Yeah, CFL is a different beast. There is few who really excelled at the CFL and NFL level. Doug Flutie, Warren Moon...

 

The rules are just too different. If I was wanting to waste a ton of money on a football league, I would just give the money to the CFL.

 

Do an 8 team league, same rules of CFL and make it like the NL and AL in Baseball and the top teams from each league face off for the Grey Cup. That would probably be your best bet, instead of starting something completely brand new.

Wrote an article trying to cover the possibilities of what actually happened here: https://deadspin.com/why-is-charlie-ebersol-launching-a-direct-rival-to-his-1823959869

 

I'm really intrigued by how there's clearly a lot more to the story that we don't know yet. Who knew what when? Was there an alliance and a split? Will there be a lawsuit or has that already been handled? Is the XFL even happening? How does ESPN feel about being Charlie Ebersol's pawns? etc etc

Vince better get moving. The AAF just announced Michael Vick is going to be their Atlanta teams offensive coordinator. Theyve already got Steve Spurrier as a head coach, too. Theyre getting some names. I havent heard peep from the XFL yet.

Their social media has been silent since February.

AAF will flame out in a year, because like XFL, it's a stupid concept. Vince probably thinks he can pick up the pieces.

AAF, stupid as it is, will end up beating XFL to the punch in nearly every aspect to the point there's really not much reason for it to exist (if there ever was one to begin with).

 

The real question will be if any WWE investors end up asking about Vince clearly taking money from one business to fund another.

The real question will be if any WWE investors end up asking about Vince clearly taking money from one business to fund another.

Most reports I've seen say Vince cashed out his own stock to fund "Alpha Entertainment" (a more Vince name couldn't exist), which seems to be the XFL holding company.

Probably counting on an infusion of Saudi investors this weekend.

Is it likely the old XFL games would hit the network?

Not that I've heard.

Its baffling why Vince wants to try again in this venture when the last one cost him alot of money.

 

Wouldn't that money be better suited invested in wrestling?

Maybe the new XFL will play all their games in Saudi Arabia?

Maybe the new XFL will play all their games in Saudi Arabia?

One of my many random thoughts as to why they were working in Saudi Arabia was that they may be potentially backing the xfl. Not that they will play there but that they will have some monetary backing.

https://www.ewrestlingnews.com/news/the-xfl-partners-with-disney-and-fox-broadcast-schedule-revealed

I'm not super surprised that the XFL got a TV deal, though I'm guessing the networks involved are paying bargain prices for the rights to air these games - with Vince probably agreeing to some sort of "play or pay" situation where, even if the ratings are so abysmal that ESPN or ABC decide to simply air something else, they'll still get paid something. I just don't see Disney forking over big bucks for content that has a very, very steep uphill battle of even matching the weekly 2.0 rating it averaged in 2001* - comparatively the stone age before streaming channels and the "real" internet made much of Network TV obsolete. 

Plus, he's trying to sell a product that is a proven failure. 

 

 

* note - I did not include the historic 9.5 rating of the first XFL game in my calculations. Nor did I include the 4.6 rating that the second game earned. In 2001, wrestling was mainstream (meaning Vince himself was a mainstream celebrity) and the XFL media campaign was so tremendous that the first game was a "must see" event. That number, and the 2nd week's number, became outliers as the season went on and 80% of the audience abandoned the league. 80%. 

Apparently they're getting no rights fees, but the networks are covering the costs of production.

So, as the ratings drop the production value will look more and more like college volleyball?

XFL 2.0 is going to be so fun to follow. The company spin , the backstage meltdowns, the random departures, ratings discussions, and so much more. I'm all in!

 

On 5/6/2019 at 1:45 PM, PeteF3 said:

Apparently they're getting no rights fees, but the networks are covering the costs of production.

I'm baffled that they are still going through with it considering that's the case. The whole explanation was that because it's a TV rights fees world now, Vince actually had a path to profitability.

Meltzer says they're prepared to lose $300m plus in the first three years.  Insanity

300 million dollars down the drain so their President buddy has some American Football he can watch without being triggered. Amazing

How much will they invest in the re-elaction campaign too BTW ?

Yeah, that shit is crazy.

Where do things stand now?

On 5/9/2019 at 5:13 AM, cm funk said:

Meltzer says they're prepared to lose $300m plus in the first three years.  Insanity

The AAF lost 88 million and there was only 8 weeks of football played there,

I dont really watch football, but I enjoyed this yesterday. It didnt seem to have all the "sports entertainment" gimmicks like in 2001. They do have the microphones and some people have weird things on their uniforms, but they weren't all "in your face" or XTREME about them like they were in 2001. I dont remember seeing any wrestling personalities or cheerleaders either. It seems like they are more separated from WWE then the first XFL was.

I definitely love the pace of the game and how while very different from what we see in the NFL, their rules adaptations for the PAT and kickoff returns are adding to the excitement of the game. I think Vince finally understood that he had to focus on the game rather than the extras.