XFL is now the ex-FL

[Myles]

I'm not getting into the debate of the quality of the play on the field because never got around to actually watching a game. I can imagine, with second tier talent and little to no training camp...the play would be subpar to NFL standards...maybe even sup par to a good college team...idk.

But...people will watch bad football, they have in the past...so that imo is not the main reason the league failed.

I really think the long term game plan was to be absorbed by the NFL as a developmental league. That's the only way another pro football league is going to survive long term imo. Maybe they didn't see that happening and decided to cut their losses, and pull the plug now.

The quality of the games wasn't too bad. Obviously not NFL level, but better than most college.

 

[Cave_Johnson]

The quality of the games wasn't too bad. Obviously not NFL level, but better than most college.

If you really get down to it the quality of play was better than 99% of D1 college ball. And IMO that 1% would even be debatable most of the time.

 

[YankeeRebel]

I'm not getting into the debate of the quality of the play on the field because never got around to actually watching a game. I can imagine, with second tier talent and little to no training camp...the play would be subpar to NFL standards...maybe even sup par to a good college team...idk.

But...people will watch bad football, they have in the past...so that imo is not the main reason the league failed.

I really think the long term game plan was to be absorbed by the NFL as a developmental league. That's the only way another pro football league is going to survive long term imo. Maybe they didn't see that happening and decided to cut their losses, and pull the plug now.

Every league that was conjured up failed because in the beginning it sounds great but in the end people don't want to watch sub par football. So they stop watching, the revenue stream dries up and the league folds. I watched two games and it was pretty bad. Like I said I feel McMahon knew it was not going to work and rather than lose more money decided it was best to shut it down early

 

[pachyderm]

Well dammit.

Not great football but not completely horrible either. I enjoyed watching.

It's a shame that more people have lost their jobs.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

Every league that was conjured up failed because in the beginning it sounds great but in the end people don't want to watch sub par football. So they stop watching, the revenue stream dries up and the league folds. I watched two games and it was pretty bad. Like I said I feel McMahon knew it was not going to work and rather than lose more money decided it was best to shut it down early

The only thing that even makes sense is a spring league developmental league with NFL like rules...that could easily work if the NFL owners would buy in....they would be able to much better evaluate and develop certain positions like QB and OT.

But...as I've said many times...as long as they can have the CFB game as their developmental league for free...why invest in a developmental league here in the US? They tried it in Europe only because they're trying to develop the game over there to expand revenue.

 

[Cave_Johnson]

Every league that was conjured up failed because in the beginning it sounds great but in the end people don't want to watch sub par football. So they stop watching, the revenue stream dries up and the league folds. I watched two games and it was pretty bad. Like I said I feel McMahon knew it was not going to work and rather than lose more money decided it was best to shut it down early

Again, that's an idiotic opinion. McMahon went into this expecting to lose money. Look it up.

It got shut down because of a worldwide pandemic. The league's attendance was solid and the ratings were better than the vast majority of televised NCAA and NBA games.

The fact that you personally didn't like it had nothing to do with it suspending operations.

 

[wazzu31]

Every league that was conjured up failed because in the beginning it sounds great but in the end people don't want to watch sub par football. So they stop watching, the revenue stream dries up and the league folds. I watched two games and it was pretty bad. Like I said I feel McMahon knew it was not going to work and rather than lose more money decided it was best to shut it down early

Or he filed bankruptcy to get out of the contracts and other financing that would be owed thus saving his capital to restart it once the pandemic is over.

 

[YankeeRebel]

Again, that's an idiotic opinion. McMahon went into this expecting to lose money. Look it up.

It got shut down because of a worldwide pandemic. The league's attendance was solid and the ratings were better than the vast majority of televised NCAA and NBA games.

The fact that you personally didn't like it had nothing to do with it suspending operations.

LMAO So he went into this to lose money?

 

[YankeeRebel]

Or he filed bankruptcy to get out of the contracts and other financing that would be owed thus saving his capital to restart it once the pandemic is over.

Well, we'll see!

 

[BrockForBroglio]

They were doing pretty well in the cities where they had teams. They were also doing OK with everyone else. I'm sure I was not alone in trying to pick a team to root for. I was settling on St. Louis. They ran the ball well and seemed disciplined.

I had 4 tickets to the April 5th game in STL. 50 yard line about 20 rows up. We were looking forward to the game. Just got our money refunded Friday.

 

[Cave_Johnson]

LMAO So he went into this to lose money?

Holy shit dude. He sold a bunch of stock to fund the league for 3 years. It was guaranteed to lose money out of the gate.

Vince McMahon Expected To Lose $375 Million On XFL In First 3 Seasons

He knew this league was gonna be a money loser for about 3 seasons. The goal was to get a big TV deal after that to make the money back. He didn't get all this funding and plan this shit for years just to shut down the league because he was losing money after 5 weeks AS EXPECTED.

And again, the ratings and league attendance were fine.

 

[huskers1217]

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.c...om/2020/04/21/oliver-luck-sues-vince-mcmahon/

 

[wazzu31]

Holy shit dude. He sold a bunch of stock to fund the league for 3 years. It was guaranteed to lose money out of the gate.

Vince McMahon Expected To Lose $375 Million On XFL In First 3 Seasons

He knew this league was gonna be a money loser for about 3 seasons. The goal was to get a big TV deal after that to make the money back. He didn't get all this funding and plan this shit for years just to shut down the league because he was losing money after 5 weeks AS EXPECTED.

And again, the ratings and league attendance were fine.

Exactly the point. He had/has the capital but can’t fund it with zero revenue but a shit load of overhead...hence the bankruptcy instead of going the AAF route of shutting down operations.