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I'm reminded of something I saw a week or so ago about how a lot of failing businesses are gonna use the pandemic as an excuse for why they gave up.
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Apr 10, 2020 19:04
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 00:45 |
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Play posted:It's not like you need an excuse to fail anyways, the result is exactly the same. Well the meaningful part of it for me is that while I didn't like the XFL or want it to succeed I am a sports fan who wouldn't mind seeing another football league. But if we ignore the deeper causes of death in the autopsy of the XFL and just blame it on the pandemic then the next guy to try this will probably go and make some of the same mistakes and assumptions the XFL did.
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Apr 10, 2020 19:44
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Play posted:What were those mistakes, out of curiosity? I think the XFL was on its way to succeeding, and you have to admit a global pandemic the likes of which we've never seen in our lifetimes happening halfway through the first season is pretty damned bad luck The first problem I think these leagues make is making the assumption that the demand for a spring league is already there and they need to merely supply it to succeed. Practically that probably doesn't make a huge difference for them since either way you're either going to put out a good product and build an audience or not, but its probably meaningful for those of us evaluating their chances as well as their bigger business plan. The second obvious mistake I think made is the "feeder league" theory. If you play a bunch of games with discarded talents will some of them impress and get new chances in the NFL? Absolutely. But I'm not sure how providing that service for free is ever supposed to amount to anything. The NFL is getting a bonus but they already have a system in place and it seems highly unlikely that they'd invest ina 3rd party or supply them with valuable talent that could get hurt or burnt out there. These aren't so much tactical errors that you can change course on, but they're more broader business plan issues that beg the question of how the league plans to ever succeed. I'd like to see a spring football league but I don't actually see a practical path to it if these are the best theories. As for whether they were on the bath to success I don't personally see it. Their ratings were in decline and they had yet to go against March Madness, MLB, or playoff chase NBA or NHL. There was no real reason to expect a better or more profitable TV deal for a second season if a second season happened. The pandemic might have accelerated financial losses but I don't even know if that's true since we don't know their financials. This weekend would have been the last week of regular season so I believe would have been the last week of commitment to paying player wages. It strikes me that if they could have afforded this week then it would have made more sense to just see how things shape out when things get back to normal. Releasing all their talent and shutting down this weekend strikes me as a deliberate move to avoid that and take their chance to claim they had to shut down prematurely because of the pandemic. Unless they truly just run out of money, which begs the question of whether they ever really had 2-3 years of investment money like they claimed. I actually think the pandemic might have saved the XFL a lot of face. They never had to potentially see their ratings tank against March Madness and probably stayed in a better negotiating position with the networks as a result. And as I said I think it now serves as a convenient excuse for why the league failed ignoring the question of whether they were on the path to failing already or not.
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Apr 10, 2020 20:18
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Its a minor league sport league, in a sport where there's already a second hugely popular league, in a country where there are no other second pro leagues or minor leagues on TV that aren't just extensions of the major league. Diehard football fans want more football. I get that. But they make the mistake of assuming that because the NFL and the Superbowl are so popular that everyone wants more football. The reality is that there's basically three kinds of fans of the NFL. The diehard football fans, the general sports fans, and the casual fans. The casual fans have no interest or probably aren't even aware of the XFL. The general sports fans might have had some curiosity about it and interest in watching it when nothing else was on, but if there's better quality sports happening they'll choose that generally. That basically leaves the fans who just want football over most everything else. And there's nothing wrong with that but there's also no evidence that there's enough of those people to support a new league. Maybe some day someone will discover the secret to a spring league. Maybe the XFL would have. But the odds were always against them and they weren't headed in the right direction before the pandemic.
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Apr 11, 2020 00:55
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I'm no lawyer but "gross neglect in the pandemic" seems like a door WWE shouldn't want to open up in a court case.
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May 13, 2020 20:53
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They actually were really slow to suspend games compared to the bigger leagues. But yeah, its so obvious that the pandemic provided them the excuse to just bail on it instead of saying "season suspended, we'll see what happens next year".
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May 14, 2020 01:10
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I assume that was a joke about "Mr. McMahon" the monstrous wrestling character who feuded with Austin vs Vince McMahon the monstrous human being.
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May 21, 2020 23:56
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But... he had such a brilliant business plan... and he's such a brilliant businessman... I don't understand why...
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May 26, 2020 20:22
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Yeah, I don't know how credible "XFL insider Mike Mitchell" is but even the quote from him that the article is based on is "a bunch of big corporations including Disney inquired into the price but I don't know if they've made an actual bid." So like I can buy that Disney/ESPN kicked the tires out of curiosity and sports content but even if true that could just mean they wanted to see if they could buy it for a song.
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May 31, 2020 05:35
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 00:45 |
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I also imagine the SEC would cost SLIGHTLY more money than the XFL if it were for sale. Its like Disney passed a yard sale and was like "How much is that old box? It could maybe be cool to put stuff in or something." And then someone was like "No way, Disney! Don't buy that box, buy this super expensive safe that's way better!" And like, they might have just misgauged Disney's level of interest and need for a box. I'm tired. That's the best tortured metaphor I could come up with. I couldn't figure out what people buy at yard sales.
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Jun 2, 2020 04:10
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