XFL 2020 Season

[GDAWG]

Twitter isn't happy with the XFL hiring former Bengals TE Coach Jonathan Hayes being in St. Louis.  The criticisms range from him having no connections to St. Louis, he's never coordinated an offense, to he's not going to be a name that sells tickets and creates buzz.
 

[Red Comet]

7 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

Twitter isn't happy with the XFL hiring former Bengals TE Coach Jonathan Hayes being in St. Louis.  The criticisms range from him having no connections to St. Louis, he's never coordinated an offense, to he's not going to be a name that sells tickets and creates buzz.
 

 

Twitter (and social media in general) is just a megaphone for people that are most motivated to complain (just check any tweet that is either slightly controversial or written by someone who is). Let me see how many (or few in this case. I'll still make the opening game in St. Louis regardless) tickets are sold before I take the Twitterati seriously. 

[GDAWG]

10 minutes ago, Red Comet said:

 

Twitter (and social media in general) is just a megaphone for people that are most motivated to complain (just check any tweet that is either slightly controversial or written by someone who is). Let me see how many (or few in this case. I'll still make the opening game in St. Louis regardless) tickets are sold before I take the Twitterati seriously. 

 

I am going to give Hayes a chance, also who's to say that XFL St. Louis won't reach out to guys like Isaac Bruce, Kurt Warner, Orlando Pace or Aeneas Williams to serve as team ambassadors?  Warner is working for the NFL Network, but it could be a nice coup if he was a part of the radio broadcast.  The XFL isn't done with hiring.  For me this a wait and see.  I expect the XFL to take full advantage of the history of football in St. Louis by involving former St. Louis Rams. 

[mkg74]

I think we've learned from the AAF sexy coaching hires doesnt necesarily put fannies in the seats...(excepting Spurrier in Orlando)

[GDAWG]

Also, all of the people who reacted to the Kevin Gillbride hire all know him best as being punched in the face by Buddy Ryan in 1993 rather than being the OC of the Giants who coached Eli Manning to his best years. 

[FiddySicks]

Who’s to say they didn’t reach out to those kind of guys and this was the best dude that didn’t tell them no? A coaching job is a TON of work, and coaching St. Louis’ XFL team probably isn’t very tempting. That would mean coaching in a second rate league AND having to live in St. Louis again. Hard pass. 

[CubsFanBudMan]

Dupe. Weird.

[CubsFanBudMan]

On 4/18/2019 at 2:35 PM, GDAWG said:

https://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ben-frederickson/benfred-xfl-misses-chance-to-make-splash-in-st-louis/article_d725d3d1-a11e-51a7-b760-337b4978b6b8.html

 

 

A lot of people in St. Louis aren't happy with the hire, hoping for a more splashy hire. 

 

BenFred's column excerpt summarized further:

 

"St. Louis has 'football-crazed' fans, but this coaching hire might keep the team from generating 'significant interest.'"

 

Bad takes aren't exclusive to Twitter. 

[GDAWG]

 

[MJWalker45]

11 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

 

They should go 3 weeks for camp unless they're doing 2 weeks at home base before games. I think AAF showed that a month of prep together was really helpful in closing the gap between learning new offenses and new defenses. Is XFL going to limit blitzers as well?

[dfwabel]

2 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

They should go 3 weeks for camp unless they're doing 2 weeks at home base before games. I think AAF showed that a month of prep together was really helpful in closing the gap between learning new offenses and new defenses. Is XFL going to limit blitzers as well?

XFL 2001 had four weeks with two minicamps in November and the coaches actually wanted more time.

[BBTV]

Unless (and even if) they're doing two-a-days, that's really not a lot of time.

[GDAWG]

 

[MJWalker45]

Rumor has it there may be minicamps in November ahead of training camp as well. 

[GDAWG]

I would like to see all of the XFL teams be named the Experience, followed by constant name changes.  And then Vince McMahon yelling at the announcers via head set from a production truck after issuing a memo of banned words that they cannot say. 

[dfwabel]

Press Release

Quote

Stamford, Conn., May 1, 2019 -- The XFL has selected Elevate Sports Ventures to guide and support ticket sales for the league’s eight teams. The two-year agreement also sets Elevate as the league’s first Business Solutions Partner. Elevate – a joint venture of the San Francisco 49ers, Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment, Ticketmaster, Live Nation and the Oakview Group – will design, implement and manage database marketing and ticket sales strategies for the XFL’s teams in Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, St. Louis, Seattle, Tampa, and Washington D.C. The XFL launches the weekend of February 8-9, 2020.

 

The goal of the partnership is to bring the XFL to market efficiently and through the use of data-driven sales and digital marketing strategies and applications. Elevate will manage the day-to-day ticket sales effort in each of the XFL’s eight markets, working closely with each XFL team president and supplementing the skills of the team business operations group at the XFL league office in Stamford.

