It is with great sadness that fans discover the discontinuation of the San Antonio Brahmas. The decision was announced Friday afternoon, paired with the exit of the Memphis and Michigan franchises. This comes as a shock; the Brahmas did not end up here due to a lack of success. In fact, the United Football League cites the opposite, revealing that the stadiums do not align with their vision of a smaller, more intimate setting to enjoy football.
It is a perplexing vision that doesn’t encourage growth. The UFL found that residing within the Alamodome was a sign of overgrowth, with the Brahmas ranking fourth in attendance in 2025, according to Sports Business Journal.
The Brahmas are another addition to the carousel of failed professional football teams that resided in the Alamo City, such as the San Antonio Riders from 1991-92 and the San Antonio Gunslingers from 1984-85. It’s interesting to see that San Antonio can’t maintain a professional team besides the San Antonio Spurs. It’s been 33 years since the construction of the Alamodome and spring football continues to elude fans.
Though the exit of the franchise is disheartening, there is still the potential for something good to come out of this move. With a potential expansion in 2028, the NFL and NHL could consider San Antonio when discussing an expansion and/or relocation of other teams. Not every city can boast beautiful attendance numbers, especially with NFL games being as expensive as they’ve become. The Brahmas provided resplendent experiences that held fans over during the annual dreaded NFL drought for a much more reasonable price compared to the neighboring Dallas Cowboys. Texas continues to have an insatiable appetite for professional football, and this latest news starves the fandom.
Not only were the fans bought in, but the team was performing exquisitely before Payton Pardee took over as the interim head coach. Under Wade Phillips in 2024, the Brahmas posted a very respectable 7-3 record before meeting their demise against the Birmingham Stallions in the UFL Championship Game. The following season, they slipped to 1-9, tasting defeat in nearly every game, marking a disappointing season performance that could only be surpassed by the extinction of the team. The glitz and glamour of housing a football team is again short-lived for San Antonio.
It’s important to note that San Antonio is consistently provided the opportunity to establish sports franchises such as the WNBA’s San Antonio Silver Stars, who later became the Las Vegas Aces, or the San Antonio Rampage, which also relocated to Henderson, Nevada. The city continues to showcase great fan turnouts, which bodes well for its attractiveness in the sports market. Fans hope to, at some point, possess more than one professional sports team, in the same vein that Dallas has the Mavericks and Cowboys or Houston with the Rockets and Texans. With lax state tax laws sure to lure in business owners, it’s only a matter of time until another organization falls in the city’s lap.
doom • Oct 8, 2025 at 8:08 pm
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