UFL relocating teams to Columbus, Louisville, Orlando amid sweeping changes

The United Football League (UFL) is moving into three new markets among sweeping changes to its organization ahead of its 2026 season.

The UFL's new franchises will be located in Columbus, Ohio; Louisille, Kentucky; and Orlando, Florida. They will be known as the Columbus Aviators, Louisville Kings and Orlando Storm.

The trio of new teams will replace the Memphis Showboats, Michigan Panthers and San Antonio Brahmas, which the UFL announced would be relocated on Friday, Oct. 3.

The league did not immediately provide information about which franchises would relocate to each city and whether staff and players would be retained as part of the relocation process.

The relocations are all a part of the UFL's plan for sustained growth, which involves playing at more appropriately sized stadiums as league co-owner Mike Repole explained in an interview with USA TODAY Sports.

"In building what I want from this new era of the United Football League, it's about market, and then it has to be stadium," Repole said.

Why UFL chose Columbus, Louisville, Orlando for relocation

Columbus, Louisville and Orlando all checked the boxes Repole and the UFL were looking for in evaluating potential replacements for Memphis, Michigan and San Antonio.

"We wanted markets that were either college towns or had one or two or no professional sports teams that were big cities and big sports cities," Repole explained.

Additionally, all three expansion markets have stadiums that seat between 15,000 and 25,000 at which the teams will play.

Repole believes that will make it easier for the UFL to fill stadiums. That will make for not only a better game-day experience for fans on-hand, but it will also improve the look of the broadcast for the league's partners at Fox and ESPN.

"Even though the stadium is smaller, the platform will be bigger because it's going to be a sold-out stadium," Repole said.

Repole is also hoping the three new markets – and the UFL in general – can capitalize on attracting talent that played collegiately in each market to energize each fan base.

Could that involve assigning players with local market ties to teams throughout the league? Repole described a "regional priority" system during which teams might have a right of first refusal for players who played collegiately within a certain radius of each market.

"If there's a player that played for Ohio State, you can bet that they're going to be playing on the Columbus Aviators," Repole said.

Such a system has not yet been established but seems likely to be a part of the UFL's future.

How Columbus Aviators, Louisville Kings got their names

Repole gave brief explanations for the UFL's choice of the Aviators and Kings as Columbus and Louisville's monikers.

"The Wright brothers are from Dayton," Repole explained, describing Columbus' nickname. "And NetJets headquarters is in Columbus, so the Aviators made sense to me."

Meanwhile, Repole – who is the owner of Repole Stables, a a horse-racing operation that has produced multiple Breeders' Cup and Belmont Stakes winners – wanted Louisville's name to pay tribute to the city's storied tradition of horse racing.

"The Stallions was taken for the state of Kentucky, so I went with Kings," Repole said. "Horse racing is known as the sport of Kings, [so there's a] little connection there."

Repole did not provide additional details about choosing the "Storm" moniker for Orlando, but expressed excitement about bringing spring football to the city.

"The city of Orlando has changed," he said. "It's more than just Mickey and Minnie and Disney World."

UFL announces rebrands of Arlington Renegades, Houston Roughnecks

In addition to the relocations, the UFL also announced rebranding of two of its teams.

The Arlington Renegades will be renamed the Dallas Renegades to "reflect the team’s North Texas fanbase."

Meanwhile, the Houston Roughnecks will be redubbed the Houston Gamblers, a nod to one of the original USFL franchises from the 1980s.

"The Gamblers in Houston, I think its iconic," Repole said, also referencing Buffalo Bills legend Jim Kelly's time playing for the team.

The two Texas-based teams will also play at new stadiums in 2026, with the Renegades moving to Toyota Stadium – home of MLS club FC Dallas – and the Gamblers shifting to Shell Energy Stadium, home of MLS' Houston Dynamo.

The changes of venue can be described summarily by Repole's mantra for the new-look UFL.

"Market with stadium. I mean, that's it," Repole said. "That's the formula."

UFL to nix XFL, USFL conferences in 2026

During its first two years as a unified spring league, the UFL operated with two divisions: the XFL and USFL conferences.

In 2026, the league is doing away with these separate, four-team conferences. Instead, they will play as one, unified division of eight teams, with the top four teams facing off in postseason play.

The goal of that change, as Repole described, is to avoid having once conference vastly outperform the other but still only be able to send two teams to the postseason.

"I want this to be fair, and we're excited," Repole said.

The 56-year-old entrepreneur was unconcerned about the potential for an unbalanced schedule, given that certain teams will play just once and others will play twice.

UFL teams 2026

To recap the changes, these are the eight teams expected to compete in the UFL during the 2026 season: