look good at this point.

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Simple answer…NO

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Spring football is out of place and boring no one has interest in spring football

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These leagues can’t play in the fall because the NFL and college football occupy too much attention even the NBA struggles for eyeballs until football season is over.

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I go back to the WFL days in 1974 when the Houston Texans, the original Houston Texans, played in the Astrodome and the head coach was Jim Garrett, Jason Garrett’s dad. The franchise was a mess. The owner had financial difficulty and sold the team mid season, and the team moved mid-season to Shreveport, LA.

The WFL Texans were short lived but they did have two former UH players. RBs Paul Gipson and Warren McVea both played, but were hampered with injuries.

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There are a couple of things going against the Roughnecks. First, moving to Rice for a season really hurt any idea of starting a tradition. The fans they do have didn’t go to Rice and aren’t going this season. But the second thing that is hurting the entire league is the start of the season. They moved the start to March 28, two years ago it started on Feb 18th. Feb to May was the sweet spot. NFL just ended, NBA playoffs hadn’t started and baseball hadn’t started. It was the perfect time to get eyeballs and more importantly for this discussion, give something for people to bet on. With the later start, you are competing with too much to gain any traction.

The hope for the UFL is to become an official minor league for the NFL. The NFL has stated they want a league, but don’t want to create it on their own. UFL is talking expansion, so maybe they know something we don’t.

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The only way one of these leagues ever makes it is if they’re farm teams of the NFL teams and in markets where there’s no NFL. They’ll have to have full NFL Support and TV dollars. NFL Europe which spun off the World League didn’t make it because nobody here cares about teams based in Europe. Doubt this UFL or whatever its called now is around next year. I’ve tried to watch it, can’t get into it.

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I like watching spring football because, well, I like football. But it’s clear that a lot of people simply aren’t interested. The Roughnecks haven’t come close to drawing the crowds they did when they first started, pre-pandemic.

I do think the quality of play is an issue. Sloppy, lots of incomplete passes, lots of penalties, etc. The product just isn’t that great. Another problem (which a poster above pointed out) is that the season starts too late. Right after the Super Bowl is the best time to do it because after the NFL playoffs people might still have a “taste” for more football; by the time March rolls around people have moved on to other sports.

I wasn’t able to go to last Saturday’s Roughnecks game, but I’ll try to make at least one more game before the end of the season. It may be the last time I get to see these guys.