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XFL Announces Return in 2022

Deleted member 3812

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I've just found this video announcing the return of the XFL expected to occur next year in 2022:



Here's a press release I found dated October 1, 2020 announcing the return of the XFL:

XFL Announces Return to the Field in 2022 - XFL News @ XFLBoard.com

STAMFORD, CT – October 1, 2020 – The XFL today announced that the league will return to the field for the 2022 season. The new ownership group and league executives are in the process of finalizing next steps for the relaunch with more details to be shared in the coming weeks and months.

The announcement was made by Dany Garcia and Dwayne Johnson through a video shared across their social media platforms.

"The XFL represents the idea of ultimate opportunity; it's a league of soul and culture, anchored by the pursuit of dreams and love for the game, that we couldn't be more proud to lead," said Garcia and Johnson. "Every XFL player, coach, city and fan is our top priority and we couldn't be more excited to champion them in an electrifying 2022 season. We are the new XFL—hungry, humble and no one will outwork us."

"For the love of football and for the safety of our players and fans, we'll be back on the field in 2022," said Jeffrey Pollack, XFL President and COO. "The opportunity in front of us, with our new ownership, is simply too big to rush back. We want to do this properly with care and thought for everyone who loves football, especially our players, coaches, partners and fans."

In August 2020, Dany Garcia, Dwayne Johnson and RedBird Capital Partners acquired substantially all of the assets of Alpha Entertainment LLC, the parent company of the XFL.
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NinjaScooter

NinjaScooter

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Oct 25, 2017
54,589
I'm sure this is the finally the time when the American public will embrace a secondary pro football league. Thrice in a lifetime.
 
Ryuelli

Ryuelli

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Oct 26, 2017
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I hope they're keeping the teams. I don't like traditional football, but I really liked watching the Roughnecks.
 
fontguy

fontguy

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Oct 8, 2018
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I don't understand why, if you're intent on starting a new football league, you'd even want to use the XFL name.
 
OP
OP

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On October 1, 2020, it was announced that the XFL has new ownership:

New Ownership Acquires XFL

NEW OWNERSHIP ACQUIRES XFL
01 Oct 2020

Dany Garcia, Dwayne Johnson and RedBird Capital Partners have been selected as the winning bidder for substantially all of the assets of Alpha Entertainment LLC, the parent company of the XFL. The XFL assets will be sold to Garcia, Johnson and RedBird for approximately $15 million, in accordance with the terms and conditions of the asset purchase agreement. The transaction is subject to bankruptcy court approval at a hearing this Friday, August 7 and, assuming that closing conditions are satisfied, is expected to close on or shortly after August 21. The sale auction previously scheduled for today will not occur.

Through this acquisition, the group secures the ability to option live entertainment intellectual property for further expansion across sports, live events and original entertainment programming.​

"For Dwayne, Gerry and myself, this property represents an incredible opportunity. It is the confluence of great passion, tradition and possibility" said Dany Garcia. "Sports and entertainment are the foundations of the businesses I have built. Melding our expertise combined with our commitment to deliver exciting and inspiring unique content, has us all focused on developing the XFL brand into a multi-media experience that our athletes, partners and fans will proudly embrace and love."​

"The acquisition of the XFL with my talented partners, Dany Garcia and Gerry Cardinale, is an investment for me that's rooted deeply in two things - my passion for the game and my desire to always take care of the fans," said Dwayne Johnson. "With pride and gratitude for all that I've built with my own two hands, I plan to apply these callouses to the XFL, and look forward to creating something special for the players, fans, and everyone involved for the love of football."​

"It is a privilege to partner with Dany and Dwayne on the acquisition of the XFL," said Gerry Cardinale, Founder and Managing Partner of RedBird Capital Partners. "Their track record in building dynamic businesses speaks for itself, and their vision and passion for developing the XFL as a world class sports and entertainment property will enable a new future for this organization. As their partner in acquiring and relaunching the XFL, RedBird will bring its own track record and experience in building world class companies in sports and live entertainment to help realize their vision."​

"We are grateful for today's outcome," said Jeffrey Pollack, XFL President and COO. "This is a Hollywood ending to our sale process and it is an exciting new chapter for the league. Dwayne, Dany and Gerry are a dream team ownership group and the XFL is in the best possible hands going forward."​
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RBH

RBH

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Nov 2, 2017
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This news is almost 4 months old



 
TheMadTitan

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Oct 27, 2017
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They should honestly change the name to get rid of the X. Call it Major League Football or something and keep everything else the same. And keep the black football.

edit: Turns out there's a MLF already; buy it and combine it all into one package since they apparently own the AAF stuff.
 
NinjaScooter

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Oct 25, 2017
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kirby_fox said:
I think this is the first time it won't be ran by Vince McMahon though? So maybe they'll actually understand why it didn't work.

