neutral site games/barnstorming team?

[XtremeFanForever]

Just another food for thought debate:

Would the league ever consider playing neutral site games featuring some of their lower-attendance teams? Not so much to supplemental that team's ticket sales, but to build excitement in other markets and perhaps dip their toe is certain cities. Say have a Wildcats vs. Vipers game in Phoenix, or Renegades vs. Guardians in Indianapolis?

An alternative idea is have a barnstorming team. If they can't find two ideal cities for expansion they can have one of them just play all five "home" games in neutral cities.

Say the 9th team is based in San Francisco while the 10th team rotates. One week in Portland, the next in Detroit, the next in Philadelphia, etc. Perhaps base them at the Team 9 (or Team 11 in this scenario) facilities in Dallas.

[GregParks]

I feel like if you're trying to establish a team's roots and the team is struggling to do so, the last thing you'd want to do is take games out of the market and upset an already-small fanbase and lose opportunities to grow that base. You've spent all this time and money researching what precious few cities are going to get XFL franchises; I don't think it's smart to start moving them away from those areas anytime soon. If the brand was huge like the NFL is, neutral site cities might attract quite a few fans. But those attending games in the early years of the league are largely attracted by having a home team - I'm not sure anyone in Phoenix is going to have any sort of attraction to the Wildcats or Vipers.

Barnstorming is kinda cool for independent baseball leagues and such, but for a brand like the XFL trying to build itself as legitimate in the eyes of fans, I think having a team like that, rightly or wrongly, will make the league look minor-league to a lot of casual fans that the league should be trying to win over.

[johnnyangryfuzzball]

Just another food for thought debate:

Would the league ever consider playing neutral site games featuring some of their lower-attendance teams? Not so much to supplemental that team's ticket sales, but to build excitement in other markets and perhaps dip their toe is certain cities. Say have a Wildcats vs. Vipers game in Phoenix, or Renegades vs. Guardians in Indianapolis?

An alternative idea is have a barnstorming team. If they can't find two ideal cities for expansion they can have one of them just play all five "home" games in neutral cities.

Say the 9th team is based in San Francisco while the 10th team rotates. One week in Portland, the next in Detroit, the next in Philadelphia, etc. Perhaps base them at the Team 9 (or Team 11 in this scenario) facilities in Dallas.

A barnstorming team would be intriguing, especially given the short nature of the season. It would fit in with the WWE model and would fit the league's aspirations of being a national brand. It'd give an opportunity to bring the XFL to a market that may not be big enough to support a full-time team but could support a single major event.

But to take away home games from a team that has a home city, that usually doesn't work out well. The Buffalo Bills tried it, and it didn't work because the Bills weren't that good at the time and Torontonians don't particularly care for football. The Jacksonville Jaguars have had some success with the London thing but of course that's only one or two games a year and, of course, it's a whole different country. There is no XFL market in a comparable situation to Jacksonville.