The whole key to surviving and seeing a return on the yearly expenses is going to ultimately be the league’s tv rights package. It’s the bank. It’s where all the money is. Without it, the league dies again…. Quite frankly, it’s the reason that the XFL went after 8 of the top 20 TV markets. There’s more money to be made on the TV side with their current markets than there would have been in smaller markets like Salt Lake for example.
What will The XFL rights deal look like and what could it be? This is hard to project but we can go through some figures. You can’t compare a league like The XFL to established properties like NASCAR, the NFL, NBA, NHL or MLB. It’s very different. It’s hard as a start-up league to command top dollar. The closest leagues, you can compare The XFL to in terms of potential viewership is the WNBA and MLS. It’s debatable that The XFL can get similar TV deals but we are going to find out soon enough. Here’s an idea of what similar leagues tv deals look like.
* ESPN and Fox pay 75 million per year to MLS. The national broadcasts for MLS average about 500 thousand viewers. With the exception of games against Mexico, which usually exceed 2 million.
* ESPN pays The WNBA 12 million per year. This league averages about 200 to 250 thousand viewers per game during the playoffs.
The XFL's worth in TV money
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MikeMitchell
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The XFL's worth in TV money
Below is an excerpt from my "Cost of doing business in the XFL" article. It seems like we might be days away from a potential TV rights deal being announced. Alternate media like streaming could also be leveraged or used as another revenue stream. The original XFL got 50 million a year from NBC. If there are two different networks like ABC and Fox involved, that could help sweeten the pot. Typically a TV contract is used to divvy amongst the team expenses. In this case, dividing it 8 ways for 8 teams. Any tv deal leads to sponsorships and advertisers, separate from the tv money involved. Exposure also helps ticket sales. So whatever the deal ends up being, it will help determine how successful this league is.
