XFL 2.0
The XFL will be back in 2020 for it’s second attempt at becoming a legit alternative to the National Football League. They will invest, spend money, do a lot of talking, make a lot of promises to get the fans excited over the next two years but I think this will fail again. Let’s take a look at some of the positives and negatives.
Big announcement is made that the XFL will be returning and of course, that’s going to get everyone excited up front. It is good that they plan to start the 10 week season in January because they won’t need to compete with the NFL the whole time. The hype video included references to placing bets and playing fantasy which is pretty smart. It will give us all another sport to gamble on, woohoo! He referenced political views and said that the players will be encouraged to do whatever they want to get their point across – I think that statement alone will attract a large audience. They are going to get as much fan input as possible up front so they can give the fans what they want. I think that’s smart but realistically, I don’t think the fans think there is anything wrong with the NFL right now.
Why I think it will fail again? The guy who is in charge of the most fixed/scripted/storyline sport in the history of man kind is promoting it. What do you think is going to happen? More fixes than the NFL – that pisses off fans/gamblers/ect. If you don’t think these games will be blatantly fixed to create more “excitement” for the fans, you’re off your fucking rocker. The league environment feels too much like wrestling and fans want football. Sure, the sexy chicks in bikinis to promote the teams coming out and running out to grab the kicking tee after the kick off is cool but the overall feel is already too close to WWE and I don’t think that’s a good approach to steal fans from the NFL. They are going to struggle to pull in players with the same skill sets as players in the NFL. One – they won’t have the money to lure NFL players. Two – they can bring people down from the CFL and take the players the NFL teams pass on in the draft but that’s building a league with secondary talent. Eight teams will make it a challenge to build fan bases and a market. The NFL has 32 teams and every state/region has a team relatively close to them. Having eight teams (wherever) isn’t enough to build the feel of a fanbase for each region of the country and that will make it difficult for fans that aren’t located close to a team to build a connection.
I think the XFL 2.0 will fail but I honestly hope it works out somehow. I’d set the over under at 2.5 seasons before it folds again and I’ll take the under. Only time will tell how it will work out but don’t get too excited about it until it starts to be successful, if that day ever comes.