John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal reported Tuesday that Vince McMahon’s revival of the XFL may find itself on not one, but two networks come its 2020 debut.
In the article (subscription needed), Ourand said that the league is “deep” in discussions with both Fox and ESPN that would bring two thirds of the league’s games to ABC, Fox, ESPN, and FS1. He added that ESPN+ isn’t on the table as of this point.
McMahon’s WWE will begin their run on Fox with SmackDown beginning there this September.
In last week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer said the XFL expects to announce broadcast deals in the next few weeks and that they want to have their eight “star quarterbacks” and head coaches in place by March so they can begin promoting in each of the league’s markets 10 months in advance.
The XFL’s main competition — the American Alliance of Football — begins play a week after the Super Bowl.
The legacy of the Dynamite Kid is a complex one to digest.
Perhaps the most succinct way of putting it came from Julie Hart, his former sister-in-law, who one day told me, “Really, he was the best wrestler there ever was,” said Hart, who saw more than her share of great wrestling and was the wife of Bret Hart. “And as great as he was as a wrestler, he was every bit as miserable of a human being.”
Realistically, when you watch pro wrestling in 2018, the thing you realize is that when it comes to in-ring wrestling, the modern style that combines some American style with old British, Lucha Libre and Japanese style had its primitive and most influential roots in the 1981-83 matches between Tiger Mask and the Dynamite Kid.
The two only had a handful of singles matches, all but one in Japan, but every match was a classic that lived on through videotapes, and was really the first of the classic videotape feuds.
The revival of the XFL took its next step at a media event in New Jersey today.
Vince McMahon announced that the first season of the league’s revival will begin on February 8-9, 2020, which is the weekend after the NFL’s Super Bowl. XFL commissioner and CEO Oliver Luck said the start date gives them the time they need to get the game, the fan experience, and their partnerships right.
The inaugural season will feature eight teams. The host cities (which had already been inadvertently revealed on the league’s website) and venues were confirmed today:
New York (MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey)
Dallas (Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas)
Houston (TDECU Stadium in Houston, Texas)
Los Angeles (StubHub Center in Carson, California)
St. Louis (The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis, Missouri)
Seattle (CenturyLink Field in Seattle, Washington)
Tampa Bay (Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida)
Washington D.C. (Audi Field in Washington D.C.)
St. Louis is the only one of those cities without an NFL team.
Instead of having individual owners, all of the XFL teams will be owned by the league. Luck noted that they’re well on their way to identifying their team presidents and head coaches. The coaches will also be the general managers of their teams. The XFL plans on filling the team president and head coach positions in the first quarter of 2019, which is also their timeframe for signing quarterbacks and other impact players.
Team names will be announced in the coming months.
Luck said he believes there’s a big player pool they’ll recruit from, including inviting players who are released when the NFL finalizes its rosters to try out. The XFL will scout, run mini-camps, hold local tryouts, and have an XFL draft and supplemental draft.
A television/media rights deal wasn’t announced at today’s event. Luck said they’re “very excited about the meaningful and deep conversations we’ve had with all of the major media players about our distribution plans.” He said the XFL is confident that their games will be widely available on multiple platforms when the league launches. McMahon also mentioned that there’s a clamoring for live sporting events on many networks.
The XFL continued to push the idea of “reimagining” football, with Luck saying that they want to complement fall football. The four areas they’re focusing on for the on-field product are the speed of the game, increasing meaningful on-field action, creating more in-game rhythm and flow, and improving player safety.
Luck said the XFL will test for performance-enhancing drugs.
It was noted that the XFL is watching the development of sports gambling in the U.S. The league is a proponent of giving fans a legal and safe way to participate in gambling.
WWE chairman Vince McMahon’s second go-round with the XFL will take another big step Wednesday afternoon as the league will officially announce eight teams and venues that will begin play in 2020.
You can watch the announcement below:
The rumored cities are New York, Seattle, St. Louis, Washington, D.C., Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Tampa Bay due to an accidental reveal on the league’s website that was later removed.
