The UFL’s labor drama is finally over, five weeks into its second season.
The league and its union signed a new collective bargaining agreement on Monday, ending months of negotiations that included a preseason quarterback holdout and talks of a strike at various points. The agreement will run through the 2026 season.
“We have reached a Collective Bargaining Agreement with the UFPA,” UFL president Russ Brandon said in a release. “We look forward to continuing to work with our players to grow professional spring football at the UFL.”
The new CBA includes a $7,005 raise on minimum salaries—or around 12%—bringing them to just over $62,000 and is retroactive to the start of training camp, which opened in early March. The raise includes a $400 housing stipend. The salary increase is for all players who participate in the league’s 10 regular-season games and makes all players eligible for year-round health care. The minimum salary will increase to $64,000 for the start of the 2026 season.
The two sides originally came to an agreement in mid-April, but it needed approval from the UFL’s board, which consists of Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks (the network owns half the league) and fellow co-owners Gerry Cardinale of RedBird Capital Partners, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and his ex-wife, Dany Garcia.
Other benefits negotiated into the new CBA include expanded roster sizes and player bonuses for year-end awards.
The league is entering its second season after the USFL and XFL merged. The UFL is the latest attempt to establish a spring football league after the short-lived Alliance of American Football folded in 2019.
The UFL drew promising ratings in its inaugural season with an average of 816,000 viewers tuning in to the league’s 40 regular-season games with six games reaching over 1 million. But ratings are down 33% three weeks into this current season.
Editors’ note: RedBird IMI, of which RedBird Capital Partners is a joint venture partner, is the majority owner of Front Office Sports.
