ADVERTISEMENT

The Rock buys the XFL

GamecockinHouston

Active Member
Mar 13, 2019
1,601
1,750
113
An interesting move. XFL had some momentum till Covid. If they can position themselves as a true minor league, could do very well, esp. with the climate of sports, ie PAC12.
 
An interesting move. XFL had some momentum till Covid. If they can position themselves as a true minor league, could do very well, esp. with the climate of sports, ie PAC12.

Ratings were dropping precipitously. Viewership dropped 50% from Week 1 to Week 3. By Week 5, they had dropped below the critical 1 million mark.

As article below points out, the worst part is nobody knows what the bottom was. The ratings hadn't leveled off and were not volatile...just constantly dropping. And this was with no real competition for viewers.

https://touchdownwire.usatoday.com/2020/03/10/xfl-week-5-ratings-viewership-numbers/
 
  • Like
Reactions: Brace1
It would be interesting to see what viewership was in the cities that had franchises. I kinda liked the XFL's latest version, but I wasn't a regular viewer, because I had not found a team to pull for at the time it was shut down.
There are only two things I can watch without a dog in the hunt, and that's College football and March Madness. Oh, and a few select golf tournaments. I guess that's three things.
 
Ratings were dropping precipitously. Viewership dropped 50% from Week 1 to Week 3. By Week 5, they had dropped below the critical 1 million mark.

As article below points out, the worst part is nobody knows what the bottom was. The ratings hadn't leveled off and were not volatile...just constantly dropping. And this was with no real competition for viewers.

https://touchdownwire.usatoday.com/2020/03/10/xfl-week-5-ratings-viewership-numbers/
But it was still among FS1s highest rated programs even with the reduced numbers. I still think there is a market for it and getting more recent college guys helped but they have to find QBs to make this work and with the NFL having 5 per team with practice squad guys I just don’t know how many are out there.
 
But it was still among FS1s highest rated programs even with the reduced numbers. I still think there is a market for it and getting more recent college guys helped but they have to find QBs to make this work and with the NFL having 5 per team with practice squad guys I just don’t know how many are out there.

Problem is, the more people saw the product, the less they were interested. I dunno. Maybe twelfth time will be the charm for spring football.

The bigger problem is $$. The one huge advantage McMahon had was being able to dump his own money into this venture to give it time to become profitable on its own. His net worth is close to $2 billion. Dwayne Johnson's net worth is about $330 million. How much of that will he be willing to throw away?

Networks and sponsors will certainly look at the sliding ratings from this past spring to determine interest in getting involved with XFL 3.0. Since the season ended before the ratings bottomed out, and before the XFL had any competition, nobody knows what the true low point is for viewership. You got a lot of curiosity seekers in Week 1 given that this was the second iteration of the XFL. Their curiosity was clearly not piqued. How many will be curious the 3rd time around?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Brace1
Problem is, the more people saw the product, the less they were interested. I dunno. Maybe twelfth time will be the charm for spring football.

The bigger problem is $$. The one huge advantage McMahon had was being able to dump his own money into this venture to give it time to become profitable on its own. His net worth is close to $2 billion. Dwayne Johnson's net worth is about $330 million. How much of that will he be willing to throw away?

Networks and sponsors will certainly look at the sliding ratings from this past spring to determine interest in getting involved with XFL 3.0. Since the season ended before the ratings bottomed out, and before the XFL had any competition, nobody knows what the true low point is for viewership. You got a lot of curiosity seekers in Week 1 given that this was the second iteration of the XFL. Their curiosity was clearly not piqued. How many will be curious the 3rd time around?
That would probably depend on how involved Johnson is and how many higher profile players he is able to bring in as opposed to McMahan. I think there are guys who might be willing to bypass a practice squad to play for Johnson that wouldn’t have done so for McMahon.
 
That would probably depend on how involved Johnson is and how many higher profile players he is able to bring in as opposed to McMahan. I think there are guys who might be willing to bypass a practice squad to play for Johnson that wouldn’t have done so for McMahon.

Game changer would be if they could pick off a few high profile recruits from high school.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dizzy01
Smart and cheap buy for the XFL and now heading into the post-Covid world where sports may become ‘un-seasonable’... might turn a buck with advertising $$$$$.
 
Problem is, the more people saw the product, the less they were interested. I dunno. Maybe twelfth time will be the charm for spring football.

The bigger problem is $$. The one huge advantage McMahon had was being able to dump his own money into this venture to give it time to become profitable on its own. His net worth is close to $2 billion. Dwayne Johnson's net worth is about $330 million. How much of that will he be willing to throw away?

Networks and sponsors will certainly look at the sliding ratings from this past spring to determine interest in getting involved with XFL 3.0. Since the season ended before the ratings bottomed out, and before the XFL had any competition, nobody knows what the true low point is for viewership. You got a lot of curiosity seekers in Week 1 given that this was the second iteration of the XFL. Their curiosity was clearly not piqued. How many will be curious the 3rd time around?
You seem really against the XFL or something? I am not a fan or anything but I am a fan of football! Hope they get it working.. JFTR regarding net worth though- The Rock bought it with an investment group, so his personal assets are bot the limiting factor.
 
Smart and cheap buy for the XFL and now heading into the post-Covid world where sports may become ‘un-seasonable’... might turn a buck with advertising $$$$$.

Advertising $$$ could be affected by the fact that the ratings were sinking like a stone.
 
You seem really against the XFL or something? I am not a fan or anything but I am a fan of football! Hope they get it working.. JFTR regarding net worth though- The Rock bought it with an investment group, so his personal assets are bot the limiting factor.

Yeah, I am. Don't know why. I just don't get the incessant desire some folks have to try selling inferior football.

It also gets old with people trying to crack the magic formula of professional spring football. We were told the AAF had it figured out. For sure. It was one of the worst disasters ever. Then it was the XFL 2.0 that finally got it right. As of Week 5 of their season, the ratings were dropping precipitously with no end in sight. Mainly I get annoyed at those who say XFL 2.0 was doing well. They did well initially but as the curiosity seekers dropped off, their ratings plummeted.

There's a reason McMahon invested $200 million+ into XFL 2.0 but didn't even bother bidding on it during the bankruptcy proceedings.
 
You seem really against the XFL or something? I am not a fan or anything but I am a fan of football! Hope they get it working.. JFTR regarding net worth though- The Rock bought it with an investment group, so his personal assets are bot the limiting factor.
He was the same way under his old username as well
 
I've heard his Tequila company is doing well. No doubt he hire good people to try to make the XFL profitable.
 
Yeah, I am. Don't know why. I just don't get the incessant desire some folks have to try selling inferior football.

It also gets old with people trying to crack the magic formula of professional spring football. We were told the AAF had it figured out. For sure. It was one of the worst disasters ever. Then it was the XFL 2.0 that finally got it right. As of Week 5 of their season, the ratings were dropping precipitously with no end in sight. Mainly I get annoyed at those who say XFL 2.0 was doing well. They did well initially but as the curiosity seekers dropped off, their ratings plummeted.

There's a reason McMahon invested $200 million+ into XFL 2.0 but didn't even bother bidding on it during the bankruptcy proceedings.
I can understand that and yes, inferior products get old after a while...
History lesson time- the original Spring FB league, the USFL, was the only one that ever had some traction. Trump almost single handedly destroyed it after an idiotic idea to push it to the Fall and some very public sparring with the NFL. They folded before they ever got to play a Fall season. He tried to bully the NFL into a merger, they wound up coming out on top of course... In retrospect this MIGHT explain a lot about his current very public wars with the NFL! Holding a grudge perhaps?
 
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest posts

ADVERTISEMENT