Besides restructuring for Season 3, the league worked with FOX and ESPN over the past six months to instal permanent fiber connectivity at five new venuesThe quest to solve the spring-football conundrum enters its latest chapter this weekend with the kickoff of the UFL's third season. The league, which joins the mid-1980s' USFL as the longest-running spring league, made some big changes in the offseason and is bullish on the future.
As part of a major structural overhaul - which involved three new teams, several renamed teams, and the shift from two conferences to a united eight-team league - UFL will be playing this season in smaller, more intimate soccer venues in all eight cities. With each venue having a capacity of roughly 20,000 or less, the league seeks to bring fans closer to the action on the field and create a better in-venue experience.
In our third full season, says Scott Harniman, SVP, media and innovation, UFL, it's apparent that this league is well-established and here to stay. So we focused on identifying new markets and new venues that we could build long-term relationships with. That includes being able to make our mark and our presence felt as a primary' tenant in the stadium.
With that in mind, the league set out six months ago to install permanent infrastructure at its five new venues (the three stadiums from previous seasons already have the necessary infrastructure).
Besides New Infrastructure, a New Culture as Well
First and foremost, UFL leadership approved a major investment in both resources and capital to install wholly new cabling at all these venues to meet the league's specific broadcast needs. Most stadiums required more than 400 fiber runs and the installation of seven to 10 new JBT boxes. The new infrastructure will serve media partners ESPN and FOX and allow the broadcasters to enhance their coverage moving forward.
A lot of the credit goes to our new owner, Mike Repole, who was extremely passionate about playing football in smaller, multipurpose venues and getting fans closer than ever to the game, says Harniman. We knew right away that these venues, which weren't built for shooting football, would need some enhancements.
The goal was to create a not only a sustainable infrastructure but also a new culture around UFL productions. In the past, spring-football leagues had to beg, borrow, and supplement from venue to venue, according to Harniman. In some stadiums, ESPN and FOX needed an additional setup day just to roll out all the fiber needed to support the broadcasts of the five UFL games played there.
To complicate things more, he notes, in most cases, we could not leave anything permanently installed. It wasn't efficient or sustainable, but the investment didn't make much sense at the time either.
Outfitting Soccer Stadium for Football Broadcasts
To be easily identified by the UFL operations team, JBT boxes were installed in specific locations on the field and in the broadcast booths at each venue.Harniman knew this had to change if UFL broadcasts were going to thrive in the long term. With the greenlight from Repole and league leaders, he and his team immediately contacted the media partners and began conducting stadium assessments in fall/winter 2025.
We quickly saw a pattern that had developed, he explains. It wasn't that there was a lack of fiber and SMPTE at these venues. They were not in the places we needed them or in the volume we required.
With the help of Brad Cheney, VP, field operations and engineering, FOX Sports, the UFL created an RFP and shared it with each venue to begin gathering bids. However, given the tight window before season kickoff, this was no simple ask for fiber vendors. In some cases, vendors had just six to eight weeks to install upwards of 444 strands of fiber in various locations at field level, in locker rooms, and centrally in press and broader areas.
These are huge shows, notes Harniman. I think there is a misconception about the level of broadcast for the UFL. Between the camera complements that vary in number from show to show and the game-day technology my team supports, this is a huge production. Comparatively, it's not a stretch to point to MNF or a Big Noon FOX game.
For installation in the specific venues, the UFL selected The Hamilton Group for Dallas Renegades/Toyota Stadium (Frisco, TX), ComResource for Columbus Aviators/Historic Crew Stadium, Qbits Communications for Houston Gamblers/Shell Energy Stadium, Delta Service for Louisville Kings/Lynn Family Stadium, and ITIT for Orlando Storm/Inter&Co Stadium. The league's other three existing teams/venues - Birmingham Stallions/Protective Stadium, DC Defenders/Audi Field, and St. Louis Battlehawks/The Dome at America's Center - did not require additional fiber to be installed.
To be efficient with time and cost, the UFL and its partners attempted to tie into existing conduits and cable trays, but, in some cases, this wasn't possible. So the league worked with the vendors to find alternative paths.
For example, the team decided early on to identify key centralized locations on the field and in the broadcast booths so that new JBT boxes would be easily identifiable for the UFL. All the cables needed to be terminated directly to the truck I/O, which raised unique challenges based on locations, size, and access.
Consolidating cabling into centralized locations with the ability to extend to where we needed it not only saved us time and money but also allowed all of us to get what we needed, says Harniman. We purposefully over-indexed on the number of strands we ran to the field and to booths. In this way, we set the table to add more cameras and more options for innovation.
An example of this ability to expand is the addition of Sportable as the UFL's Official Conne
