XFL Bankruptcy Thread

XFL Football discussion.
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SamTheRam28
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Re: XFL Bankruptcy Thread

Post by SamTheRam28 »

GregParks wrote: Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:28 pm The Athletic's Daniel Kaplan has a story covering the request by ESPN and FOX to not have their deals with the XFL as part of the bankruptcy sale:

https://theathletic.com/1957668/2020/07 ... ast-deals/ (subscription required)

While both FOX and ESPN had been categorized by others as willing to renegotiate their TV deal with the new buyers, Kaplan's story casts doubt on ESPN's desire to do so. Namely because, taken from ESPN's court filing objecting to its contract being included in the bankruptcy, they partnered with the XFL largely because of Vince McMahon:

“The image and ultimate success of the XFL are heavily linked to the efforts, resources, and reputation of Vincent McMahon. If Vincent McMahon and his team of professionals are not running the XFL enterprise, then a key consideration for the Telecast Agreement … has disappeared, and ESPN cannot be compelled to join in a partnership with an assignee absent ESPN’s express consent. “

Also:

“The content that ESPN chooses to broadcast is not fungible; its character and quality is directly related to the team of professionals that is producing that content. This is especially so when dealing with content being created by an entirely new enterprise (as opposed to content that is part of a well-established program and production enterprise)…. If Vincent McMahon is not part of the enterprise, then a key consideration for the contracts has disappeared.”

Kaplan termed this as being "little chance" of a new contract being made between ESPN and the league with new buyers. On the good news front, while many contracts held by the league, including those of sponsorships, are slated to carry over in the bankruptcy, FOX and ESPN were the only ones to file objections.

tl;dr: Kaplan not as confident on the idea of ESPN re-upping with the league's potential new owners as we've been led to believe
While this sucks, I hope this means Disney won't buy the league either. I feel if Disney owns its own football league, it would be the "BLM" and "social justice" football league. It was awesome to see a brand new league get the exposure of ESPN and ABC though, and I hope they reconsider being a partner.
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Re: XFL Bankruptcy Thread

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Whether it returns or not, the things they did made an impact and it will further advance the game of football into a more exciting to watch product. Really wish we could've had at least one overtime session to see how that would've worked. Two years of planning went into five weeks of games that definitely made an impact. When things get settled down, and mark my word it will.....spring football will be tried again. But not now nor even in 2021.
The NBA says it will finish by October 13 and since that's less than a month before a new season would normally start....I wonder when they'll start next season. Same for NHL. Baseball looks like it should've just taken a hiatus.....however I found the cardboard cutouts of fans and piped in crowd noise quite humerous. It's MLB the Show LIVE! The Olympics are rescheduled for next summer and a Winter Olympics would normally happen the following February in 2022....it's really messed up out there. And I'm thinking the NFL will end up pushing things back too because as MLB is demonstrating.....it just isn't time yet for sports to fully return safely.
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Re: XFL Bankruptcy Thread

Post by MGB01 »

NBA (20-21) is starting Dec 1

A 10-game NFL season consisting of March Madness-style bubbles and only div matchups plus four games based on region played in KC, SF, BAL, and GB might have been intriguing, I can see the holes in it though. Better to learn from MLB while you've still got a few weeks.

And if (when) ESPN pulls out I'll be here to collect my winnings😁
4th&long
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Re: XFL Bankruptcy Thread

Post by 4th&long »

SamTheRam28 wrote: Tue Jul 28, 2020 7:20 pm
GregParks wrote: Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:28 pm The Athletic's Daniel Kaplan has a story covering the request by ESPN and FOX to not have their deals with the XFL as part of the bankruptcy sale:

https://theathletic.com/1957668/2020/07 ... ast-deals/ (subscription required)

While both FOX and ESPN had been categorized by others as willing to renegotiate their TV deal with the new buyers, Kaplan's story casts doubt on ESPN's desire to do so. Namely because, taken from ESPN's court filing objecting to its contract being included in the bankruptcy, they partnered with the XFL largely because of Vince McMahon:

“The image and ultimate success of the XFL are heavily linked to the efforts, resources, and reputation of Vincent McMahon. If Vincent McMahon and his team of professionals are not running the XFL enterprise, then a key consideration for the Telecast Agreement … has disappeared, and ESPN cannot be compelled to join in a partnership with an assignee absent ESPN’s express consent. “

Also:

“The content that ESPN chooses to broadcast is not fungible; its character and quality is directly related to the team of professionals that is producing that content. This is especially so when dealing with content being created by an entirely new enterprise (as opposed to content that is part of a well-established program and production enterprise)…. If Vincent McMahon is not part of the enterprise, then a key consideration for the contracts has disappeared.”

