XFL’s return is a Vince McMahon vanity project with a chance
The 2.0 version of the XFL is on, but there will be less emphasis on the “X” and more on the “F” in this next-gen re-boot. The gimmicks have been downplayed. The focus is on the football.
The only question is if people want spring football between teams they don’t know.
Historically, spring football has been a loser. The USFL made it three years in the ‘80s. The World League of American Football/NFL Europe made it 16 years, only because the NFL funded it until it was sick of losing millions. The Alliance of American Football lasted less than one season, in 2019. The XFL’s first attempt lasted but one year, in 2001.
The startup league has told everyone that it is fully funded for three seasons. It can lose cash by the Brinks and be OK. The XFL wants to see a return, and positive momentum, by 2022.
No spring league outside of NFL Europe has ever been funded by so much wealth; WWE, which owns and operates the XFL, is currently trading at $45 per share, and founder Vince McMahon is worth more than $2 billion.
McMahon was publicly embarrassed with his first venture into football. When I interviewed McMahon in January of 2015, he mentioned the XFL actually had some success, and sounded like a guy who wanted to give it another go.
Curious fans, and those who are simply addicted to the sport, and gambling, will have their first look at the new XFL when the 10-week season begins in eight cities this weekend. The Dallas Renegades will host the St. Louis BattleHawks at 4 p.m. on Sunday at Globe Life Park in Arlington.
“People should expect good football,” Renegades coach Bob Stoops said. “There are a lot of good players in this league.”
This is what people should expect: A small number of names you may recognize from their college days, and football you know it with a handful of tweaks, all designed for a shorter attention span.
This is the XFL 2020
Of the many mistakes the league made in 2000 was it embraced too many of the characteristics made famous by the WWE, and the football itself was lost amid the cartoon features.
Although NBC carried some the games, its notable sports faces, most notably Bob Costas, wanted no part of the XFL.
Other than a few notable creations, the sky-cam being chief among them, the XFL in 2001 was a bad product.
Gone from this XFL is any trace of WWE. No nicknames on the backs of jerseys, such as “He Hate Me.”
“That name caught our attention,” said defensive end Frank Alexander, who played at Oklahoma in college. “I remember it had that red and black ball.”
Those are gone.
Gone are announcers who trash talk during a telecast. Gone are female sideline reporters who openly discuss dating players.
“I just remember it was all like [the video game], ‘NFL Blitz,’” said Renegades running back Lance Dunbar, who played at North Texas. He spent five NFL seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. “It’s going to be football, but there will be more interaction between players and fans, like wrestling in that sense.
“There will be interviews during the game. They want to see personality.”
McMahon is not doing this again as a vanity project. WWE hired a firm to conduct an extensive study to determine if spring football is a viable investment.
What McMahon found through research was people want more football. What he doesn’t know is if that simply means people just want NCAA or NFL football.
Football Made Faster
The league studied and re-studied the the sport of football, and implemented new rules designed to increase scoring a bit, and to make the game a more sleek, more efficient, product.
The plan is for three to four touchdowns per team, per game. The target is a game that lasts about two hours and 45 minutes, or about 30 minutes less than an average NFL game.
The XFL has taken the NFL’s rules, and reduced time everywhere possible. Teams are given two timeouts per half. Halftime is 10 minutes. The game clock will run after incomplete passes, until two minutes remain in the half. The play clock is 25 seconds.
The XFL has put rules in place to de-emphasize kickers and punters. It wants teams to go for it on fourth down.
It has three point-after options following a touchdown, none of which include the traditional extra point kicks. Teams can score one point from the 2-yard line, two points from the 4-yard line, and three points from the 10-yard line.
The league has told the referees that unless the penalty directly affects the play, don’t bother calling it.
Minor League Football
Unlike the USFL, which famously sued the NFL and lost, this version of the XFL has no interest in being anything other than a spring football league. The XFL is not going to challenge the NFL.
Players view this as a chance to play one more game, with the spoken ambition of making it to, or back to, the NFL.
The XFL has the advantage of a television package that will carry its games on ESPN, ABC, Fox and Fox Sports 1 for two years. Note neither ESPN nor Fox is paying the XFL for the rights to broadcast these games.
This level of exposure only helps, and the XFL is not paying for any of the TV production costs.
The league will completely embrace gambling, and online fantasy betting.
The long-term plan is to slowly grow and expand to a league that will feature 16 franchises, possibly more. League officials hope for the average attendance, to start, to be in the vicinity of 20,000.
The Renegades are selling the lower bowl of Globe Life Park, which would put the attendance for a Renegades’ game around 20,000.
The average price for an XFL ticket is about $51.
Expect typical growing pains associated with any startup.
The best case is that this version of the XFL will “make it” as sort of NBA G League, or MLB’s Triple A, version of football. The G League is made possible because of the NBA’s wallet, and serves as a developmental league.
History says this latest fling with spring football will be an L, but McMahon is betting there is a market for it if done correctly.
“It’s just football. The only difference is that there is an ‘X’ on the football instead of an ‘N,’” Alexander said. “Expect a great game of football. That’s what fans should expect. They had time to really plan this out, and lay it out how it’s supposed to be laid out.”
The XFL is giving itself three years to succeed, which will be determined by whether what we want is actually more football, or just more of the football we already know.
Dallas Renegades inaugural season
Sunday, Feb. 9: St. Louis BattleHawks, 4 p.m. (ESPN)
Sunday, Feb 16: at Los Angeles Wildcats, 2 p.m. (ABC)
Saturday, Feb 22: at Seattle Dragons, 4 p.m. (FOX)
Sunday, March 1: vs. Houston Roughnecks, 3 p.m. (FS1)
Saturday, March 7: vs. New York Guardians, 4 p.m. (FOX)
Sunday, March 15: at DC Defenders, 3 p.m. (FS1)
Saturday, March 21: at Tampa Bay Vipers, 1 p.m. (ABC)
Sunday, March 29: vs. Seattle Dragons, 5 p.m. (FS1)
Thursday, April 2: at Houston Roughnecks, 7 p.m. (FOX)
Thursday, April 9: vs. Los Angeles Wildcats, 7 p.m. (FOX)
All home games at Globe Life Park
This story was originally published February 7, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
