UFL to Relocate Teams Ahead of 2026 Season

S. Samek

Big offseason news from the UFL. It has announced that four of the teams will be up for relocating for the 2026 season.

Memphis, Michigan, Birmingham and Houston were the four teams chosen to be relocated. Kentucky, Columbus, Boise and Florida were the four markets chosen to receive relocated teams. No word yet on if the teams will receive new team names, or not.

The teams chosen to relocate are an interesting mix. Memphis makes sense as low attendance and poor on-field performance didn’t help their cause to stay. Houston also wasn’t growing .

Yet you have Birmingham who are three-time defending champions, but only average 8,800 in attendance. Michigan had a great season finishing as UFL runners up this year. However, it seems like them playing home games at Ford Field is getting too expensive to maintain. Though they didn’t see attendance drop like every other team in the league did this year.

However, if that’s the case why relocate Michigan? Why not find a cheaper, or smaller venue in the area? Keep the fan base you already have established and not try and start at square one in a new city.

It’s a bit concerning that they already are relocating teams. Is this a good faith effort to keep the league thriving or is this trying to limit losses? Is the UFL not doing as well as people think?

I do want to give them some credit for trying something. Yet it feels like they are giving up rather quickly. I mean it’s only been two seasons sense the XFL/USFL merger and now your switching locations on half your teams what is that about? It doesn’t scream out stability now does it. If they want to build the fan bases, wouldn’t it be better to keep them in the same market and offer that stability? Would make sense to me.

I’m interested in continuing to follow this story and see which locations receive which teams. It should be interesting to see if the move works for, or against the UFL. It should be a busy offseason reguadless.