Earlier this year, McMahon surprisingly announced the relaunch of the XFL. Two months later, they got a competitor in the Alliance of American Football, a league co-founded by Charlie Ebersol, son of Dick Ebersol, former NBC Sports head and one of the key figures behind the first XFL iteration as well as Saturday Night’s Main Event.
The XFL already has a commissioner but has not announced any media deals or other details about the league to this point. According to McMahon, the league will not be mixed in with WWE like the first iteration was.
The next step in Vince McMahon’s XFL revival is set for next week.
At MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey next Wednesday (December 5), the XFL will reveal which eight cities will be getting teams for the league’s 2020 launch. The XFL will also announce which venues the teams will be playing at.
The XFL will stream next Wednesday’s announcement live on the league’s website and social media accounts at noon Eastern time.
It appears that St. Louis, Missouri will be home to one of the XFL’s eight teams. KSDK TV reported earlier this week that the XFL will be coming to St. Louis, with five of the team’s 10 regular season games being played at The Dome at America’s Center. The venue was formerly known as the Edward Jones Dome, and the NFL’s Rams played there prior to moving to Los Angeles in 2016.
Instead of using a franchise model with individual owners, the XFL will own all of the teams in the league. A television/media rights deal for the XFL has yet to be announced.
One of the teams for Vince McMahon’s XFL revival appears to have its home.
KSDK TV in St. Louis, Missouri reported on Tuesday that the city will be getting an XFL team for the league’s 2020 launch. They noted that five of the team’s 10 regular season games will be played at The Dome at America’s Center, which is the former Edward Jones Dome. The NFL’s Rams played there prior to moving to Los Angeles in 2016.
KSDK said that all of the host cities for the XFL teams will be unveiled next week.
There will be eight teams at the start of the XFL revival, with the league owning all of the teams instead of using a franchise model with individual owners. KSDK reported that the XFL has already contacted sports executives in St. Louis about running the city’s team.
More details have emerged on the finances of Vince McMahon’s XFL revival.
ESPN’s Darren Rovell reported today that McMahon has informed insiders that he expects to spend “closer to $500 million” over the football league’s first three seasons, which would be more than $160 million per year. That $500 million number is in comparison to the $100 million in WWE stock that McMahon sold last December to fund Alpha Entertainment LLC.
Alpha Entertainment has been positioned as a separate entity from WWE since the announcement of its formation and the official relaunch of the XFL.
“People were focused on the $100 million, but the truth is that doesn’t even get us to the 20-yard line,” XFL CEO and commissioner Oliver Luck told ESPN.
Luck noted that salaries for players and coaches will be their biggest cost, with salaries expected to be near $75,000 annually per player — though more well known athletes will earn more than that. Luck also said that they’d be spending over $10 million a year on a “broad-based insurance program” to cover the players’ injuries.
Luck was announced as the XFL’s CEO and commissioner earlier this month. He’s an experienced sports executive and most recently worked as the NCAA’s executive vice president of regulatory affairs.
When announcing the revival of the XFL, Vince McMahon promised that “experienced executives” would be hired to be at the forefront of the league.
The league followed up on that today, with Oliver Luck being named as the commissioner and chief executive officer of the XFL. Luck, who is the father of Indianapolis Colts star Andrew Luck, played quarterback at West Virginia University and had a stint as a backup in the NFL in the 1980s.
Luck is leaving a position as the executive vice president of regulatory affairs for the NCAA. Prior to that, Luck served as the athletic director at West Virginia University, was the president of NFL Europe and the Houston Dynamo soccer team. and was the CEO of the Houston Sports Authority.
“Oliver and I share the same vision and passion for reimagining the game of football. His experience as both an athlete and executive will ensure the long-term success of the XFL,” McMahon said in a statement.
If wrestling seems to move fast, the entire history of the XFL was like that of a lightning bolt.
Vince McMahon went from being the toast of the television world when huge ratings came in for opening night. And within one week, it became the butt of jokes, set record low ratings, lost millions and failed faster than you can say USFL.