Interesting nonetheless.
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The AAF wasn't run by Vince McMahon and it didn't fare much better. Granted the Rock and his team are much better at marketing than anyone involved in the WWE (His tequila is breaking sales records largely on the strength of how adept they are at social media). The XFL did not do well on TV but there were some areas where it did well regionally, in some markets, maybe they can pivot off of that somehow, but between the NFL (which is now a year round sport) and NCAA, I just don't think there is any evidence that there is an underserved market of football fans who will make a secondary league like this any sort of success.
 
Neece

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Oct 27, 2017
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NinjaScooter said:
the ratings were dropping week after week and that's after they essentially gave it away to networks.
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From what I read, the ratings were still higher than any other sport on tv at the time of broadcast and comparable to low tier college football bowl games.

And according to this article

The league averaged 1.9 million television viewers per game and generated nearly $20 million in gross revenues in 2020, according to court filings. It had projected $46 million in gross revenues for the 10-game season, each data point exceeding internal expectations, according to sources.
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On the other hand, there were legitimate reasons to project optimism for the second half of the season. Of the XFL's final 16 regular-season games, 12 would have been broadcast on ABC or Fox as opposed to cable -- raising the possibility of a ratings rebound. A handful of teams were catching fire in their local markets, most notably St. Louis, where the BattleHawks averaged 28,541 fans per game and had already sold 36,000 tickets for their next home date on March 21 against the Wildcats.

The actual crowd likely would have been larger, Hunzeker said. When the XFL initially suspended its season March 12, the BattleHawks were selling 6,000 tickets per day. Their ticket office was projecting attendance of at least 45,000. By that point, the BattleHawks had taken in $6 million in local revenue, well exceeding their fiscal goal for the entire season ($4.7 million).
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www.espn.com

The inside story of the XFL's sudden collapse, and what comes next for spring football

Over three months, the once-promising XFL 2.0 halted its first season, declared bankruptcy and posted a "for sale" sign. What happened, and what comes next?
www.espn.com www.espn.com

It seems they were on the path to have a relatively successful first season, or at least enough profit and promise to go forward with a second season.
 
NinjaScooter

NinjaScooter

Member
Oct 25, 2017
54,589
Neece said:
From what I read, the ratings were still higher than any other sport on tv at the time of broadcast and comparable to low tier college football bowl games.

And according to this article






www.espn.com

The inside story of the XFL's sudden collapse, and what comes next for spring football

Over three months, the once-promising XFL 2.0 halted its first season, declared bankruptcy and posted a "for sale" sign. What happened, and what comes next?
www.espn.com www.espn.com

It seems they were on the path to have a relatively successful first season, or at least enough or a profit and promise to go forward with a second season.
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The thing is, they were essentially giving it away to networks for free, with the hopes that in a couple of years the ratings would be strong enough to negotiate a real tv deal, which is where the money in sports is nowadays. Im not sure sinking ratings week after week, comparable to low tier college football, was going to get that done.
 
ZeoVGM

ZeoVGM

Member
Oct 25, 2017
76,277
Providence, RI
kirby_fox said:
I think this is the first time it won't be ran by Vince McMahon though? So maybe they'll actually understand why it didn't work.

Interesting nonetheless.
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It didn't work because there is absolutely no demand for any of the major sports to have a second league. They will always fail because they will always largely be the same exact thign but with less talent.
 
Einchy

Einchy

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Oct 25, 2017
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I thought this was well received but COVID fucked it up for them, was that not the case?
 
Squirrel Killer

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Oct 25, 2017
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RBH said:
I'd rather have the AAF return!
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I have to confess, I had legitimately forgotten that AAF had gotten off the ground at all.

Hero_of_the_Day said:
Third time's the charm.
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And that's just under this name. If you count USFL, WLAF, UFL (just in my lifetime) and maybe it's the 18th time's the charm.

ZeoVGM said:
It didn't work because there is absolutely no demand for any of the major sports to have a second league. They will always fail because they will always largely be the same exact thign but with less talent.
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*cough* college football and basketball *cough*
 
NinjaScooter

NinjaScooter

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Oct 25, 2017
54,589
Squirrel Killer said:
*cough* college football and basketball *cough*
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College sports are mostly regionally popular, but have generations of built in allegiance to specific program. They don't root for the players, they root for Alabama, or Notre Dame, or Duke. The coaches are more the stars in college nowadays than the players. In large part you are also seeing the best available "amateur" players. Thats a different perception than seeing a league of guys who washed out of the NFL or were never good enough to make it in the first place.
 

Johnny956

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,934
Yea it's a shame that March 2020 Battlehawks game in St Louis never happened. I had tickets too. Would have been fun for sure. I'm assume they'll come back to St Louis. We had high tv ratings and attendance
 
BWoog

BWoog

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Oct 27, 2017
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