XFL 2023: Third Time's the Charm!

[MJWalker45]

13 hours ago, Red Comet said:

There's also the whole "most people who even had Internet in 2001 were using dialup so streaming was something out of scifi" so thus TV was far more dominant and having an average audience of 1-2  5-6 million would be a death sentence. For the current media environment? 1-2 million on average is pretty good for football that isn't college or the NFL.

 

 

 

7 hours ago, Sykotyk said:

People don't realize that the value of live TV has increased drastically in the past few years. Not just streaming but so many just get their entertainment from social media like tiktok. 

 

Live TV means ads are getting watched. And that ups the value of them compared to viewers watching things from streaming or on dvr. 

 

I know between last year and this year I cut cable. I had enough streaming services that it was practically redundant. 

 

Right now one million lives viewers is a good crowd where in 2001 a 1.5 would've been seen as a cataclysmic failure. 

 

 

 

14 hours ago, Cujo said:

XFL 2001.

16 million tuned in for its debut.

Didn't make it to Season 2.

Just wow.

 

Also, that version of the 2001 XFL went down the hole viewer wise as soon as Vince started teasing things like going into the cheerleaders' locker rooms and did that smarmy dream sequence BS. Instead of working to make sure the football was better he went the wat of the Running Man movie.  Only 2.1 million watched the "Big Game at the End/Million Dollar Game".  

 

 

[FiddySicks]

I have cable for the first time in like five years and just so happened to see the St. Louis Seattle game on so I decided, what the hell, why not? 

 

Talent is fairly obviously a step below the NFL but damn if that wasn’t a very fun game. I would for sure watch more. 

[tBBP]

On a whole 'nother note: St. Louis done done it again...came from behind at the end to win it. If memory serves, wasn't STL one of the better XFL2.0 squads, as well? If so, seems Battlehawks 2.0 is picking up right where 1.0 left off...

[Cujo]

Big fan of broadcasts throwing up head coach reax on game winning FGs

 

 

[MJWalker45]

10 hours ago, tBBP said:

On a whole 'nother note: St. Louis done done it again...came from behind at the end to win it. If memory serves, wasn't STL one of the better XFL2.0 squads, as well? If so, seems Battlehawks 2.0 is picking up right where 1.0 left off...

Yes, the Battlehawks were probably right behind the Roughnecks as far as the better teams out there. 

 

10 hours ago, FiddySicks said:

I have cable for the first time in like five years and just so happened to see the St. Louis Seattle game on so I decided, what the hell, why not? 

 

Talent is fairly obviously a step below the NFL but damn if that wasn’t a very fun game. I would for sure watch more. 

That last drive by St. Louis was pretty good. There's still too many dropped passes by WR's this year so far. Maybe they need to up the Stickum budget. 

[Ted Cunningham]

I've watched significant parts of (if not all of) all five games so far. While the viewership numbers and lack of vision don't seem great for the league's long-term viability, the games have been entertaining. I'm not sure what the metrics are for sustained success as far as return on investment, viewership, and so on, but if the parity remains the same and the games stay close, this is fairly easy football to watch.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

Right now I am stuck just watching hightlights. I got rid of my cable a few months ago; I really didn't want to become one of "those people", but the cable scumbags just priced me out. The cost of the array of streaming services that I have comes nowhere near what I had been paying for cable.

 

However, the upshot is that I cannot watch ESPN, ABC, or FX, the networks that carry the XFL. Either ESPN and FX would require another subscription, but I am not prepared to pay for any additional streaming services; and watching the local ABC station in the ABC app requires a log-in with credentials from a cable company, or from Hulu with live TV, or from YouTube TV.  Whereas, I could see the USFL with my Peacock subscription.

 

This didn't really surprise me. But what does surprise me is the apparant absence of local radio stations.  I really enjoy listening to a quality radio broadcast.  And in 2020 I found that I could hear the Houston Roughnecks' games on Houston's ESPN radio outlet at 97.5 KFNC, which streams online.  There were probably other teams' broadcasts that I could have listened to; but during that season I also had cable, and could see the games. So the issue came up only a few times, which all happened to involve the Roughnecks.  I particluarly remember listening to the Houston-Dallas game in week 4 while I was coming back home from somewhere on the train, and being impressed at the talent involved in the broadcast.

