Daryl Johnston, the executive vice president of football operations for the United Football League, cuts right to the chase on Saturday morning.

"They're low," he said, talking about the attendance numbers and motioning toward the handful of Showboats fans in their seats about 20 minutes before Saturday's game against the San Antonio Brahmas. "We can all take a look over there. It's not what we want it to be. We had a schedule that came out late. We had TV slots that were not preferred TV slots every weekend. We had to do the best we could with a really, really late structure created in the process. And we'll be better next year. We're already working on 2025 right now."

The Showboats are one of eight teams in the newly formed UFL, the result of the merger between the XFL and USFL. In terms of attendance numbers, Memphis is up against it on a few levels — unlike last year, when the team lived and practiced in Memphis, the Showboats are based in Arlington, Texas and fly to Memphis only for games.

That's made it difficult to drive more fan interest, even as this iteration of the Showboats is the first spring football team in Memphis that's lasted more than a season since the original USFL Showboats in the 1980s.

What looked like a few thousand fans (announced 8,791) were scattered throughout the east side of Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium on Saturday to see a Showboats collapse helped by one of the UFL's unique rules. Trailing 19-8 with less than a minute to go, the Brahmas scored a touchdown and then missed the conversion. They then chose to attempt a 4th-and-12 play instead of an onside kick and converted it, a rule that means games are still competitive even when a team is trailing by multiple scores inside the final minute.

San Antonio took advantage, driving down the field and winning when Chase Garbers passed to Cody Latimer for a 10-yard touchdown with just three seconds left.

"Probably one of the most disappointing losses I've ever been a part of," said Showboats coach John DeFilippo.

That means the Showboats are 1-1. Memphis is on the road for the next two weeks before returning to Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium on April 28 against the Michigan Panthers.

So, what will the crowd look like for that game? Johnston acknowledged that attendance numbers in Memphis are lower than throughout the league, and said he and other officials were going to spend time trying to figure out exactly what's holding things back.

Part of the problem in the push to drive higher attendance numbers is that spring football is a made-for-TV product. Sports betting is a major drawing point for major TV networks to get involved, and the UFL has production elements on TV (like live audio of the coaches sending plays in) that don't translate to the live viewing experience.

"We had decent numbers with the home opener last year, but not what we anticipated," Johnston said. "And they were never able to match those again moving forward. We definitely need to take a long hard look at what's going on here in Memphis. What can we do to continue to build the relationship between the UFL and the community to generate the interest to come out here? We feel that it's a good product and — where's the disconnect? Why are we not connecting with the community here? It is what it is right now."

Reach sports writer Jonah Dylan at jonah.dylan@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @thejonahdylan.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis Showboats lose UFL home opener in front of sparse audience