UFL Kickoff Offers Latest Hope for Spring Football

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fierce media rivals like ESPN and Fox Sports aren’t often eager to see the other do well. But the competitors may be cheering one another this weekend. Fox and ESPN will this weekend each broadcast two games from the new — depending on how one looks at it — UFL, a league that has been built out of the former USFL and its rival, the XFL.

Fox will offer up both the Birmingham Stallions taking on the Arlington Renegades, and the St. Louis Battlehawks tackling the Michigan Panthers. ESPN on Sunday will showcase the D.C.

Defenders squaring off against the San Antonio Brahmas as well as the Memphis Showboats vying with Houston Roughnecks. Over the course of the season some UFL games will run on ABC. There is hope that a combined league can help spring football take root with American sports fans after several years of failed attempts.

“The merger helps with the football,” says Bryan Jaroch, a coordinating producer at ESPN who helps manage the spring coverage. “The athleticism is better,” he adds, because the new league will feature the best that its predecessors had to offer. There’s more at stake than ratings when it comes to the UFL.

Both outlets want to lure younger crowds, who are the target of UFL productions that feature more video and audio access to players, coaches and officials, as well as, at least in ESPN’s case, constant updates about sports-betting opportunities. They will have to so in greater coordination with one another. Previously, Fox broadcast USFL games in conjunction with NBC, while ESPN spotlighted XFL match-ups on parent company Disney’s FX cable network.