XFL 2023: Third Time's the Charm!

[gosioux76]

On 2/7/2023 at 10:00 PM, Sykotyk said:

I hope it had some market analysis and not just the whims of the owner. Not a good road to go down. If the league's co-owner put a team in a 10,000 seat venue because they 'wanted to' then there's some cause for alarm.

 

Nothing about Las Vegas looks promising from a sports standpoint. You have a very successful and first time Golden Knights, and now NFL in a giant stadium that's exclusive for them. You have a very successful AAA baseball team in the suburbia that is the southwest edge of town. You have a new minor league hockey team playing in Henderson as an affiliate of the aforementioned popular first major league team in town. You have the Las Vegas Lights soccer team. A moderately successful WNBA team. And you have this huge push to get all these other teams. An XFL/USFL/AAF/AFL team is not going to break in the way they did when they had nothing but AAA at Cashman and ECHL at the Orleans.

 

I wouldn't want to be in Las Vegas as a minor league team, at all. You are not going to get attention right now. There's also an attitude change in the city that they are big league, and an XFL team just a couple years after getting the NFL is not going to go as well as it did in 2001. I just see imminent failure with this Las Vegas team.

 

San Diego, an Ohio city, Milwaukee, Denver, etc seem like major markets that would've accepted an XFL team as they have a dry spell with their NFL teams or lack one inside their city entirely (Green Bay may be their fan support, but Milwaukee is still teamless and might attach to a team the way the city once did with the Mustangs in the AFL).

 

On the whole, I agree with you that Las Vegas seems like a risky choice, particularly with so many other potential promising markets. 

 

I also think that it's hard to dismiss the pull of football itself. Everything you said about competition from other sports, especially as a minor league entrant, is true. But the entire premise of the XFL and USFL is that American consumers maintain a healthy appetite for football year-round that has yet to be satiated. 

 

Plus, it's bound to be cheap, at least relative to the Raiders, and if there's one thing people in Vegas can appreciate it's cheap entertainment. 

 

Otherwise, yes, San Diego would've made a lot more sense. Can't argue that. 

[MJWalker45]

13 minutes ago, gosioux76 said:

Plus, it's bound to be cheap, at least relative to the Raiders, and if there's one thing people in Vegas can appreciate it's cheap entertainment. 

 

Otherwise, yes, San Diego would've made a lot more sense. Can't argue that. 

I paid under $400 for two season tickets, so 10 game tickets, at San Antonio. I couldn't pay that little to go to 5 Spurs games for two people unless I consigned myself to the very top of the arena. So the money value is an easy selling point. The only thing I'm not psyched about so far is the amount of fan gear available on the XFL.com site, but I'm hoping more things will be available at the stadium on game days.  As far as San Diego, I think if they were in the league I'd be more interested in making a trip to see a game out there than I would to make a similar trip to Las Vegas. Not because of the stadium, but because I have a few friends that live in the area around San Diego and the Padres would possibly be playing as well. I also don't see much to do with a 13 year old in Vegas besides the games, and maybe a few shows that are PG rated.

[TBGKon]

If the XFL and Vegas can't find a larger venue than Cashman to play in, I sense a relocation will be on the table.  

[McCall]

14 minutes ago, TBGKon said:

If the XFL and Vegas can't find a larger venue than Cashman to play in, I sense a relocation will be on the table.  

I don't think the Raiders will allow them at Allegiant or Sam Boyd, so this was their only option. Yeah, I agree. Probably a one and done situation. If you think about it, at a capacity of only 12,500 at Cashman Field, if they don't sell out every game, it's essentially a failure. Memphis finished 13th in attendance when combining the AAF and XFL 2020 season with an average of 12,944. That's over 400 more than capacity for Vegas. Sure, if they average capacity, one could make the argument that they were limited  and that really it's a good market. Fine. But you also set yourself up for the slimmest of margins between success and failure.

[Discrim]

On 2/7/2023 at 10:44 PM, GDAWG said:

 

Isn't Milwaukee devoid of football venues?  That might be the reason why no alternative football leagues have gone there.  Now I don't know if the upcoming soccer stadium for the Milwaukee USL Championship team (that will seat 8,000) can be used for football, as Marquette plans to use it a lot for it's Men's and Women's soccer teams and Men's and Women's Lacrosse.  Maybe they can use a high school stadium?  I don't know the area to know if any of the high school stadiums in Milwaukee are suitable for alternative football.  

Basically, yes, which is why I haven't even given a Milwaukee team in either the XFL or USFL any thought (see @Sec19Row53's post).  The revived AFL, though, I can see Mustangs III happening, if only because they can actually play in the city, where an outdoor team would need to play somewhere else and bear with facilities that, frankly, aren't pro quality by any stretch of the imagination.   

