Pittsburgh Maulers to play home games in Canton, Ohio, for 2023 USFL season

The Pittsburgh Maulers aren’t returning home just yet, but they will play their games at a destination much closer than their venue last season.

The Maulers will play games at Tom Benson Stadium in Canton, Ohio, for the 2023 season, the USFL announced Wednesday.

Last year, in the spring football league’s rebirth, the Maulers and every other USFL team played regular-season games in Birmingham, Ala.

For the upcoming season, the Maulers and New Jersey Generals will share the facilities in Canton as part of the USFL’s pod system. The goal is for the Maulers to eventually land a home in Pittsburgh in future seasons.

The Maulers and Generals will face each other to open the regular season on Sunday, April 23.

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• Pittsburgh Maulers switch team colors to black and gold

The Maulers will be coached by Ray Horton, a former defensive backs coach for the Steelers and a former defensive coordinator in the NFL. He succeeds another former Steelers assistant, Kirby Wilson, who resigned after the Maulers went 1-9 in 2022.

Horton also coached in Cleveland, so he has some familiarity with the fan bases in both cities.

“I know how passionate football fans are in western Pennsylvania and northeast Ohio,” Horton said in a statement. “As the USFL works to eventually move the Maulers into Pittsburgh, playing the 2023 regular season games in Canton presents an incredible opportunity for fans throughout the region to check us out and see first-hand the high-quality professional football being played in the USFL.”

The USFL held its playoffs and championship games in Canton last summer, and the league was impressed by the turnout of fans from western Pennsylvania.

“The outstanding regional support we received during our first postseason from football fans in Ohio and Pennsylvania, including the great city of Pittsburgh, coupled with our successful partnership with the Hall of Fame Village, led to this moment,” said Daryl Johnston, the league’s executive vice president of football operations.”

The USFL previously announced that the Birmingham Stallions and New Orleans Breakers will play games in Birmingham. The Memphis Showboats and Houston Gamblers will be hosted in Memphis, Tenn.

Johnston is optimistic that the USFL can expand into its namesake markets in future seasons.

“We’ve moved with a pace that is smart and gives us the best opportunity to succeed,” he said. “We fully plan to move our teams into their market places in some time, but we have to do it in a way that is successful for us.”

Get ready to hammer the competition from an all-new location ⚒️????

We'll be setting up shop in a new host city this season: Canton, Ohio ⚫️ pic.twitter.com/AqyAEBoNIe

— Pittsburgh Maulers (@USFLMaulers) January 25, 2023

Get ready Canton, Ohio! Season 2 of the USFL is kicking off April 23 at the Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium ????????????@USFLMaulers x @USFLGenerals pic.twitter.com/yXkXpi7uRt

— USFL (@USFL) January 25, 2023