 

During the first week of this season, I tuned into 97.5 KFNC to hear the Roughnecks' game, and instead I heard a talk show discussing the Super Bowl.  Searches have turned up nothing about local radio for any team, only coverage on ESPN's Sirius XM channel (coverage which, I think, probably consists only of the audio track of the television broadcasts, but which I cannot get anyway, as I am certainly not going to subscribe to that service just for this).  Tweets to the Houston station, to the league, and to the Roughnecks have generated no responses.

 

So I hope that someone here can tell me whether I am overlooking something. Can it really be that no XFL team has a local radio deal? If so, that would be f-ing appalling.

 

[GDAWG]

12 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

Right now I am stuck just watching hightlights. I got rid of my cable a few months ago; I really didn't want to become one of "those people", but the cable scumbags just priced me out. The cost of the array of streaming services that I have comes nowhere near what I had been paying for cable.

 

However, the upshot is that I cannot watch ESPN, ABC, or FX, the networks that carry the XFL. Either ESPN and FX would require another subscription, but I am not prepared to pay for any additional streaming services; and watching the local ABC station in the ABC app requires a log-in with credentials from a cable company, or from Hulu with live TV, or from YouTube TV.  Whereas, I could see the USFL with my Peacock subscription.

 

This didn't really surprise me. But what does surprise me is the apparant absence of local radio stations.  I really enjoy listening to a quality radio broadcast.  And in 2020 I found that I could hear the Houston Roughnecks' games on Houston's ESPN radio outlet at 97.5 KFNC, which streams online.  There were probably other teams' broadcasts that I could have listened to; but during that season I also had cable, and could see the games. So the issue came up only a few times, which all happened to involve the Roughnecks.  I particluarly remember listening to the Houston-Dallas game in week 4 while I was coming back home from somewhere on the train, and being impressed at the talent involved in the broadcast.

 

During the first week of this season, I tuned into 97.5 KFNC to hear the Roughnecks' game, and instead I heard a talk show discussing the Super Bowl.  Searches have turned up nothing about local radio for any team, only coverage on ESPN's Sirius XM channel (coverage which, I think, probably consists only of the audio track of the television broadcasts, but which I cannot get anyway, as I am certainly not going to subscribe to that service just for this).  Tweets to the Houston station, to the league, and to the Roughnecks have generated no responses.

 

So I hope that someone here can tell me whether I am overlooking something. Can it really be that no XFL team has a local radio deal? If so, that would be f-ing appalling.

 

 

The XFL has no local radio deals for any of their teams, and none of the teams have any cheerleaders or mascots either.  The USFL had mascots.  

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

13 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

The XFL has no local radio deals for any of their teams

 

Thanks for confirming this most unfortunate state of affairs.

[MJWalker45]

30 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

Right now I am stuck just watching hightlights. I got rid of my cable a few months ago; I really didn't want to become one of "those people", but the cable scumbags just priced me out. The cost of the array of streaming services that I have comes nowhere near what I had been paying for cable.

 

However, the upshot is that I cannot watch ESPN, ABC, or FX, the networks that carry the XFL. Either ESPN and FX would require another subscription, but I am not prepared to pay for any additional streaming services; and watching the local ABC station in the ABC app requires a log-in with credentials from a cable company, or from Hulu with live TV, or from YouTube TV.  Whereas, I could see the USFL with my Peacock subscription.

 

This didn't really surprise me. But what does surprise me is the apparant absence of local radio stations.  I really enjoy listening to a quality radio broadcast.  And in 2020 I found that I could hear the Houston Roughnecks' games on Houston's ESPN radio outlet at 97.5 KFNC, which streams online.  There were probably other teams' broadcasts that I could have listened to; but during that season I also had cable, and could see the games. So the issue came up only a few times, which all happened to involve the Roughnecks.  I particluarly remember listening to the Houston-Dallas game in week 4 while I was coming back home from somewhere on the train, and being impressed at the talent involved in the broadcast.

