Most significant news from XFL side since last Oct 1

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4th&long
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Most significant news from XFL side since last Oct 1

Post by 4th&long »

Actually coming from RBC partner (the mmoney people) and speaking of resources needed and was not CFL directed at time.

https://3downnation.com/2021/04/03/redb ... of-sports/

>> RedBird Capital partner Alec Scheiner has shared his insight into the potential the firm sees in professional football in North America.
~
“More people watched the XFL on TV than a lot of sports that have been around a long time. That’s just because people love football at its highest level. I’m not sure you want to or can take on the NFL, the NFL is the gold standard,” Scheiner said on the Are You Not Entertained? podcast in late February.

“I think you start from the premise, which seems like a pretty safe premise, that there’s more than enough demand for football, American football. The interesting thing about the last iteration of the XFL was how many people watched it. You couldn’t argue with that, a ton of people watched it.”
~
“Because there’s more demand for this product, and then you partner with people like Dany Garcia and Dwayne Johnson, who in and of themselves have so much popularity that it rivals big brands in sports, and then you take Gerry Cardinale’s sports business building acumen, and I think we have a fighting chance,” Scheiner said.

“But it’s not easy, I don’t think it’s ever been easy, the history of it says it’s been really hard. The hardest thing typically is finding people who care, and the last group found people who care, and then they were confronted with the pandemic, which didn’t help when you’re that early in the building of it.”

Scheiner and RedBird Capital believe if there is demand, and it’s run properly, a league can have success.<<

Apparently at least partially from last Feb podcast, didn't hear this reported anywhere and it was likely just before CFL talks announced.
Gopher123
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Re: Most significant news from XFL side since last Oct 1

Post by Gopher123 »

Encouraging words, for sure, from someone with close ties to the new ownership group. I’m glad to see these points about the popularity of what the XFL had going brought back to the surface. It seems that some people focused more on the declining tv ratings from week to week than how the league was actually stacking up to other established sports leagues.
With the NCAA tournament starting, ratings were probably going to continue to fall for a few more weeks. I felt that ratings would climb significantly after that. I was also looking forward to seeing how many new eyes would get to watch the XFL on Easter Sunday. With 2 games taking place, it would have been interesting to see how much momentum that could have created.
While I want to see more actions than words, I do feel this new ownership group is planning to do something with this league. I’m hopeful it is soon!
4th&long
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Re: Most significant news from XFL side since last Oct 1

Post by 4th&long »

Gopher123 wrote: Sat Apr 03, 2021 12:04 pm Encouraging words, for sure, from someone with close ties to the new ownership group. I’m glad to see these points about the popularity of what the XFL had going brought back to the surface. It seems that some people focused more on the declining tv ratings from week to week than how the league was actually stacking up to other established sports leagues.
With the NCAA tournament starting, ratings were probably going to continue to fall for a few more weeks. I felt that ratings would climb significantly after that. I was also looking forward to seeing how many new eyes would get to watch the XFL on Easter Sunday. With 2 games taking place, it would have been interesting to see how much momentum that could have created.
While I want to see more actions than words, I do feel this new ownership group is planning to do something with this league. I’m hopeful it is soon!
The actually the average for the season was a 1.9 for all 20 broadcast (ESPN/ABC/FOX/FS1) - that's amazing. Weeks 7 & 8 had 3 games on Broadcast TV and 9-10 were 2 Broadcast 2 ESPN/FS1. So while week 6 was the low point due to NCAA (1 broadcast, 1 FS2, 1ESPN2, 1 ESPN), i think it would rebound too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_XFL_season

But for sake of argument, lets say the the XFL did poorly in games 6-10 (pretend no covid), and only got a .9 average. For the regular season that's still a 1.4 average over 40 games. That's excellent compared to NBC-NHL, and leave MLS in the dust. NBA its comparable if not better, and better than MLB.

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2021/0 ... -pga-tour/

Now if XFL had a solid second half - even better.

So clearly XFL was competitive if not better than long existing sports.
Tank55
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Re: Most significant news from XFL side since last Oct 1

Post by Tank55 »

Just got around to listening to the whole episode; very interesting stuff. I think the most insightful bits weren't even directly about the XFL, but more about their general philosophy: invest in something intangible (intellectual property/brand) and hire great people to build a business around it.

He also talks about his attitude toward team ownership, which is to focus on making it a great business rather than treating it like a hobby and being willing to lose money to chase wins. He says a lot of the growth of American sports is due to the guard rails put around team owners to prevent or discourage them from doing it. I don't think he would be very receptive to the argument that the CFL is already making enough money or that owners should be willing to lose money. He later says something along the lines that in the long run, a sports team being a high functioning business will be good for the fans.

In the context of European soccer, he talks about being sensitive to the cultural sensibilities of the fan base. You can do things in America, where fans are used to owners being owners, that you can't do in Europe, where supporters think that the team really does belong to the community. With that context, what might be the right business decision in the US could be slightly different in Europe. Obviously easy to see how that could apply to the CFL, where fans are very parochial (and the recent marketing has been built around reinforcing that).
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