[TBGKon]

12 hours ago, Discrim said:

Basically, yes, which is why I haven't even given a Milwaukee team in either the XFL or USFL any thought (see @Sec19Row53's post).  The revived AFL, though, I can see Mustangs III happening, if only because they can actually play in the city, where an outdoor team would need to play somewhere else and bear with facilities that, frankly, aren't pro quality by any stretch of the imagination.   

I was actually curious is Fiserv could host arena football since so many NBA arena's are going basketball centric.  I found this pic with ice and I suppose its doable.

 

[Sec19Row53]

2 hours ago, TBGKon said:

I was actually curious is Fiserv could host arena football since so many NBA arena's are going basketball centric.  I found this pic with ice and I suppose its doable.

 

I work on occasion for Marquette Men's basketball, so I'm on the floor periodically (I'll be working the game against Xavier on Wednesday - I'm at the scorer's table). It has the grooves in the floor for the boards, so it is possible.  Clearly the venue has hosted a college hockey tournament, so it can be done. The bigger problem, though, is fitting a schedule into the primary tenant (Bucks) and secondary tenant (Marquette), not to mention concerts and what not.

It has the infrastructure, so it's doable. I don't think it is viable, however, as you would be left with (likely) unpleasant home dates.

[Cujo]

It came back today.

 

The Houston Roughnecks are 6-0 all-time.

[MJWalker45]

10 hours ago, Cujo said:

It came back today.

 

The Houston Roughnecks are 6-0 all-time.

I was surprised that the numbers are the Houston game were as low. It was a bit chilly yesterday, but not by much. San Antonio should have around 24,000 today. The Arlington/Vegas game was entertaining, but that second half was pretty sloppy. It's the first week though so I'm not surprised. At least kickers weren't missing chip shots like Week 1 of the USFL last year. They also don't have a bunch of tech inside the balls like the ones the USFL use. Does anyone know who actually makes the XFL football?

[GDAWG]

Also....Paxton Lynch still sucks.  This is the 4th league he has sucked in.  

[Cujo]

14 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

Also....Paxton Lynch still sucks.

 

And he was BENCHED last night.

 

Not sure what the next stop is after you fail in the NFL, CFL, USFL and XFL.

[GDAWG]

The way the XFL handles questionable calls of officiating is something that the NFL should adopt.  Whether that remains to be seen is unknown, but it would prevent accusations of the NFL being rigged, scripted and the refs being paid by certain teams to call penalties in their favor.  

[Seadragon76]

1 hour ago, Cujo said:

 

And he was BENCHED last night.

 

Not sure what the next stop is after you fail in the NFL, CFL, USFL and XFL.

 

Fan Controlled Football.

[FinsUp1214]

1 hour ago, GDAWG said:

The way the XFL handles questionable calls of officiating is something that the NFL should adopt.  Whether that remains to be seen is unknown, but it would prevent accusations of the NFL being rigged, scripted and the refs being paid by certain teams to call penalties in their favor.  

This might be the feature of the XFL that I enjoy the most; not only does it show full transparency of what goes on during reviews and challenges, but I actually find it really educational about rules too and what needs to be confirmed when reviewing calls. I really think the NFL would do well to adopt this feature and agree that it would help with officiating concerns, as well as teach viewers more about the rules of football.

[MJWalker45]

San Antonio has been announced as the host for the 2023 XFL Championship Game. Off the top of my head I'd say there's at least 26,000 today.

[tigers]

I caught a few of the replay highlights on Utube and thought that most of the games were of a reasonable to high level, ok there were a few plays that should of worked out and didn't but this was the first week with some really good plays as well.

Even the Umpires blew it on some very controversial calls, these will be better as the weeks pass.

 

Overall i think the Rock's speech was forced and just was not necessary. The crowds will build, the play will gel nicely and people will be happy they have 10 to 15 weeks extra of football and then USFL will give them more.

 

Hooray for more footy.

[Burmy]

2 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

San Antonio has been announced as the host for the 2023 XFL Championship Game. Off the top of my head I'd say there's at least 26,000 today.

Watch STL eclipse that...the game's being hosted in the wrong Dome.

[Sykotyk]

12 minutes ago, Burmy said:

Watch STL eclipse that...the game's being hosted in the wrong Dome.

It's a shame how long St. Louis has to wait for their first game of the season at home.

[DustDevil61]

27 minutes ago, Sykotyk said:

It's a shame how long St. Louis has to wait for their first game of the season at home.

Crazy last couple minutes in the Alamodome. It’ll take a little while to get used to some of these rules, but IMO that’s part of the fun with these spring leagues. There also seemed to be a decent amount of Battlehawk fans that traveled as well.

 

I wonder if the St. Louis fans will have a Stan Kroenke piñata for their home opener like they did in 2020?

 

 

Edited February 19, 2023 by DustDevil61
Piñata, not effigy

[GDAWG]

The XFL used the 4th and 15 to replace the onside Kick and also the "on kickoffs and punts, nobody can move until the ball is in the hands of the returner" rule.