Kaplan termed this as being "little chance" of a new contract being made between ESPN and the league with new buyers. On the good news front, while many contracts held by the league, including those of sponsorships, are slated to carry over in the bankruptcy, FOX and ESPN were the only ones to file objections.

tl;dr: Kaplan not as confident on the idea of ESPN re-upping with the league's potential new owners as we've been led to believe
While this sucks, I hope this means Disney won't buy the league either. I feel if Disney owns its own football league, it would be the "BLM" and "social justice" football league. It was awesome to see a brand new league get the exposure of ESPN and ABC though, and I hope they reconsider being a partner.
This has been know for months. Both nets will not be tied to the renewed league due to no VM. Which was obvious and why I was hoping he'd been involved but some idiots in the bankruptcy did not (despite getting a full year salary for 5/10 games played).

I don't see this as a big issue as it was never going to happen. I do see at least one of these two nets working with the new league in a new contract.
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Re: XFL Bankruptcy Thread

Post by 4th&long »

Sounder wrote: Tue Jul 28, 2020 8:30 pm Whether it returns or not, the things they did made an impact and it will further advance the game of football into a more exciting to watch product. Really wish we could've had at least one overtime session to see how that would've worked. Two years of planning went into five weeks of games that definitely made an impact. When things get settled down, and mark my word it will.....spring football will be tried again. But not now nor even in 2021.
The NBA says it will finish by October 13 and since that's less than a month before a new season would normally start....I wonder when they'll start next season. Same for NHL. Baseball looks like it should've just taken a hiatus.....however I found the cardboard cutouts of fans and piped in crowd noise quite humerous. It's MLB the Show LIVE! The Olympics are rescheduled for next summer and a Winter Olympics would normally happen the following February in 2022....it's really messed up out there. And I'm thinking the NFL will end up pushing things back too because as MLB is demonstrating.....it just isn't time yet for sports to fully return safely.
Safely? As far as players? Why. Stephen Curry earlier this year had the flu and the team played on. Last year the NE Patriots had a massive Flu go thru the team for a couple weeks and the team played on. Covid is on par with the flu for most, ie under 45/50. The fear porn on this is off the charts but it'll end the 1st week in Nov.

I posted this before:
The death rate is 2.5x a bad flu, its bad but no worse than the 1957 asian flu or 1968 HongKong flu. Media is just 24/7 today and it sells.
EDIT: LINKS FIXED

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resour ... demic.html

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resour ... demic.html

Keep in mind the US population was 180mm and 205mm (330mm today) in those years and avg life expectancy age was in 60's to 70's vs 80yo today which is where we see the highest fatality rates.

So its bad but its not new and it is over blown. That being said, be safe!!!

I'll add this which I assume everyone already knows:
85% of fatalities are over 60yo
95% of fatalities are over 50yo
Under 40 is less than 2%, that's ~3k people - like a flu season....

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden-av ... 7-2018.htm

All these numbers are public info. The focus should be on high risk groups - not under 30 and 40yo ball players. The leagues are just worried about PR and I'm sure the older non-players of the teams. Not saying they shouldn't take action, just that the players are very low risk of serious sickness factually.
Last edited by 4th&long on Wed Jul 29, 2020 10:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: XFL Bankruptcy Thread

