In a joint statement, the partners said the UFL season will open on March 30 with a clash between the Arlington Renegades and Birmingham Stallions, who are reigning champions of the XFL and USFL respectively.

The UFL partners listed in the news release consisted of three XFL owners – wrestler-turned-movie star Johnson, his ex-wife Dany Garcia and Gerry Cardinale of RedBird Capital – along with USFL owner FOX Sports and ESPN.

The spring football league formed after the merger of the XFL and United States Football League will be known as the United Football League

Dwayne The Rock Johnson, co-owner of XFL, hypes up the crowd before a game in February

A giant flag is stretched across the field during the national anthem prior to a USFL game

‘From day one, our mission has been to expand the game of football and be a league of opportunity, culture and innovation,’ Johnson said in a news release.

‘As we come together to create the UFL, we can build something powerful, exciting and very cool for football fans – a spring league with lasting impact for all the players with a dream to play pro football and the ‘hardest workers in the room’ mentality to make their dreams come true.’

Former XFL president/CEO Russ Brandon will hold the same title for the UFL. Former USFL president of football operations Daryl Johnston will oversee the new league’s football operations.

The Stallions join the Michigan Panthers, Houston Gamblers and Memphis Showboats as the former USFL teams that will carry over to the UFL. The Renegades are the lone XFL team to be named to the UFL at the moment.

The Washington Post reported Sunday that five XFL teams — the D.C. Defenders, Houston Roughnecks, San Antonio Brahmas, St. Louis Battlehawks and the Renegades — will join the Panthers, Stallions and Showboats in an eight-team UFL.

Other details including broadcast rights and player contract terms are still being negotiated.

The XFL and USFL announced plans to merge in September, after the latter company re-launched in 2022 with backing from Fox Sports. The XFL returned in 2020 and has since been acquired by Johnson and business partner Garcia.

Defenders fans ‘feed the snake’ during the inaugural XFL Championship back in May

The XFL was originally launched by WWE CEO Vince McMahon and NBC in 2001, but folded after one season of spring football.

McMahon spent $200million restarting the league for the 2020 season, according to his attorneys.

Although a whopping 3 million viewers tuned in for the first week of 2020, the audience was about half that size five weeks later when play stopped due to the pandemic.

The league went bankrupt in April of 2020, leading to a legal battle between McMahon and XFL commissioner Oliver Luck, who filed a $23.8 million wrongful termination lawsuit against the wrestling mogul.

In his lawsuit, Luck attached part of his agreement, signed by McMahon, that ‘irrevocably and unconditionally’ guaranteed his $20 million salary.

McMahon claimed Luck was fired for cause, but ultimately relented and negotiated a settlement totaling $24 million.

The original XFL’s standout star was Rod Smart had ‘He Hate Me’ emblazoned on his uniform

Donald Trump and Herschel Walker worked together with the USFL’s New Jersey Generals

Steve Young of the USFL’s LA Express in 1985

The USFL relaunched in 2022, four decades after the spring football league’s short-lived run that featured such gridiron stars as Reggie White, Herschel Walker, Steve Young, Jim Kelly and future president Donald Trump.

The original USFL was launched in 1983, but crumbled after three seasons because of out-of-control spending and an ill-conceived push by Trump, owner of the New Jersey Generals, to compete directly against the NFL with a fall season.

In the end, the USFL’s most enduring legacy was the $3 judgment it ‘won’ in an antitrust suit against the NFL, a ruling that finished off the league in 1986 before it carried out a Trump-backed move from spring to fall.