The U.S. Army recently inked a significant sponsorship deal with the little-known United Football League (UFL), the upstart minor league alternative to the NFL, for a whopping $11 million. The deal, which was more than a year in the making, was aimed at boosting the Army’s recruitment efforts, particularly among Gen Z.
However, internal documents obtained by Military.com reveal that the Army’s own marketing officials and staff were highly skeptical of the partnership from the beginning. Their concerns were largely centered around the UFL’s relatively poor viewership and the overall declining relevance of professional athletics among the Army’s target demographic.
The Army’s original pitch started with a $25 million sponsorship deal with the XFL in February 2023. But despite the reduced cost of the UFL sponsorship, service planners warned that the advertising return on investment simply wasn’t there. Internal data showed the Army estimated the UFL sponsorship deal would net only between 160 and 891 new recruits.
Retired Maj. Gen. Alex Fink, the chief of the Army’s marketing arm at the time, warned in a March 2023 memo that the XFL had “little meaningful presence online and relatively low social media engagement.” Similarly, Ignatios Mavridis, the deputy chief for Army marketing, advised against pursuing a major relationship with the XFL, stating that the league’s ratings were underperforming and that the money would be redundant given the Army’s existing ad placements in the NFL and other higher-profile sporting events.
Despite these concerns, the UFL deal was ultimately finalized after a push from Gen. Randy George, the Army chief of staff. The deal includes the Army logo prominently displayed on player jerseys, the field, and various other in-game and social media placements.
Interestingly, the partnership also involves the use of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, a co-owner of the UFL, as a pseudo-brand ambassador for the Army. However, this too raised concerns among some Army officials, who worried that the service was being influenced by Johnson’s star power rather than focusing on the actual merits of the sponsorship.
The bottom line remains that the Army’s multimillion-dollar investment in the UFL, a relatively unknown and struggling minor league, has been met with skepticism from within the service. With the UFL’s viewership already declining in its first few weeks, the Army’s gamble on this sponsorship deal appears to have been a risky and potentially ill-advised move that has yet to yield any meaningful results in terms of new recruits.