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Is it so important to play these games right now though.....I know it's a living for the athletes.....but I think they'd be taken care of if things just took a pause.
It just makes no sense to me to stage these games in front of nobody. If fans can't go....why bother? All it does for me is to make me more depressed because I'm watching a game attended by cardboard. Even if say the Mariners took advantage of this and made it to a world series played in front of no one for a championship that you only won because of a 60 game sprint that doesn't really matter anyway.....what's that all about? It doesn't improve my life in any way. But getting past this pandemic would certainly do it.....so I wish people would stop arguing about facts and figures and mistrust in government and just wear your damn mask so we can get back. That being said ....be safe.
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SamTheRam28
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Re: XFL Bankruptcy Thread

Post by SamTheRam28 »

Sounder wrote: Wed Jul 29, 2020 3:49 pm so I wish people would stop arguing about facts and figures and mistrust in government and just wear your damn mask so we can get back. That being said ....be safe.
This is the problem though. Nobody seems to care about the actual facts and statistics. Everybody just says wear your damn mask, shut up, and wait for a vaccine. We need to find a way to live life with COVID-19. We live normally every single year with the flu, which kills tens of thousands in the US. We live with all sorts of deadly contagious diseases and have never shut down. Sports can and are being played in the COVID-19 era. The XFL already has a plan, and if they do something like the NHL with tarps and good presentation, you can forget you're even watching a football game with no fans.

Everybody sitting inside and wearing a mask isn't the solution. We have to find ways to carry on with life, and sports are a key part of that for a lot of people.
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Re: XFL Bankruptcy Thread

Post by Sounder »

SamTheRam28 wrote: Wed Jul 29, 2020 4:38 pm
Sounder wrote: Wed Jul 29, 2020 3:49 pm so I wish people would stop arguing about facts and figures and mistrust in government and just wear your damn mask so we can get back. That being said ....be safe.
This is the problem though. Nobody seems to care about the actual facts and statistics. Everybody just says wear your damn mask, shut up, and wait for a vaccine. We need to find a way to live life with COVID-19. We live normally every single year with the flu, which kills tens of thousands in the US. We live with all sorts of deadly contagious diseases and have never shut down. Sports can and are being played in the COVID-19 era. The XFL already has a plan, and if they do something like the NHL with tarps and good presentation, you can forget you're even watching a football game with no fans.

Everybody sitting inside and wearing a mask isn't the solution. We have to find ways to carry on with life, and sports are a key part of that for a lot of people.

But right now, we are anything but normal. if you want to live with it I guess that's your choice..... this crap is unacceptable and I'm pissed. I'm not willing to see my sports become made for tv viewing from an isolated location spectacle. Might as well tear down stadiums and just play on open fields in the pasture. It would still count right?
And why doesn't the NBA....while I'm on the subject.....just take the top eight teams as of the shutdown, and have the playoffs? It makes no sense to continue a regular season without all your teams.
I'm just concerned for them....not myself......I'm as good as dead.
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Re: XFL Bankruptcy Thread

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I'm fascinated by the upcoming auction though to see who this falls to.
Some of the potential players say like Sinclair, own a lot of stations but not much in the way of sports properties other than ROH wrestling which has been around since 2002 and bought by Sinclair in 2011. So they'd have a place for it. The mainstream sports world would ignore it. But if they handled it like ROH.....it would be on all the time....if you missed the game or wanted to see it again. If the ESPN/Disney/Fox association could be ironed out that would be best for high quality exposure like we saw. CBS? We'd hardly ever see it. They didn't support the AAF at all. NBC? After the way they treated. XFL 2.0 not really wanting it to succeed I wouldn't want it there....and they bailed on 2001, I haven't forgotten.
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Re: XFL Bankruptcy Thread

Post by GregParks »

Sounder wrote: Wed Jul 29, 2020 9:10 pm
Some of the potential players say like Sinclair, own a lot of stations but not much in the way of sports properties other than ROH wrestling which has been around since 2002 and bought by Sinclair in 2011. So they'd have a place for it. The mainstream sports world would ignore it. But if they handled it like ROH.....it would be on all the time....if you missed the game or wanted to see it again.
See though...they really don't have a place for it. The stations they own are network affiliates across the country, as well as local Fox Sports stations. In other words, there's no dedicated "Sinclair" channel that the entire country gets. ROH is on all over, but at different times and different days because it's syndicated. Hard to do that with live sports, so while not impossible for Sinclair to buy it, they'd still need a place to air the games.
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