McMahon and Dick Ebersol announced on 5/10 at a hastily put together press conference less than three weeks after the championship game that they were disbanding the league after McMahon a few hours earlier had gotten word from UPN that they were not going to pick the league up for a second season. NBC has pretty well made that decision during the season, but had yet to publicly acknowledge it. McMahon said that they, without UPN or NBC, looked into cutting the league into six times and going ahead with a second season, but felt it wouldn’t be economically viable, and shut it down.
Before Vince McMahon’s XFL officially kicks off in 2020, they already have a rival that isn’t the NFL. And, in a twist, a driving force behind it is someone McMahon knows fairly well.
On Tuesday, news broke that Charlie Ebersol — producer of the XFL ESPN 30-for-30 and son of longtime NBC Sports executive Dick — will be heading up another new pro football league, already armed with a TV deal and set to kickoff in 2019.
The Alliance of American Football has several major backers including the majority owners of Barstool Sports and the Founders Fund which includes Peter Theil, the man who secretly funded Hulk Hogan’s succesful lawsuit against Gawker Media. The season will begin in February 2019 and will conclude in April with games on both CBS and CBS Sports Network.
Dick will be be on the league’s board. He was a major part of the XFL’s lone season and historically was a champion for then-WWF programming on the Peacock Network. There was no indication he would be involved with the new XFL, but given McMahon’s history with him, that was a likely association in some aspect.
Because of the nature of the league, it will be a direct competitor to McMahon’s XFL which was officially announced in January for a 2020 return. How this will affect the player pool, potential sponsors, and more will be an interesting story to see play out over the next two years.
With fan and media reaction after its debut all across the board and a huge buzz leading to a monstrous television rating, the only way to review the debut of the XFL over the weekend is this. Despite what sports people may think and even hardcore fans of sports may think, the majority of people attend sporting events as well as wrestling events based on quality of hype. They enjoy themselves based on quality of atmosphere of the show, and going home happy (either the babyface prevailing at the end or the home team prevailing). If you have a good time, you want to go back, but to get the masses to attend, the masses have to also believe what they are attending is “hot” or in some ways “important” either in a mainstream way or in a niche way.
The show drew a 9.49 rating and 17 share, leading it to being easily the highest rated show on television for the night. NBC had drawn a 4.7 the previous Saturday night.
“The new XFL will kick off in 2020, and quite frankly, we’re gonna give the game of football back to fans,” Vince McMahon said this afternoon as he announced the revival of the XFL.
At the start, there will be eight teams, 40-man rosters, a 10-game regular season, and a postseason with two semifinals and a championship game. They haven’t decided on which cities will have teams yet, but the league won’t be using a franchise model and there won’t be individual owners.
Plans are for the season to start in January or early February, which is around the end of the NFL calendar.
There will be a multi-platform approach to presenting games, with them available on big screens and mobile devices. McMahon said there’s been no initial talks with broadcast partners but claimed there’s interest out there.
On the subject of WWE, McMahon said the XFL revival will not affect his current role. There will also be no crossover of talent between the groups. McMahon said WWE isn’t involved with the XFL because the initial $100 million investment was too rich.
McMahon said the quality of the human being will be as important as the quality of the player when it comes to who plays in the XFL. He said they don’t want players who have any criminality associated with them, and you won’t play in the XFL even if you have a DUI.
McMahon noted that the league will have nothing to do with politics and will stay out of social issues. When asked if players would be required to stand for the national anthem, McMahon called it a time-honored tradition in sports to stand for the anthem and said players will know the rules and regulations.
The XFL will be hiring experienced executives and McMahon won’t be the public face of the league.
McMahon said they’d be listening to fans, players, coaches, medical experts, technology executives, members of the media, and anyone else who loves football. He mentioned eliminating halftime, having fewer commercial breaks, making the game faster, and simplifying the rules as possible ideas. Their goal is for games to be approximately two hours long.
