Does Anyone Expect The XFL To Work?
- Thread starter PSU_522
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What is their target market? NFL fans itching for even more football? Wrestling fans who they hope will tune in? I'm honestly clueless on who their target market is so any expanding on that idea is appreciated.
IMO besides the media deals the other leg they that have up on the AAF is the markets in they're in. The XFL has teams in the biggest markets in the county - NY/DC/LA/Dallas/Houston/Seattle - while the biggest cities the AAF had were Atlanta and SanDiego and mainly smaller southern cities. That alone may get more eyeballs and attention to the league. Ultimately I think they'll fail like every other upstart that isn't the Arena Football League.
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anon_xdc8rmuek44eq
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People who call into sports talk radio in March breaking down team needs and providing draft evaluations.
AAF was a scam, you will see some more lawsuits coming out on that before it is said and done. XFL might fail, but they have legit money backing, an owner in Jim McMahon who like him or not, knows a lot about sports entertainment and is not stupid. And they are systematically trying to set themselves up to succeed. I don't know who watches or what type of play and rules they will have in order to draw in fans, but I think they will last at least a couple of years and make a run of it.
I think it has a chance. It has a lot of money behind it and plus, people love football. And it's at a time of year when there is no football.
I think a problem things like the XFL are up against as opposed to NFL and NCAA is that those latter have such strong team brand names built up. People are accustomed to tuning in to watch the Denver Broncos or Penn State or Georgia Tech or whatever. I bet the quality of the XFL will be higher than some college games but the problem is the teams will be no name teams because up until the league starts they literally don't have a name in the eyes of the public.
I think a problem things like the XFL are up against as opposed to NFL and NCAA is that those latter have such strong team brand names built up. People are accustomed to tuning in to watch the Denver Broncos or Penn State or Georgia Tech or whatever. I bet the quality of the XFL will be higher than some college games but the problem is the teams will be no name teams because up until the league starts they literally don't have a name in the eyes of the public.
How much better (or worse) than Arena Football does the XFL need to be to be considered to have succeeded?
Vince McMahon is behind it, but the part I'm unsure about is whether he's doing this solo or under the WWE umbrella. I seem to remember him cashing in some stock for the venture...
I think fan affordability has to be a part of it. I think avoiding the 60K stadiums with 8-10K fans showing up is a must.
Depends... will they get Hack and Bragalone on the same team?
Seriously though, it can survive. The Arena league got stupid when they had a good thing going. There's a void.
LdN
I expect them to survive this time around. Oliver Luck is one of the smartest sports minds in the business and he is running all of the operations. This time around they are not trying to compete with the NFL, they trying to make it a mix between the NCAA and AAF, a developmental league for the most part. I think they will do much better this time around and i am definitely intrigued.
It's actually Vince McMahon, Jim was the QB for my Superbowl Champion Bears and uttered one of the best lines about his alma mater, BYU, when asked what was the best thing about BYU and he said - leaving. Sad that CTE has taken it's toll on him. Last time I saw him interviewed he said he get's lost going to the local grocery store he has been to 100 times.
Leagues like this should tie rosters to regions. A team in Philly is more likely to attract more fan interest if a bunch of local kids are on the roster (and by local, I mosty mean where they went to college, but could be either way). The USFL did this with its territorial draft, which I thought added more interest to particular teams.
They are trying to make the game more fan friendly by changing up some rules and making games shorter.
They might hang around a little longer since there's better money backing it, but I still can't see it being more than a one year thing
They might hang around a little longer since there's better money backing it, but I still can't see it being more than a one year thing
I agree. I'm not sure if it should be by where they're from or where they played their college ball or both, but both have currency in peoples minds so the XFL should use it. I know that Hackenberg playing for Memphis made a lot of PSU fans interested in Memphis games.
Since there are only eight teams, there are large chunks of the country without a team but get all the guys from one of those areas or that played ball their on the same team and people in those areas will be interested.
These are good ideas, you and I should be running the XFL.
Very true. Put a guy like Hack on a Philly (or other eastern city) team with a half dozen or so other Penn Staters, some kids that went to other schools in the area and kids who played high school ball in the area and you have something fans will try to watch, or at least follow in some fashion.
Put a team together with a bunch of guys nobody knows from schools nobody follows and who will pay attention? Not gonna get my interest.
Okay, sure. First of all, I never suggested competing against the NFL for players. I just meant sorting out rosters so that guys who are in the league play on the team closest to their hometowns or their alma maters.
Second rate? Sure, like when the Steelers draft a local kid and his jersey sales go through the roof before he ever takes the field. Nah, it'll never sell.
I bet you see a ton more access to the game to get fans. GoPro camera on the QB and MLB, microphone on the QB to hear calls in the huddle (they will figure out a way so the other team doesn’t hear it), more use of the overhead camera that is on the wires, stuff like that to get fans a much more intimate feel. Some rule changes like no FG kicker such that more scoring and going for it on 4th down, shorter time between plays to get more plays in a shorter timeframe, stuff like that. They have to differentiate from the NFL and NCAA as they cannot compete otherwise.
James Conner was #45 in the entire NFL in merchandise sales his rookie season. He had a total of 32 carries. But, of course having local heroes on the roster would be bad business. But you can't fix stooopid, right?
https://www.nflpa.com/players/2017-fy-q3-top50-player-sales-list
^^^This. Have you seen the 30 for 30 about the original XFL? They invented a lot of stuff that is used in the NFL today like the sky cam, on field cameras, in-game interviews, stuff like that. Some rules stuff too that I can't remember. Some of the stuff they tried was dumb and didn't work (like the race to the ball to decide who gets the kickoff and resulted in many severe injuries), but they tried to be different and some of their ideas were great. They definitely will do that again.
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anon_1eeb2b426hv3y
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A group of us at work actually found an XFL Fantasy website (I think it was Sandbox) and set up an eight team fantasy league. The draft was a riot since there were only eight XFL teams and no one knew who the projected starters were. Just by luck I ended up with He Hate Me and three starting QBs (Tommy Maddox, Mike Pawlawski and Ryan Clement). Needless to say I had the upper hand in most trades and won the league going away.
It was a lot of fun and showed just how many FFL junkies I used to work with.
I google fantasy football for the XFL, thinking it might be up for the new XFL already, and instead I got old XFL stuff. Here's the roster for the Las Vegas Outlaws with Ryan Clement. It's amazing how this stuff lives on the Internet forever. It is costing someone money to have this up all these years? Why don't the take it down?
http://www.all-xfl.com/lasvegasoutlaws/team/roster/index.htm
You bring up a point I’ve been thinking about - why start in Feb? Would moving the season from starting in February to starting in say May make it more interesting for anyone?
With all the attention leading up to and including the superbowl giving a bit of breathing room between the two seasons seems like a good idea to me since the season is 6 months long already. With moving it to May you’re coming off the draft in April, folks are excited for football but then have the 4 month wait for pre-season in August. Plus with teams in NY & DC I’d think the nicer weather in May vs Feb would bring more fans.
Wouldn’t make a difference for me. I don’t even like early season football that much in the heat. It’s more of a seasonal thing for me.
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