Vince McMahon considers move to bring back the XFL

[JCon]

All very true TUP! Vince has had some failed ventures but he has fought.

He positioned himself perfectly and allowed Turner to pour money into building the industry momentum, then squashed them when it mattered. He knows the wrestling entertainment business.

 

[Noeller]

man, some of you have way too much knowledge about Vince McMahon....

[The Unknown Poster]

11 minutes ago, JCon said:

All very true TUP! Vince has had some failed ventures but he has fought.

He positioned himself perfectly and allowed Turner to pour money into building the industry momentum, then squashed them when it mattered. He knows the wrestling entertainment business.

 

The flip side is everything he’s tried that isn’t wrestling related failed. Boxing. Body building. Stunt promoting. Football. 

[JCon]

7 minutes ago, Noeller said:

man, some of you have way too much knowledge about Vince McMahon....

TUP is in the industry, so that makes sense.

And I followed the industry closely, rather than focusing on my studies. So, I have lots of useless knowledge rather than lots of money.

[The Unknown Poster]

You can probably blame AOL for the demise of WCW.  Once Turner lost power, WCW had no safety net and no chance to turn things around.  Turner would have protected WCW forever.

There was some potential shadiness too.  Someone in WWE knew an exec in WCW.  The sale originally fell apart because WWE didn't want the big contracts, only the ones that had quarterly out clauses.  They also didnt want to pay the valuation that was based on the TV contracts WCW had with Turner networks.  Suddenly, WCW is "cancelled", the company is effectively worthless and WWE gets it for a song.  Bischoff had investors ready to buy it for some ridiculous sum based on a ten year TV commitment.  Once that was pulled, Bisch was out because WCW was worthless without TV and he didnt have time to make a new TV deal (he tried though). 

Anyway, I see this going one of two ways, Vince on his own and Vince with partners.  It stands to reason he'd want partners.  But XFL being cancelled was a bitter pill.  Vince wanted to finance a second season.  WWE & NBC were 50/50 partners and lost $35 million -  $50 million each.  Vince was willing to risk another $50 million on a second season.  NBC was not.  So Vince might want a scenario where he doesnt answer to a partner.

On the other hand, $100 million in losses is a lot less if multiple partners share it.  Also keep in mind that while the XFL ratings dropped off a lot, those ratings would be decent today, especially for a non Network.  14 million people watched the premiere.  Sure, it fell off a cliff to under 2 million but it also had a ton of negative momentum even as the on field product got better.  But 2-3 million on a cable station?  You'll have bidders for that.  Especially for "live sports" which is more valuable than scripted programs.

Some speculation that Sinclair Broadcasting could be interested.  They are a HUGE company, several billion dollars, and is the largest TV station owner in the US.  They are also family owned and very right wing leaning, as is Vince, as is Linda who holds a cabinet level position in the Trump admin.

When Ring of Honor warned WWE off about contract tampering, WWE uncharacteristically backed waaaaay off.  Either out of respect for Sinclair or not wanting to poke the bear.  Sinclair owns ROH. 

If Vince makes a deal with someone like Sinclair or USA or WGN (which is actually now owned by Sinclair in the Tribune deal).  That deal was worth $3.9 billion, so you think they could spent a $100 million on a football company?  Sure.  But if Vince gets a commitment and sports right fees are such, it would likely be significant and could fund much of the football operations, its a gamble that has legs.

[The Unknown Poster]

A few items of note courtesy of Mr Meltzer:

Quote

- an announcement would be made on 1/25 for the rebirth of the XFL, the brainchild of Vince McMahon that turned into a co-ownership with NBC. The league lasted one season, 2001, and when all was said and done, both partners had lost a total of $137,988,000.

- The XFL business model was the idea of building a football brand and making money through things like live ticket sales, merchandise and sharing in television ad revenue. With ticket sales disappointing and ratings far lower than promised, the losses piled up. The truth is that McMahon wanted to keep the league going for a second season, and even when NBC pulled out due to doing record-low ratings for the network, he was willing to continue with UPN and TNN (now Spike) as his broadcasters even though it didn’t seem prudent at the time. But when UPN also pulled out, at that point he felt he had no choice but to fold operations.

