Brahmas’ first games find a big audience
San Antonio coach Hines Ward is never going to tell his players to not celebrate a win, but as the Brahmas boarded the return flight from Sunday's 3012 victory at Orlando, he stressed the need to at least be respectful.
With both teams headed back to the XFL'S training hub in Arlington, the Guardians filed into the front half of the plane while the Brahmas packed in the back, somewhat dampening the revelry around San Antonio's first win.
“It was honestly pretty strange,” Brahmas quarterback Jack Coan said. “At the end of the day, we tried to be respectful, but guys on our team had a good time on the plane.”
Ward said the circumstances were a bit awkward — “I don't think anyone who has played football has ever done that in history” — but just another example of adjusting to life in a startup league. When the plane landed, Ward spoke to a couple of Orlando's players about the need to stay positive despite opening the year with two onesided losses.
The Brahmas have attempted to make the most of each moment, Ward said, even as “every week is an adventure” in a league that is still working to finds its footing two games into the regular season.
“We just have to do it better than the seven other teams that are in our league,” Ward said. “We're all handcuffed and restricted to do a certain amount of things, and we just have to be creative and don't blink, and don't make excuses. Just continue to work forward, and find a way to get it done.”
San Antonio's fans have responded more than any other base in the league, with the 24,245 in attendance at the Brahmas opener Feb. 19 in the Alamodome nearly doubling the next-highest total in the league.
Houston hosted 12,783 fans to mark the No. 2 crowd from the XFL'S first eight games, with attendance outside San Antonio averaging 11,065.
“Our players, it meant something to them to see the support our fan base had down in San Antonio,” Ward said. “Even though we're not there in the city, we're there in spirit and our minds, and we're there with the fan base. I can't wait to get back home to play.”
The support mirrors San Antonio's experience with the Commanders in the Alliance of American Football in 2019, as the Alamodome hosted 27,857 fans for the opener and 29,176 in the season's second week. The rest of the league, meanwhile, averaged 16,327 fans in Week 1 and 16,439 in Week 2.
The XFL'S attendance numbers still lag behind the league's 2020 iteration, which averaged 17,455 fans during the opening week of the season and 19,071 in Week 2.
Though Brahmas quarterback Jack Coan said the stadiums haven't been as packed as what he grew accustomed to as the starter at Notre Dame in 2021, he noted that the league offers “the same excitement, and energy, and emotion, and passion.”
“First and foremost, there are a lot of really great players here — players who should be in the NFL,” Coan said. “The quality of play is really high. Second, I think there are some rule changes that make the game a lot more exciting. And third, who doesn't love to watch football?”
San Antonio has also outperformed the rest of the league's television ratings through the first two weeks, drawing the highest viewership of any of the league's eight games with 1.57 million for the Brahmas' opener in the Alamodome.
That total outpaced all but one NBA broadcast from the same week, edging out every college basketball game and comfortably eclipsing all the NHL broadcasts.
“I guess ‘Dancing with the Stars' will do that to you,” Ward joked, referencing the attention that followed his win in the 2011 season of the televised dance competition.
San Antonio's second game was viewed by 781,000 people — still the highest total of the week in the XFL but behind 20 college basketball broadcasts, all nine national NBA offerings and two hockey games from the same period.
Overall, the XFL'S numbers are a significant dip from recent spring football startups. Last year's USFL debut game drew 3.07 million viewers, the XFL'S 2020 debut was watched by 3.3 million people, and the AAF'S two opening games averaged a combined 3.25 million viewers.
The least-watched game of the 2020 XFL'S opening weekend had about 2.5 million viewers, and three of the four games during the season's second week also surpassed 2 million, with the lowest at 1.36 million.
Pointing to the appetite for football in Texas, the excitement around the league's modified scoring rules and the parity leading to close games, Ward sees potential for the league to gain traction through the year.
“Bring your popcorn. It's definitely entertaining,” Ward said. “Why not enjoy some good football? The game doesn't take forever. The game is probably over in less than three hours. You're going to see some hard hitting, you're going to see some exciting plays. I love everything about it.”