The XFL kicked off the latest attempt to compete with the NFL The NFL season ended 8 days ago with the Kansas City Chiefs’ win against the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV. But this past weekend, more than 30k committed football fans still found a way to shout themselves hoarse at pro football games. That’s right: The XFL is back, baybeeee On Saturday, the DC Defenders beat the Seattle Dragons 31-19 in front of 17k people in Washington, and the Houston Roughnecks beat the Los Angeles Wildcats 37-17 in front of a crowd of 17k in Houston (that’s considerably lower than the NFL’s average regular-season attendance of 66k). This weekend’s games were the first in a 10week regular season that’s planned for the XFL’s 8 teams, which are all owned by the league (unlike independently owned NFL franchises). The XFL is returning from a long offseason Vince McMahon, the impresario of hard knocks and owner of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), first launched the XFL in 2001 as a partnership between WWF and NBC. The original XFL featured both WrestleMania-style gimmicks ( staged appearances and cameos from wrestling celebs) and legitimate innovations (football’s first Skycams and in-game mics). But the league crashed and burned after just 1 season, resulting in losses of $35m apiece for both NBC and WWF. So, what makes this new XFL different? Unlike the original XFL, the new XFL is not affiliated with wrestling -- and it doesn’t use its promotional elements. (It IS, however, closely tied with gambling companies FanDuel and DraftKings.) And, unlike the NFL, the new XFL hasslightly different rulesdesigned to reduce controversies off the field (political gestures are “discouraged”) and make game play simpler (there is a running clock). The XFL hopes to capitalize on football fans’ desire for more action by allowing multiple forward passes and touchdowns worth 7, 8, and 9 points. But, as the low early attendance suggests, the league still faces an uphill battle to compete against the dominant NFL. After all, the XFL is far from the only NFL knockoff The amount of money generated by the NFL (which was more than$16Bin 2018 and is expected to reach$25Bby 2027) has inspired several competing pro football leagues. Many of them have flamed out quickly: TheAAF(Alliance of American Football) launched in 2019 and didn’t even make it through a season despite venture backing. TheUSFL(United States Football League) launched in 1983 and lasted for 3 seasons (and lost $163m) before going under. TheWFL(World Football League) launched in 1973 and made it through 1.5 seasons.
I love the rule changes. Makes it a faster paced game. Also less ads. Most of the live viewers on Reddit loved it during the games.
I watched but since I hardly knew any of the players I did not get invested at all....this is going to be the big challenge and they will flame out in 3-4 years...
IMO the flaw of this is we just don't need football 365. What makes the NFL great is the off season and having to wait for the next season. This has zero chance of lasting. Cardale Jones is one of my all time fav players and I just have zero interest in watching what he can do against construction workers before he has to go get a normal job himself.
Well, almost good point. The XFL ads 12 more weeks, so you still get at least 3+ months of no football. On the other hand we need Nascar and Baseball almost all year around? The freaking NHL is 8 months too for god's sake. The main season in those spots are irrelevant, when almost half of the field makes it to the play offs.
I think most sports year round aspects are bugs and not features. The limited season is why the NFL is king, you just can't wait for the season to start in the summer. I just feel like I am a prime customer with Cardale as one of the stars of XFL and I just could care less to watch. We already have the minor league in college football.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Football_League This league lasted 3 years, and the only reason it folded because of... (drumroll) Donald Trump. The dumbass moved it to autumn schedule and the rest was history.