At a press conference on Tuesday, the UFL is expected to announce the return of Spring Football to the city of Orlando, three years after an ugly divorce.

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The city of Orlando is no stranger when it comes to these spring leagues, looking to take advantage of the fever that the American sports fans have for the sport and the largest television market sans an NFL franchise.

Those two ingredients would seem to be a recipe for success and every other league that’s tried would agree. Let’s count them out together:

• Orlando Panthers, Continental Football League and Atlantic Coast Football League
• Florida Tuskers, United Football League
• Orlando Renegades, United States Football League
• Orlando Rage, XFL (the first time)
• Orlando Guardians, XFL (the third time)
• Orlando Apollos, Alliance of American Football
• Florida Blazers, World Football League
• Orlando Thunder, World League of American Football

And now go ahead and add the Orlando Storm to that list, after a press release by the league early Tuesday morning before that press conference.

And if you wanted to, you could include all of the indoor football leagues that have since come and gone. But you get the idea. Football and Orlando just hasn’t mixed. But the UFL wants you to know this time, it can be different.

The UFL came to be after the merger in 2023 of the XFL, version 3.0, and the USFL. Both leagues were strapped for cash at the time of the merger and fighting for the same TV market share, so it just made sense. But even since the merger, where the total of teams between the two shrunk from 16 down to eight, the league has had trouble getting its footing in the remaining markets.

Now it isn’t like the last spring team in Orlando was a world-beater. The Orlando Guardians struggled mightily, both on the field and at the ticket booth. The league hoping the Orlando Storm and a 9th go around will be the charm.

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