Michigan Panthers promise better product, but can they still connect with Detroit?

Detroit — There's some good and bad with the merger of North America's two pro spring football leagues, the United States Football League and the XFL, into the United Football League.

We'll start with the good. Going from 16 teams to eight, naturally, is going to improve the overall talent. And, oh, by the way, the talent was pretty good to begin with, with the old USFL and XFL counting more than 120 players signing some sort of contract with the NFL in the last two years.

"It's good, it's pretty much all the starters from both leagues combining in one," said receiver Devin Gray, out of the University of Cincinnati. "I've been a part of NFL training camps for five years, and it feels more like a training-camp feel. Guys are really trying to fight.

"It's got a real NFL training-camp feel, with all the competition."

The Michigan Panthers, one of the four USFL teams to survive the merger into the UFL, will open the 2024 season at 4 p.m. Saturday at Ford Field, against the St. Louis Battlehawks of the old XFL. It's one of five home games for the Panthers at Ford Field this season. Single-game tickets start at $22, and season tickets at $100.

The Panthers, with head coach Mike Nolan back for a second season, made the USFL playoffs last season, despite a 4-6 record. Nolan said the talent is much improved, in large part because of the fewer overall roster spots.

The Michigan Panthers set their 50-man roster over the weekend, and it's heavy on offense, starting with a quarterback battle between E.J. Perry (Brown) and Danny Etling (LSU), and Brian Lewerke (Michigan State) as a No. 3. The running back room includes the likes of Nate McCrary (Saginaw Valley State) and Slipper Rock alum Wes Hills, whom Detroit Lions fans will remember after he scored a pair of touchdowns in his NFL debut in 2019.

More: The Michigan Panthers are back! Get to know the players, coaches, rules and more

Michigan also has a new offensive coordinator, Marcel Bellefeuille, coming over from the Philadelphia Stars, who shared the Detroit hub with the Panthers in 2023 but didn't survive the merger for 2024.

"We're going to have an explosive offense," Nolan said this week. "I'm really excited."

Added Gray, who played at Ford Field last year as a member of the Stars, who weren't nearly the draw that the Panthers were: "You guys can expect big plays, offensively and defensively. Our offense is gonna be must-see TV."

The Panthers' defense is led by Frank Ginda (San Jose State), the reigning USFL defensive player of the year, and Breeland Speaks (Mississippi), an all-USFL selection a year ago. Both have been Panthers for three years now.

The USFL played for two seasons and the XFL for one before the merger, which was done for financial survival. The league's purpose, at its core, is to get players another look by the NFL, but they have to make money, too. The USFL's main financial backer was Fox Sports; the XFL ownership included Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

It's been hard to make professional spring football sustainable in North America. Players hope this is the start, given the increase in talent and decrease in costs. All teams are training and practicing in suburban Dallas. The Panthers, for instance, will fly into Detroit before the games and fly back afterward.

"This is gonna be a great league in general, because it was gonna be hard for both leagues to last at the same time," Gray said. "It only made sense for everybody to have one specialized league and just put the best talent on the field. That's the goal, at the end of the day. And to hopefully get an opportunity at the next level.

"I think this league will be around for a long time."

So, we've tackled the good with the merger. Now, about the bad.

The Panthers and the other USFL teams all played in Birmingham, Alabama in the league's first year, 2022, to save on costs, before moving into four markets in 2023. Detroit was one of the markets, with the Panthers and Stars sharing the hub. The Panthers trained and practiced at Eastern Michigan's Rynearson Stadium, while playing at Ford Field, so they were always in and around the community, making time for fans and outreach efforts. Those efforts, seemingly, paid off at the box office, though official attendance was never released.

They won't be in the community as much this year, given they're flying in and out of town from Texas, and won't be around the area at all during road-game weeks. That'll make forming a connection with the community a tougher challenge, which could be problematic when it comes to generating interest and selling tickets, even in a city that's all in on football following the Lions' run to the NFC Championship game this past season.

More: Panthers' Mike Nolan: New United Football League a win for fans

"It will be tough for us to get that actual engagement, not being in Michigan this year," said Speaks, who played for the Panthers in 2022 and 2023, and noted the team will still have kids on the field and still will be signing autographs. "For the most part, we're gonna do the best we can, whether it's pregame, or after the game, in-between, going in the tunnel. I think that'll be the way that we pretty much gain that connection.

"I think Michigan, as a whole, is hungry for more football."

On the community outreach, Nolan said "every team's going to have the same issue." The only team that won't, of course, is Arlington, home base of all teams' training camp. The league's goal is to eventually get all eight teams training and practicing in their own markets in the coming years, and ideally by 2025.

It's not lost on the Panthers, though, that there also is significant competition this year for fans' attention and entertainment dollars.

The Panthers' opener falls on Saturday, between two days of NCAA Tournament games at Little Caesars Arena. The Detroit Tigers have their home opener next week. The NFL Draft is coming to the city late next month.

Nolan, on how the Panthers can possibly stand out amid the crowd, joked that there should be free admission.

"I might get in trouble for saying that," said Nolan, formerly the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers.

Speaks, asked to make his pitch, said simply: It's football, and everybody loves football.

"Michigan is a blue-collar state, so therefore wanting to watch football and having football in two seasons, being in the fall and spring, is the best of both worlds," he said. "I'm pretty sure they're going to go with the football team."

The Panthers are in a four-team conference made of old USFL teams, including Birmingham, Houston and Memphis. The other conference is old XFL teams, in St. Louis, Arlington, D.C. and San Antonio. The games will air on the Fox and ABC family of networks — Saturday's Panthers game will feature two former Michigan Wolverines on the call, Devin Gardner as the analyst and Jake Butt as the sideline reporter — but there will be no local radio this year, after WJR 760-AM aired Panthers games in 2023.

The rules are slightly different than in the NFL, with 1-, 2- or 3-point options after touchdowns, and a fourth-and-12 substitute for onside kicks late in games. Plus, all plays can be reviewed, whether a penalty was called or not. Most rules are in place to dissuade blowouts and keep fans' attention till the end.

So there's some more good, to go with the bad and — in Year 1 of the new league — the unknown.

"Everything about it I think has improved," Nolan said of merging two leagues into one — with one downside, though, being to have to cut a lot of players who would've made the Panthers' team a season ago. "I'm really excited about it, because I think it's strengthening itself.

"It's gonna make the product on the field for the fans that much better."

tpaul@detroitnews.com

@tonypaul1984