2024_Houston_Roughnecks_season
2024 Houston Roughnecks season
American professional football season
The 2024 Houston Roughnecks season will be the third season of Houston Roughnecks (2024), an American football team based in Houston, Texas. The team's first season in the United Football League (UFL) after a merger in the offseason between the USFL and the XFL. Under the terms of the agreement, the team consists of the roster and coaching staff of the former USFL's two-season-old Houston Gamblers franchise, taking over the Roughnecks branding and home city previously used by the XFL team with the same name.
Renovations that began on the Roughnecks' home stadium in 2020 and 2023, TDECU Stadium, following the end of the 2023 University of Houston Cougars football season rendered that stadium unavailable for use for the 2024 season, while the Gamblers had never played in Houston, instead sharing stadiums with their rivals the Birmingham Stallions and Memphis Showboats under the USFL's hub model. The XFL stated that the Roughnecks would remain in Houston during the renovations, potentially at another stadium in the city.[1] Rice Stadium, which hosted games in the USFL's predecessor The Spring League in 2021, and Shell Energy Stadium, home of the Houston Dynamo soccer team, were among the venues the league contacted about hosting the Roughnecks.[2] On February 1, 2024, the league announced that home games would be hosted at Rice Stadium.[3]