As Showboats’ attendance struggles continue, UFL has a new plan. It starts with the Bills Mafia

The Memphis Showboats kicked off their 2025 season on Sunday at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, and there was a familiar sight in the stands: empty seats.

That’s been a constant for the Showboats, who have lagged behind other UFL teams even as they invest in more boots-on-the-ground marketing and have tried to engage more people in the Memphis community. UFL executive vice president Daryl Johnston has an idea, though.

Johnston said the Showboats fans have already done the hard part. They have a group of die-hard fans, called the Yacht Club, which he said might be the most passionate fan group in the league.

“This group is probably the smallest but potentially could be the most passionate group,” he told The Commercial Appeal before the game against the Michigan Panthers on Sunday. “We were just talking about, ‘How do you start to increase your numbers? How do you start to get people to kind of join in to your fan group and grow that thing organically?’ I grew up in Buffalo. There was no Bills Mafia.”

So, yes — someone in the Bills Mafia might be getting a call from a 901 area code phone in the near future. And maybe the famously rabid fans of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills — who like to jump through tables and battle through sub-zero temperatures — could have something to offer.

We’ve just got to find a way to help them start to grow this,” he said. “And maybe we have to get them in touch with the key people from these NFL fan bases that can give them some ideas.”

Johnston told The Commercial Appeal during last season’s home opener that the league needed to see growth in Memphis. That didn’t happen during the 2024 season, but the USFL-XFL merger had left local markets with little time to plan for that season. The on-field product didn’t help either, because the Showboats went 2-8 and were never in the playoff picture.