 

“We’re proud to welcome Elevate to the XFL family,” said Jeffrey Pollack, XFL President and COO. “With Al Guido, the rest of the Elevate team, and all of their partners equally committed to our cause and with important seats at our table, we’re even more confident in our ability to launch effectively.”

 

“Everyone at Elevate Sports Ventures, and each of our partners, is honored to receive this appointment from the XFL,” said Al Guido, CEO of Elevate Sports Ventures. “We are eager to use our well-honed experience in analytics-based sales and data-driven marketing on the league’s behalf, and for the benefit of what will be the XFL’s new and growing fanbase. We see incredible potential in this venture and are inspired to be working with Vince McMahon, Oliver Luck, Jeffrey Pollack, and the entire XFL team.”

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Elevate is a partnership between the 49ers and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE) owners of the Sixers and Nets, with collaboration from Ticketmaster and Tim Leiweke's Oak View Group.

[pmoehrin]

On 4/28/2019 at 7:43 PM, GDAWG said:

I would like to see all of the XFL teams be named the Experience, followed by constant name changes.  And then Vince McMahon yelling at the announcers via head set from a production truck after issuing a memo of banned words that they cannot say. 

 

I'd want to see a 12 game regular season, in which only 3 games matter.

Also, your regular season record has no bearing on whether or not you make the playoffs.

[GDAWG]

5 minutes ago, pmoehrin said:

 

I'd want to see a 12 game regular season, in which only 3 games matter.

Also, your regular season record has no bearing on whether or not you make the playoffs.

 

That happened last year in the Arena Football League. 

[GDAWG]

Spring Football Updates:

 

XFL- Recently announced a ticket agreement with Elevate for ticket sales.  Elevate is owned by the 49ers, Josh Harris (owner of the 76ers and Devils), Live Nation and Ticketmaster.  Will announce Head Coach and GM of LA on Tuesday. 

FFL- Freedom Football League is probably going to add more people to the league via Facebook announcements, but the problem is that none of the people they have added are the money guy who can fund the league for a few years.  The people they will likely add this coming week are likely to be fringe former NFL players who have made money, but not enough to fund the league for a few years. 

The Spring League- Recently completed it's 3rd season.  The games are only two weeks although their move to name one of the teams and not the other three is perplexing.  They have been hyping up another Summer Showcase on social media. 

SLAF- No updates since January 2017. 

Major League Football- In March, they announced tryouts on their Facebook page, but since then nothing. 

ASFL- The American Spring Football League has not updated since October 2018.

American Patriot League- No updates since March when they announced a team in Michigan.

Pacific Pro Football- Don Yee, the league's founder did some interviews last month talking about the league.  We'll see if they ever get off the ground at this point.  If there is nothing from the league by the time the NFL season kicks off in September, this league isn't kicking off. 

[dfwabel]

https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/SB-Blogs/Breaking-News/2019/05/XFL.aspx

 

Excerpts (Bolded by me)

Quote

More than half of the XFL's games will be on broadcast TV as part of deals the league is announcing with Fox and ESPN this morning. The broadcast component is important as league execs believe their best chance for success is having games in front of the biggest possible TV audience. Spring football efforts in recent years, including the Alliance of American Football, which shut down last month, did not have the majority of their games on broadcast TV. “Spring football is going to work,” said ESPN Exec VP/Programming & Scheduling Burke Magnus. "The combination of Vince McMahon, WWE, Fox and Disney is an incredible one to take a really hard run at this and see if that’s not the combination that finally makes it work.”

 

The multiyear deal calls for 24 of the XFL's 43 games to be on broadcast TV (13 on ABC; 11 on Fox), including two Thursday primetime games on Fox in April '20. The networks are not paying a rights fee, but ESPN and Fox are picking up production costs, which generally amount to around $400,000 per game, sources said. As part of the deal, the nets will sell ads around the game; the XFL will handle sponsorships at the venue. ESPN and Fox will hold streaming rights to XFL games. The two nets also will cross-promote games during game broadcasts. “One of the key drivers of a successful professional league is broad exposure and appointment television, and we’ve got that,” said CAA’s Alan Gold, who along with agency's Nick Khan brokered the deal for league.

 

The XFL worked with the nets to come up with a schedule that will have back-to-back games on Saturday afternoons with two more games on Sundays -- a consistency that league and network execs believe will bring viewers. “We wanted to make sure there was consistency and broad reach to start because this is a new venture,” Magnus said. “This is not an established sports property.” The league will kick off on Fox on Feb. 8, the weekend after Fox carries the Super Bowl. It is strategy similar to what the AAF employed this year when CBS carried its inaugural game the week after carrying the Super Bowl -- a game that generated impressive ratings. Fox will carry one playoff semifinal, and ESPN will carry the other semifinal, followed by the championship. “We wanted maximum reach, and these deals provide us with that,” said XFL President & COO Jeffrey Pollack. The nets will pick the game announcers, but have not yet decided who will call or produce them.

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