Canadian Football Insider Responds to SI.com’s UFL Article, Comparing UFL to CFL

SI.com’s Mike Mitchell made waves in the spring football world with his article last week, which said that some within the UFL believe the 2025 season is a make-or-break year for the league. This caught the attention of some in Canada.

On Friday, TSN’s Dave Naylor appeared on Ottawa 1200 The Drive to share his thoughts on Mitchell’s report. He wasn’t too surprised to hear about it.

“I’m not shocked. I haven’t read the Mike Mitchell report. I’m not shocked to hear that. I don’t think anybody should be given the economic history of spring football and the number of remakes and redos and just how hard it is to get traction and interest in a sport like that in the spring. As popular as the NFL and college football are, it have never translated to special developmental football. It goes way, way back to the original USFL that played spring football, but they were competing for players with the NFL. It was a talent comparison between the two leagues. “

Mitchell stated in his article that the league believes the TV ratings they received last year represented the floor and should see an increase next year. They are expecting a boost in local and national sponsorships, and if it doesn’t happen, the UFL could see its demise after the 2025 season.

The competition between American spring football and the Canadian Football League has been ongoing since 2020 with the leagues competing for talent. Despite Naylor believing Canadian and American talent are close, there is a difference between the business structures of the CFL and the UFL.

“I think the primary difference between spring football and CFL, and God I hope the CFL never goes there, is that those are development leagues. Those leagues are in the business of developing players to try to make the National Football League. That is not the business of the CFL. Some players could use it that way, but the mission of the CFL is that nine teams are competing for a Grey Cup. That, period. It’s not developmental football. But those leagues are. You’re not going to have players playing in the UFL for five, six, seven or 10 years like you do in the CFL. You’re going to see guys there a few seasons at a time. They either want it to happen in the NFL or move on to the CFL.”

This is a point of view that the UFL is trying to move away from it as they don’t want the league to be seen as a developmental league.

In February, UFL executive vice president of football operations Daryl Johnston stated, “We don’t like to be considered a G League or developmental league. We want to be a standalone professional league that creates an alternative route for guys to get to the NFL.”

If the UFL can’t survive, Naylor did say there is an opportunity for the CFL to take advantage of the UFL’s best market: St. Louis.

“Here’s what I’m curious about and if this league does go the way of the dodo bird, I would be very curious to see if anybody makes this a real thing. They got a team in that league that draws like 35,000 a game in St. Louis? How are we doing on finding the tenth team in the CFL team within Canada? Not so well. I think it would behoove the Canadian Football League to try to add St. Louis as its 10th franchise if that league went down.”

The CFL has been averaging roughly between 18k and 22k fans per game this season, with the BC Lions having the highest-attended game with 53,788. St. Louis averaged 35,104 fans per game last year.

While we are far away from conversations regarding the UFL’s survival level, the league will be focused on growing the marketing within its markets and preparing for an all-important 2025 campaign.

You can follow Anthony Miller on X @ByAnthonyMiller.

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