The original XFL ran for one unsuccessful season in 2001. An ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on the league premiered last year.
If you missed the announcement from today, here’s the audio:
WWE announced Thursday that Vince McMahon will make “a major sports announcement” at 3 PM Eastern, available via his Alpha Entertainment social media channels.
The group officially launched Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube channels, as well as a website.
In mid-December, reporter Brad Shepard tweeted that McMahon was looking to bring back the XFL and would make an announcement on Thursday, January 25th, leading to a follow-up via Deadspin’s David Bixenspan that elicited a response from WWE regarding the creation of Alpha Entertainment.
McMahon renewed old XFL trademarks last year in addition to adding new trademarks for “UrFL”. McMahon also sold nearly $100 million worth of WWE stock to help fund Alpha Entertainment.
While nostaglia grew last year with the release of an ESPN 30 For 30 on the XFL, there is a lot of questions regarding the feasability of a new league in the current sports environment. The NFL and college football have only grown in popularity since the XFL’s closing after just one year in action and while secondary/gimmick leagues like Arena Football still do exist, the logistics involved in creating a league from scratch are considerable.
There is a possibility McMahon could be announcing that he’s joining a group to buy the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, but that seems highly unlikely given a) the price tag and b) the buzz he’s creating surrounding the announcement.
In a move that could indicate a big step toward getting involved with professional football, WWE chairman Vince McMahon sold 3.34 million Class A common shares of company stock Thursday for what could be in the ballpark of $100+ million dollars.
As noted in the SEC filing, “Mr. McMahon executed the sale primarily to fund a separate entity from the Company, Alpha Entertainment LLC, which Mr. McMahon established to explore investment opportunities across the sports and entertainment landscapes, including professional football. Mr. McMahon has informed the Company that he has no current plan to sell additional shares of the Company’s stock and that he intends to continue in his capacity as the Company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for the foreseeable future.
“The shares sold by Mr. McMahon represent approximately 4.3% of the Company’s total outstanding shares of Class A and Class B common stock. After the sale, Mr. McMahon beneficially owns 32,193,375 shares of the Company’s Class B common stock, which represents approximately 82.8% of the Company’s total voting power and approximately 41.8% of the Company’s total outstanding shares of common stock.”
After hours trading saw the stock drop to $30.80/share.
Over the weekend, it broke that McMahon could be looking to bring back the XFL and make the announcement as early as January which led to a further reveal about the creation of Alpha Entertainment.
Earlier this month, Alpha Entertainment applied for five new XFL trademarks that cover the league restarting and merchandise. Additionally, they would like to trademark ‘URFL’.
What started with a Friday night tweet raged into an all-out inferno Friday night and Saturday morning as rumors about Vince McMahon reviving the XFL were enough to get WWE to comment with some interesting news.
Journalist Brad Shepard tweeted that McMahon was looking to bring back the XFL and announce it on Thursday, January 25th. That got Deadspin’s David Bixenspan to ask WWE for a comment on this rumor which got a response that McMahon had “established and funded a separate entity from WWE” called Alpha Entertainment that would explore investment opportunities into sports and entertainment properties, including professional football.
Major media outlets have also picked up on the story including the Washington Post, New York Post, Pro Football Talk, Yahoo, and others. Notably, ESPN has posted nothing on this as of this writing.
The league got a bit of a nostalgia boost this year with the documentary and there some notable technical innovations from the one-year product that debuted and folded in 2001. However, there would be considerable challenges to re-starting the league which include investment money, player acquisition, TV distribution, infrastructure, overcoming the stigma of the previous failure, and finding eyeballs and attention in a marketplace that already has the NFL and college football with the former being notably chided for declining ratings.
As the Post points out in a transcription from the documentary, McMahon has thought about the revival in the past:
“Yes I do,” McMahon replies. “I don’t know what it would be. I don’t know if it’s going to be another XFL or what it may be or how different I would make it. It seems like in some way it would tie in either with the NFL itself or the owners.”
