The Birmingham Stallions are gone, and the way the UFL delivered the news left a lot of Alabama football fans feeling brushed aside.
Mike Repole, who now has control of the league through his firm, Impact Capital, said the move was tied to the venue situation in Birmingham. In a statement, he laid that decision at the feet of the stadium setup and local leadership.
"With Birmingham, this decision was 100% due to the wrong sized venue. I appreciate the passion of the fans and respect the history of the Birmingham Stallions.
It was clearly my decision that with the wrong sized venue spring football could not succeed in Birmingham. Even on opening day, when 16,000 Stallions fans showed up, the energy, passion, and game atmosphere was not felt due to the size of the venue.
We've been transparent with local mayors and city leadership that we'd love to return as soon as the right stadium solution becomes available, and we are willing to participate in accelerating those efforts," Repole said in a statement.
The announcement came through matching emails sent to the Stallions and Gamblers mailing lists, a very corporate way to break the news that one of the league’s biggest brands was being pulled from the map.
For Birmingham, the timing stings. The Stallions had won three spring football championships in a row, including the 2024 title game against the San Antonio Brahmas in the first season of the merged UFL.
But the momentum around the team had already started to slip. Attendance at Protective Stadium was lower than it should have been for a team with that kind of run, and the loss of GM Zach Potter to the Sacramento State Hornets before the 2025 season was the first sign the operation was changing.
Then Skip Holtz left before the 2026 season, and the decline became harder to ignore.
Repole had been signaling this outcome for about a year, and the move now makes official what had been hanging over the franchise for months.
The fallout reaches well beyond Birmingham. Auburn Tigers and Alabama Crimson Tide fans were part of the Stallions’ base, along with UAB Blazers, Jacksonville State Gamecocks, Troy Trojans, and South Alabama Jaguars fans.
The stands did not always fill up, but there was still plenty of orange, blue, crimson, and white in the building on game day, and that support helped Birmingham become the UFL’s No. 1 TV market.
Now those fans are left deciding whether they want any part of what comes next. Repole’s handling of the exit has only made that harder, especially with the blame pushed toward the city. For a lot of people in Alabama, there may be little reason to follow the Stallions wherever they land next.