- Since 2001, television rights fees for live sports have skyrocketed. There were some who feared that the bubble had burst, but the feeling in the industry is the next two key contracts coming due, UFC and WWE, will both end up getting significant increases, which is the key to WWE’s stock increase in recent weeks. Another note is that what were horrible numbers that the XFL delivered on NBC on Saturday night’s don’t look nearly so bad by today’s standards.

- The big question is whether anyone would be willing to pay significant money for a football league without a track record, or if McMahon were to start a league and just look to put it on the air for a low price for one year to prove he can do numbers and then look to see if there is real money interest. It would appear to be impossible to do a league of any significance just based on live event and merchandise numbers.

- Alpha Entertainment LLC, a Delaware company, was registered on 9/6 and at the end of the month, that company. Another company, called VKM Ventures (Vince’s initials) applied for trademarks to UrFL, URFL, UFL, United Football League (a name for a minor football league that Mark Cuban ran at one point but Cuban had given up keeping the rights to) and “For the Love of Football.”

- VKM Ventures and Alpha Entertainment were the same company.

- The timing of the trademarks coincided with Donald Trump’s criticism of the NFL. Some are tying that together, and with Linda McMahon in the cabinet, it’s hard not to speculate on connecting those dots. Whether there is anything to them is another issue.

- UrFL would seem to stand for Your Football League, which sounds like a marketing idea of appealing to people to rebel against the NFL with the idea that the fan base loves football but doesn’t like the direction the major league is going. That may be relying on thinking that football’s ratings decline this season is about a public that loves football but is tired of the NFL’s product

- WWE itself started re-registrations on the XFL trademarks one year ago. At the time it was thought that the company would use it to market XFL retro merchandise due too publicity from the release of the “30 for 30" special on the league on ESPN.

- If McMahon’s new company was to use the XFL name, he would have to buy trademarks from the public WWE company and that would open up a lot of questions about conflict of interest.

- it has been made clear that if this league starts up, it will be Vince McMahon’s new company, with his own money, funding it, and not the public WWE. WWE stock, hovering at its highest point since right after it first went public, would plummet if the company announced it was starting up a football league based on the track record of the XFL, and everyone else who has tried to compete with the NFL. The stock was hit badly during the XFL season.

- Several sources, both in the company and those with ties to arena football, have also talked about the possibility of the new league being an arena league as opposed to a stadium league. There are a number of small-time arena football leagues all over the country, although that game has declined greatly in popularity in recent years. McMahon through WWE obviously has a longtime working relationship with nearly every large and mid-sized arena in any city of any size in the U.S.

- Still, from the trademarks, it would indicate the approach is to play small-time underdog against the big bad NFL,

- The key in his mind has to be more and more television stations and OTT companies looking for content, and he’d provide football content to people who don’t want to get into a bidding war for the NFL.

- another very important aspect of the story is that if McMahon, who spends 24/7 on pro wrestling, starts new business ventures, whether they be football or otherwise, what will that mean to wrestling? Does this mean he will transition the key creative responsibility to Paul Levesque (Triple H)?

- There has always been fear in the stock market and among stockholders as to what would happen to WWE without McMahon. Some feel the creative would improve with Levesque, and those who know both have constantly told me they believe it would be better without the McMahon idiosyncracies

- WWE is a machine and it would take a catastrophic level of stupidity in this climate to take the company down, and if anything, Levesque has shown his style of booking in NXT has overall built the brand up, even with its biggest names constantly cycling up to the main roster.

- At press time, none of this seemed to have any effect on the price as it closed at $32.72 per share and the company was valued at $2.523 billion (note: it did drop after the announcement of Vince selling $100 million in stock).

 

[blueandgoldguy]

I think the drop in NFL ratings is attributable to millennials not wanting to spend 3.5 hours watching a sporting event.  They prefer to get their sports information via live updates or quick recaps.

