Vince McMahon made an announcement late last month that he's once again getting into the football business.
Because his first foray was such a success in 2001.
Yes, you've heard by now that the XFL is being resurrected and is planning a 2020 launch date. McMahon is plunking his own money into it – he reportedly sold $100 million of his own stock in World Wrestling Entertainment, the company he built into a professional wrestling juggernaut, to finance the deal – and created Alpha Entertainment, a company McMahon started to separate the XFL from WWE.
Now, those of us who are old enough to remember the XFL v1.0 will recall that it was exactly what you thought it was going to be: an off-shoot of WWE, marketed with its promises of smash-mouth, hard-hitting, no-fair-catching, old-time football. It worked… for about a week. NBC, which went into business with McMahon after losing its NFL contract, ended up losing millions of dollars on the venture, as did McMahon.
NBC decided one season was enough because no one was watching – some of the lowest-rated shows in broadcast history came courtesy of the XFL at the time in 2001 – and got back into the NFL game as fast as it could.
So why didn't it work? People just didn't trust it. It was operated by WWE and we all know what some people think about WWE. Yes, it's scripted. Yes, it's fake. We all know that and we don't need to hear about that again. It didn't help that networks and sports broadcasters treated it like a sideshow and not as actual football. It was destined to fail; McMahon himself called the league a failure.
So imagine everyone's surprise when McMahon announced he was bringing it back. All of the talk about the first try came back to the surface and some people have been writing it off even before it gets going.
But I'm not so sure. I think it has a shot at sustainability, so long as it's done right. Here's why:
Firstly, McMahon created Alpha Entertainment as a vehicle to run the re-birth of the XFL. It was originally started up to "explore investment opportunities across the sports and entertainment landscapes, including professional football."
We know now that the XFL is what McMahon was talking about. He's said, in a very well-done ESPN documentary about the league, that he wanted to revive the league in some shape or form and he's giving it another go.
The plan is to have a 10-week season with eight teams (no idea where the teams will be as of yet) and they'll all be owned by the league, similar to Major League Soccer's setup. The two-year gap between announcement and planned start means McMahon will actually have some time to get his ducks in a row before the opening kickoff. The 2001 XFL launched after barely a year's worth of work, which isn't much time at all.
Secondly, it looks like McMahon views the National Football League as vulnerable. Ratings have steadily declined for various reasons and he may see this as a chance to poke a hole in what has become North America's biggest sporting venture. Publicly, McMahon stated that he isn't trying to take advantage of the NFL's problems, but McMahon is a capitalist and has also been very good at being an opportunist.
The reason WWE is as big as it is today is because McMahon started moving into other territories, which was a huge no-no in the days of territorial wrestling. Used to be that you dared not go into another market unless the promoter of that market said it was OK to do so. McMahon didn't care. He saw a chance to make a fortune and went for it.
Thirdly, McMahon is planning a faster-paced product with games taking around two hours to complete. It's still to be seen and heard about how he plans on doing that, whether it's through rule changes or broadcasting agreements. As it stands, the standard NFL or Canadian Football League game takes about three hours to get through, too long for McMahon's liking.
The most interesting part, though, is McMahon is promising no kneeling for the American national anthem, no player in the league will have a criminal record and no one will be signed for celebrity value. The latter two I can see dying a quick death. This is Vince McMahon we're talking about here. He may be trying for a clean slate but he's made his money on being controversial. You can bet Johnny Manziel will be in the XFL, if he hasn't already signed on to play in the CFL. In fact, Manziel already tweeted his excitement about the new league.
Johnny Manziel aside, the league will have plenty of players to pick from. The old XFL had several players from the CFL and even the Arena Football League, which was good for players because it provided an extra paycheque during the off-seasons of both leagues. But there are always football players looking for work and not just cast-offs or those so past their prime they'd fart dust. There will no doubt be some players who we would recognize that the opportunity to play and possibly become a star in a new league is too good to pass up.
As for broadcasting, McMahon doesn't need a major network to guarantee ratings. Sure, it would be nice to have terrestrial guarantees, but the landscape is so much different now than it was in 2001. It is, after all, the 500-channel universe and don't forget – there are streaming services all over the place and there are companies that would love to get a piece of the pie. Advertising revenue is spent in many different ways nowadays and this is one way McMahon could ensure some success.
McMahon says he's learned from the mistakes of the first XFL venture and let's hope he has. I'm all for second chances to make first impressions but it needs to be done right because, whether you agree or disagree, the NFL is vulnerable.