Fan-friendly, fast-paced XFL coming back in 2020
The XFL, the wrestling-inspired pro football league that fell with the thud of a Hulk Hogan body slam back in 2001, is ready for a comeback.
Seventeen years after the league and its Orlando Rage franchise folded following one season, WWE chairman Vince McMahon announced Thursday he’s resurrecting the XFL. He said he’s eliminating the wrestling group’s involvement and head-scratching gimmicks, putting a focus on the quality of play, the quality of players and a much, much faster-paced game.
“Quite frankly, we’re going to give the game of football back to the fans,” McMahon said on a conference call. “We’re going to ask a lot of questions and listen to players, coaches. We’re going to listen
to medical experts, technology executives, members of the media and anyone else who understands and loves the game of football.”
McMahon wants the new XFL, which will begin play in 2020, to “re-imagine” professional football. Changes like simplifying rules, eliminating halftime and having games last just two hours were examples he cited.
“The new XFL will be fan-centric with all the things you like to see and less of the things you don’t,” he said. “We will present a shorter, fasterpaced, family-friendly and easier-to-understand game. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still football — but it’s professional football reimagined.”
Like the original XFL, this new version will have teams in eight U.S. cities playing a 10-game regular season that would start in late January or early February. All teams would be owned by the league in a single-entity structure and have 40-man rosters.
McMahon said no decision has been made yet on what cities will get teams, but Orlando — which fielded one of the more successful franchises in the original XFL — is already expressing interest in a reunion.
Cassandra Lafser, spokeswoman for Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, said city officials have not spoken with the XFL about a team playing here, but added, “this is something we would be interested in learning more about to bring to Orlando.”
But does Orlando — or America, for that matter — need another pro football league?
The NFL is already having its own struggles. Regular-season TV ratings were down about 9 percent versus last season, according to Advertising Age. The Standard Media Index reported that ad spending on regular-season games dropped this season after having increased the past two.
Some experts blame the NFL’s woes on criticism by President Donald Trump and others over players kneeling during the national anthem, a practice started by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick to peacefully protest the shootings of unarmed black people and police brutality.
McMahon may be betting that those fans unhappy with NFL players might be drawn to his new XFL, where he said kneeling during “The Star-Spangled Banner” would not be tolerated.
“It’s a time-honored tradition to stand for the national anthem,” McMahon said, adding, “We’ll have nothing to do with politics, nothing to do with social issues.”
McMahon also said the “quality of the human being is going to be as important as the quality of the player” and that XFL won’t have any players with criminal records.
“Even if you have a DUI, you will not play in the XFL,” he declared.
This new buttoneddown version of the XFL is a far cry from its origin in 2001.
Back then, the league flaunted its rule-breaking, outlaw image with stunts such as eliminating the traditional coin toss to make players wrestle for the ball and having cheerleaders wear as little as possible.
The original XFL was a joint venture between the WWE and NBC, which aired games Saturday nights. Both companies reportedly lost about $35 million each during the single season of play.
The league fielded teams in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Memphis, Birmingham, Ala., as well as Orlando — which was one of the few success stories.
The Rage played at what was then known as the Citrus Bowl, where capacity was lowered to about 36,000 for XFL games. The Rage sold out their home opener on Feb. 3, 2001, with several thousand fans being turned away.
The team averaged almost 26,000 in attendance during a season that saw former Florida Gators coach Galen Hall lead the Rage to a league-best 8-2 record. But the Rage were eliminated in the playoff semifinals by the San Francisco Demons, 26-25.
Despite the financial losses and criticism of the league, McMahon said Thursday he’s always wanted to bring back the XFL.
This time he’s doing it alone — with a private company without WWE-backing and, so far, without a broadcast partner.
He’s promised to deliver games to fans over multiple platforms. “You’ll be able to watch the XFL on big screens, mobile devices and everything in between,” he said.
But the biggest difference between the original XFL and the new version, McMahon said, will be a focus on the product on the field and not the off-thefield antics.
“I think the most important thing that we learned with the older XFL and now the new XFL is the quality of the play,” he said. “Quite frankly, we only had a very short time in the past to put everything together. We have two years now to really get it right,” he said.
“The new XFL will be fan-centric with all the things you like to see and less of the things you don’t.”
Vince McMahon, WWE chairman