 

During the first week of this season, I tuned into 97.5 KFNC to hear the Roughnecks' game, and instead I heard a talk show discussing the Super Bowl.  Searches have turned up nothing about local radio for any team, only coverage on ESPN's Sirius XM channel (coverage which, I think, probably consists only of the audio track of the television broadcasts, but which I cannot get anyway, as I am certainly not going to subscribe to that service just for this).  Tweets to the Houston station, to the league, and to the Roughnecks have generated no responses.

 

So I hope that someone here can tell me whether I am overlooking something. Can it really be that no XFL team has a local radio deal? If so, that would be f-ing appalling.

 

SiriusXM simulcasts the game broadcasts on Channel 81. For local stuff, you may just have to keep looking around. 

[GDAWG]

 

[4_tattoos]

This venue in Vegas is easily the worst in the league on a visual level. They should have considered putting the Vipers in another southwest city for a year (or however long) until they could get the green light to play at Sam Boyd.

[Sykotyk]

4 hours ago, 4_tattoos said:

This venue in Vegas is easily the worst in the league on a visual level. They should have considered putting the Vipers in another southwest city for a year (or however long) until they could get the green light to play at Sam Boyd.

I wonder if Bishop Gorman was ever approached to play at their HS stadium. Because this just looks so bad on TV. Not just the horrifically bad field conditions, but the camera angles are terrible, as well.

[Cujo]

- Playing field jacked to hell

- Freeway noise barrier behind the endzone

- Brutal fan turnout

 

If the XFL makes it to Season 2, Vegas won't be along for the ride. 

 

[McCall]

13 hours ago, 4_tattoos said:

This venue in Vegas is easily the worst in the league on a visual level. They should have considered putting the Vipers in another southwest city for a year (or however long) until they could get the green light to play at Sam Boyd.

No, what they need to do, is relocate Vegas to San Diego or another city for next season and be done with it.

[nickp91]

Cashman Field is a bad stadium there is a reason the AAA baseball team moved out

[GDAWG]

The only reason behind Vegas in the XFL is because of Redbird Capital's Gerry Cardinale.  He wanted Vegas in the league and he got it.  

[DustDevil61]

19 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

The only reason behind Vegas in the XFL is because of Redbird Capital's Gerry Cardinale.  He wanted Vegas in the league and he got it.  

I really hope that this doesn’t sink the league, but, sadly, I wouldn’t be surprised if it does, or is at least partly why.

 

Also, while slightly off-topic, this is an example on why other sports leagues should be wary of putting any more teams in Las Vegas—it’s not the automatic cash cow executives think it is.

 

Edited February 26, 2023 by DustDevil61
Word cleanup

[McCall]

22 minutes ago, DustDevil61 said:

I really hope that this doesn’t sink the league, but, sadly, I wouldn’t be surprised if it does, or is at least partly why.

 

Also, while slightly off-topic, this is an example on why other sports leagues should be wary of putting any more teams in Las Vegas—it’s not the automatic cash cow executives think it is.

 

I don’t think this is a barometer on Las Vegas as a market at all. Before, they had no major league team, so leagues like this would’ve succeeded in the same vein as St. Louis, San Antonio and Orlando (I assume). Now, they have new major teams that fans are gonna spend their money on, so it’s not an established enough market to handle both types of leagues. Seattle, DC, Dallas, Houston, etc are established enough that, especially in sports like football, namely for Texas, the major league team doesn’t necessarily pull away from the secondary league teams. Like for example, if St. Louis got another team, or San Antonio got AN NFL team, I don’t know if the Battlehawks or Brahmas would be as successful if they stayed. Being an established team in that league may help, but a new major league team is always gonna take priority.

[MJWalker45]

5 hours ago, Cujo said:

- Playing field jacked to hell

- Freeway noise barrier behind the endzone

- Brutal fan turnout

 

If the XFL makes it to Season 2, Vegas won't be along or the ride. 

 

That looks like a film set, minus the green screen to add fans in later.