Private Ownership vs League Ownership

[MGB01]

https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/01/26/xfl-s ... -drawbacks

According to this article I found some potential drawbacks to being a single entity owned league could be things like....

One might be fan concern that, like WWE fights, XFL games could have elements of choreography. The league owns all of the teams and employs everyone who works for those teams. With such power, the league could dictate play calling to stimulate interest in a particular game. Or the league might demand that certain players play in a particular game whereas others sit. The XFL will need to be transparent about its operations as it relates to competition and fair play. If it isn’t and if it markets a product in a deceptive way, it could run afoul of consumer protection laws and Federal Trade Commission regulations.

Ultimately if the grand design is for the XFL to be the big league of the offseason, then there's going to have to be mass investment and/or non-central ownership. Even 500 mil is chicken scratch considering every NFL franchise is worth at least double that.

Now I wouldn't worry about these types of articles cause they usually trample over themselves anyway and there's nothing really constructive here. That's a two year old piece that showed up after the announcement, obviously well before Luck and others were involved to give it legitimacy.

The question to be asked is what is the model, if it's MLS it works for me (hopefully won't be 10 years before they get a paying gig).

Where do you find the investors/owners? Out-of-the-box idea time: there's more than a few players, past and present, that have expressed desire to become an owner. Some have expressed disdain for current ownership without generally having a clue what's involved.
Well here's their chance (inspired by the Freedom League concept, but legit).

Seeing that anybody, even say Russell Wilson, would be multi-millions away from ever being even a majority owner we would most likely be talking investment groups. Otherwise, it'd be the UFL/Wall Street types which everybody hates but they're the only ones that seem to have the, as Everett Dirksen used to call it, real money.

That I think would go a long way towards the next deal being a paid one plus we can bump up the salary to where we have realistic tiers and scales and don't have to brace through leading articles by guys who should really know better like Darren Rovell.

Gotta build first.

[LeoNY]

Interesting topic.

Vince McMahon and NBC’s original plan was to build up the XFL to the point where they could sell franchises eventually. They obviously never got there.

Vince McMahon re WWE: There are hundreds of people in the WWE in producer and authority positions. Bookers, trainers, agents, writers etc McMahon leans on all of them heavily. He’s the boss but he can’t do everything. This idea that he is crafting every single match, promo and storyline is ridiculous. It’s always his vision and under his supervision but McMahon has leaned on quality people for years.

Oliver Luck is going to follow the MLS model with the XFL. The league has to be a success first before you can bring on ownership. It’s hard enough having one quality owner versus eight of them. You might get a reliable owner like McMahon but end up with three Reggie Fowler’s and two Dundon’s. The USFL has unreliable owners. They screwed up the entire league.

[MGB01]

Dundon was kind of an interesting case. Upon further review I'd put him kind of in the same category as Warburg Pincus--lead investor in Eric Bischoff's failed attempt to buy WCW in early 2001. Both had approximately the same window before D-Day--the would-be sale of WCW had 45 days until closing, the AAF lasted in the neighborhood from Dundon buying a majority stake until shutting it down.

The difference was they looked at WCW's books during the window, saw nothing but rising debt/huge losses and cut their offer in half before the whole thing blew up. Dundon grandstanded the whole time all the while undoubtedly knowing the situation, he should have just pulled out immediately let the AAF die and stopped wasting everybody's time.

[Xtremedb3]

From a business move ... if you can build a credible league you can sell off teams for a very strong profit. an nfl team now cost over a billion I believe... if he can sustain a few years redo the tv contract for $ and then if needed sell off individual franchises he would be very rich if each can go for 250mil .
... that would turn his 500 mil investment into 2 billion not to mention if the league does expand

[4th&long]

From a business move ... if you can build a credible league you can sell off teams for a very strong profit. an nfl team now cost over a billion I believe... if he can sustain a few years redo the tv contract for $ and then if needed sell off individual franchises he would be very rich if each can go for 250mil .
... that would turn his 500 mil investment into 2 billion not to mention if the league does expand

NFL teams - range from $2billion and up! Way up.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozania ... 8967742f1b

$250mm is reasonable for a successful XFL given that MLS is selling new franchises for $200mm and that looks like a ponzi-scheme with disaster written on it.

[johnnyangryfuzzball]

NFL is a weird beast because they have TV revenue that makes up over half their budget. You can afford $1.5 billion (which is about how much Buffalo would get on the open market) when you're getting $150 million a year back from TV alone. It's about as sure of an investment as you can get.

If individual franchises are going to be on the open market, their price will be dictated by profitability. That's why these first few years are so crucial: if they build a solid brand, one that TV will pay to broadcast, that's when the franchise value will rise.

[Tank55]

Well ... I sort of agree. Sports teams being profitable is a relatively new phenomenon. It used to be owning a sports team was a luxury good, like owning a yacht. You owned it because you could afford to lose the money, not because they made money. The Alouettes were just sold, for example, and they aren't profitable.

Edit: Sorry, didn't read your post closely enough. I don't think we're in disagreement.

[steinerfhc]

Vince isn't going to have private ownership because Vince is a control freak. Just look how he runs the WWE over the years and well how much he wants to be the be all end all in wrestling in general. I would love Vince to get some partners to add to the overall funds of the XFL. To maybe raise the pay of the players and make it easier to add teams. Each new team is more money to spend to get it going and a new roster to pay.

[MGB01]

Would this be the same "control freak" that not only allowed a women's triple threat to headline Wrestlemania but also "his boy" to flounder in midcard feuds since his return and as a consequence when he finally regains the Universal title it'll be a total MEH? (Both examples that HHH and Steph have more control, and consequently Vince less, over WWE than the Meltzer clones report)

[Sounder]

https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/01/26/xfl-s ... -drawbacks

According to this article I found some potential drawbacks to being a single entity owned league could be things like....

One might be fan concern that, like WWE fights, XFL games could have elements of choreography. The league owns all of the teams and employs everyone who works for those teams. With such power, the league could dictate play calling to stimulate interest in a particular game. Or the league might demand that certain players play in a particular game whereas others sit. The XFL will need to be transparent about its operations as it relates to competition and fair play. If it isn’t and if it markets a product in a deceptive way, it could run afoul of consumer protection laws and Federal Trade Commission regulations.

Ultimately if the grand design is for the XFL to be the big league of the offseason, then there's going to have to be mass investment and/or non-central ownership. Even 500 mil is chicken scratch considering every NFL franchise is worth at least double that.

Now I wouldn't worry about these types of articles cause they usually trample over themselves anyway and there's nothing really constructive here. That's a two year old piece that showed up after the announcement, obviously well before Luck and others were involved to give it legitimacy.

The question to be asked is what is the model, if it's MLS it works for me (hopefully won't be 10 years before they get a paying gig).

Where do you find the investors/owners? Out-of-the-box idea time: there's more than a few players, past and present, that have expressed desire to become an owner. Some have expressed disdain for current ownership without generally having a clue what's involved.
Well here's their chance (inspired by the Freedom League concept, but legit).

Seeing that anybody, even say Russell Wilson, would be multi-millions away from ever being even a majority owner we would most likely be talking investment groups. Otherwise, it'd be the UFL/Wall Street types which everybody hates but they're the only ones that seem to have the, as Everett Dirksen used to call it, real money.

That I think would go a long way towards the next deal being a paid one plus we can bump up the salary to where we have realistic tiers and scales and don't have to brace through leading articles by guys who should really know better like Darren Rovell.

Gotta build first.

Russell Wilson is invested in the Sounders as a minority owner....he could be part of a Dragons group or even a majority owner based on whatever the franchise valuation would be. That's not really determinable yet.