The XFL Was Smarter Than You Think
The fifteen year anniversary of Vince McMahon's ill-fated foray into professional football has spurred renewed interest in the XFL. ESPN ran a "30 for 30" documentary on the subject last week. Dave Meltzer recapped the XFL's history on Wrestling Observer Radio this morning.
Conventional wisdom is that the XFL was doomed before it began. The league's 50% owners, NBC, showed signs of abandoning the project after the second of its twelve weeks. (Key quote: "We are absolutely committed to [the XFL] for the full season," with no mention of the second contracted season.) Television viewership collapsed almost minute-by-minute following a blockbuster opening week debut. Vince McMahon's penchant for publicity stunts (bikini'd cheerleaders in swimming pools, Jim Ross as lead television announcer, promises of punt returners getting Jacked Up, et al.) turned off mainstream sports media types and, likely, many football fans.
The greatest sin of all, or so conventional wisdom says, was presenting "minor league football" on a major broadcast network. There is some truth to this. Minor league sports require a major emotional attachment for people to overlook the inherent lack of quality. College football and basketball work in the United States because people are attached to their local universities (or alma maters, in some cases). The World Junior Hockey Championships work in Canada because of national pride. In both cases the players are interchangeable. To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, people just root for laundry. XFL viewers had no emotional attachment to their local laundry.
It may be true that that XFL failed for the simple reason that it was minor league football, but that overlooks all of the smart moves made by Vince McMahon.
The league had eight teams, which is the right number for a startup football league. Eight teams allows for either a fourteen game home-and-home schedule or, as the XFL did, a ten game schedule featuring two divisions, home-and-home games against division opponents, a single regular season game against teams in the opposite division and a short playoff. (The American Football League [AFL], which reportedly was an inspiration for McMahon, used the fourteen week option.)
XFL cities were a mix of major media markets and smaller markets with ostensible unmet demand for professional football. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco were the former. Orlando, Las Vegas, Birmingham and Memphis were the latter. (It could be argued that the XFL made the classic mistake of thinking that college football fans in the South want professional football, but that's a separate discussion.)
Other smart moves included playing exclusively on natural grass fields, promoting the league above individual teams (for example, the XFL logo painted at mid-field and in every end zone) and bringing a more personalized, character-based presentation to game coverage.
In the end, as with so many things in life, one fatal flaw be the undoing of countless smart moves. People don't care about minor league sports without an emotional attachment, and the XFL had no chance of presenting any other product.
Plenty of eye-rolling occurred when the subject of re-starting the XFL was broached in "This Was the XFL", the ESPN documentary, and perhaps it was deserved. Developmental leagues in all other sports must be heavily subsidized, and there is little reason to believe that a re-started XFL would be any different.
Times have changed since 2001, and there are two changes that could, perhaps, give a re-started XFL (or some other rogue professional football league) a chance at succeeding: Young NFL players are paid below their market value and viewership patterns have fragmented.
Could a re-started XFL, broadcasting games off network television on autumn Sundays and featuring top young players, work? Only an actual attempt would reveal the answer.
What is known is that the XFL is viewed today as one in a long line of Vince McMahon's follies outside of wrestling. It was more than just McMahon's unchecked hubris. It was a well thought out venture that may have just come fifteen years too soon.
Conventional wisdom is that the XFL was doomed before it began. The league's 50% owners, NBC, showed signs of abandoning the project after the second of its twelve weeks. (Key quote: "We are absolutely committed to [the XFL] for the full season," with no mention of the second contracted season.) Television viewership collapsed almost minute-by-minute following a blockbuster opening week debut. Vince McMahon's penchant for publicity stunts (bikini'd cheerleaders in swimming pools, Jim Ross as lead television announcer, promises of punt returners getting Jacked Up, et al.) turned off mainstream sports media types and, likely, many football fans.
The greatest sin of all, or so conventional wisdom says, was presenting "minor league football" on a major broadcast network. There is some truth to this. Minor league sports require a major emotional attachment for people to overlook the inherent lack of quality. College football and basketball work in the United States because people are attached to their local universities (or alma maters, in some cases). The World Junior Hockey Championships work in Canada because of national pride. In both cases the players are interchangeable. To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, people just root for laundry. XFL viewers had no emotional attachment to their local laundry.
It may be true that that XFL failed for the simple reason that it was minor league football, but that overlooks all of the smart moves made by Vince McMahon.
The league had eight teams, which is the right number for a startup football league. Eight teams allows for either a fourteen game home-and-home schedule or, as the XFL did, a ten game schedule featuring two divisions, home-and-home games against division opponents, a single regular season game against teams in the opposite division and a short playoff. (The American Football League [AFL], which reportedly was an inspiration for McMahon, used the fourteen week option.)
XFL cities were a mix of major media markets and smaller markets with ostensible unmet demand for professional football. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco were the former. Orlando, Las Vegas, Birmingham and Memphis were the latter. (It could be argued that the XFL made the classic mistake of thinking that college football fans in the South want professional football, but that's a separate discussion.)
Other smart moves included playing exclusively on natural grass fields, promoting the league above individual teams (for example, the XFL logo painted at mid-field and in every end zone) and bringing a more personalized, character-based presentation to game coverage.
In the end, as with so many things in life, one fatal flaw be the undoing of countless smart moves. People don't care about minor league sports without an emotional attachment, and the XFL had no chance of presenting any other product.
Plenty of eye-rolling occurred when the subject of re-starting the XFL was broached in "This Was the XFL", the ESPN documentary, and perhaps it was deserved. Developmental leagues in all other sports must be heavily subsidized, and there is little reason to believe that a re-started XFL would be any different.
Times have changed since 2001, and there are two changes that could, perhaps, give a re-started XFL (or some other rogue professional football league) a chance at succeeding: Young NFL players are paid below their market value and viewership patterns have fragmented.
Could a re-started XFL, broadcasting games off network television on autumn Sundays and featuring top young players, work? Only an actual attempt would reveal the answer.
What is known is that the XFL is viewed today as one in a long line of Vince McMahon's follies outside of wrestling. It was more than just McMahon's unchecked hubris. It was a well thought out venture that may have just come fifteen years too soon.
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