[wbbfan]

On 12/20/2017 at 12:16 PM, TrueBlue said:

I still think a National Touch Football League would take off like a jet plane.  

Put em in laser tag type gear that can light up like a christmas tree if they get touched. Have it be 6 on 6. enough for Enough to run power, option and spread offenses. As well as zone and zone blitzes. 3 downs, play both ways with roster room for maybe 3-4 subs. Play in the early spring, maybe on AFL style small fields. 

[SpeedFlex27]

If Vince brings forward an actual football league that centers on actual quality of play & the athletes without the gimmicks, stupid story lines & amateurish broadcasting crews then maybe this has a shot if it gets off the ground. I just hope it's not full of patriotic **** to get viewers. I still think the NFL will kick its doors off & people won't just necessarily jump to a new league because of players kneeling for the Stars & Stripes. I hope Trump is involved as then it's a guaranteed failure. 

[SpeedFlex27]

3 hours ago, wbbfan said:

Put em in laser tag type gear that can light up like a christmas tree if they get touched. Have it be 6 on 6. enough for Enough to run power, option and spread offenses. As well as zone and zone blitzes. 3 downs, play both ways with roster room for maybe 3-4 subs. Play in the early spring, maybe on AFL style small fields. 

I wouldn't watch. I don't think many people would.  If they do it, it'd be 7 on 7 as there are high school leagues in the US during the summer all over the States so most players would be familiar with the rules. 

[SpeedFlex27]

Some Texas Championship 7 on 7 football.

 

 

[Blueandgold]

3 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

I wouldn't watch. I don't think many people would.  If they do it, it'd be 7 on 7 as there are high school leagues in the US during the summer all over the States so most players would be familiar with the rules. 

Yup, even the leagues in Winnipeg and etc play 7 on 7.

[SpeedFlex27]

1 hour ago, Blueandgold said:

Yup, even the leagues in Winnipeg and etc play 7 on 7.

NONE in Calgary that I know. But the US is different. The 7 on 7 leagues down there exist so high school teams can run through their plays in the summer to prepare for football in the fall. 

[wbbfan]

6 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Some Texas Championship 7 on 7 football.

 

 

7 on 7 would be interesting too.  I think thatd be about as many players as id want to see though. 

[The Unknown Poster]

Alpha Entertainment's initial effort to trademark UFL was denied due to an earlier filing by a group called Urban Fitness League.  Alpha can use United Football League, but not UFL.

[JCon]

15 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Alpha Entertainment's initial effort to trademark UFL was denied due to an earlier filing by a group called Urban Fitness League.  Alpha can use United Football League, but not UFL.

What are they uniting?

[The Unknown Poster]

Just now, JCon said:

What are they uniting?

United against Liberals, Lefties and the NFL of course! :-)

[Atomic]

I would call it the SXFL, pronounced Sex F L.  That would get them some attention.  They can figure out what the acronym stands for later.

[The Unknown Poster]

Just now, Atomic said:

I would call it the SXFL, pronounced Sex F L.  That would get them some attention.  They can figure out what the acronym stands for later.

To be fair, the "X" in XFL didnt stand for anything anyways. lol

[JCon]

2 minutes ago, Atomic said:

I would call it the SXFL, pronounced Sex F L.  That would get them some attention.  They can figure out what the acronym stands for later.

The only kneeling we do is behind closed doors.

[Tracker]

8 hours ago, JCon said:

The only kneeling we do is behind closed doors.

And only half do.

[Goalie]

2020 is the rumour. 

[Brandon]

Wouldn't the past failure of the XFL make this even more difficult for them to succeed? 

 

[Goalie]

3 minutes ago, Brandon said:

Wouldn't the past failure of the XFL make this even more difficult for them to succeed? 

 

Hard to say..... The landscape in America has changed a wee bit since then... 2020 is the rumour... Isnt that an election year in the US? You know the Donald will probably have a role in this and hes got his millions of foolish supporters. Maybe they can call it The WSFL 

White Suppremacist Football League. 

Edited January 25, 2018 by Goalie

[Goalie]