NittanyFan

January 25th, 2018 at 12:53 PM ^

There are still a lot of negatives associated with these months, but I think a April-mid July type of calendar is the league's ONLY chance at working. 

You can't do it in the fall, we're already saturated.  

February's a miserable month weather-wise most places - people will show up for NFL playoff games in the cold but aren't going to show for regular season XFL.  March is about basketball.  April and people are excited to be outside again.  Don't go into August, as that's NFL pre-season and honestly a bit of a "siesta" month for many folk, they aren't paying any attention to news or sports.

Getting the calendar is the single most important thing as regards this league's future success/failure.

Joined: 12/04/2012

MGoPoints: 43146

bronxblue

January 25th, 2018 at 12:43 PM ^

The problem with any rule changes is they are novelty alteration that won't fundamentally change the fact you'll have mediocre talent with mediocre coaches playing in front of sterile, small stadiums and limited fan excitement. If they treat it like the G-league or some type of bridge from college to the NFL, that might work. But it's just hard to sell people. The one thing the XFL did well was push forward presentation on the field. The overhead camera, some of the added mic work, some player personalization, the overall selling of the product was good. And that makes sense; the WWE can put together live performances that are exciting and engaging quite well, and do so on a weekly basis in different venues.

Joined: 11/22/2008

MGoPoints: 171806

Blue in PA

January 25th, 2018 at 12:04 PM ^

We had an arena team locally.... They were with a different league every year for about 6 years.  The last year they went undefeated and won the championship, and still couldn't make a dime.  It all folded.  They're still around, but they resemble regional "professional wrestling" federations.   There were times when games were cancelled because the other team couldn't afford a bus to get here, or players quit the team quit and they didn't have enough bodies rostered to play a game. 

Joined: 08/26/2014

MGoPoints: 5140

Farnn

January 25th, 2018 at 12:04 PM ^

I wonder if they will have a rule about no kneeling during the anthem. As a business decision (no politics!), it could be a good hook for them to grab a bunch of fans early.

Joined: 07/07/2008

MGoPoints: 12788

1VaBlue1

January 25th, 2018 at 12:29 PM ^

Yep...  I have money that says all the people that claimed to boycott the NFL because of kneeling, haven't actually stopped watching.  Some of them might have stopped talking about it so much, but they're all still watching.

Ratings suck because the product sucks.  Yeah, they're great players that run perfect routes and make awesome plays.  But the whole thing lacks heart, it lacks feel.  It's a sterile environment ruled by corporate fans that don't want to embarrass the boss sitting in the next seat.  It's way expensive to go to a game, and ohh, soo comfortable to watch it at home.

Joined: 01/31/2016

MGoPoints: 127291

Solecismic

January 25th, 2018 at 12:52 PM ^

More than 40 million Americans tuned in for each of the championship games on Sunday. That will increase to 100 million for the Super Bowl. They lost 10% of the audience and are still #1 by quite a margin. The product is fine. The question is what do you do to maintain fine when it's hard to get kids watching sports, period. I think they are making a mistake by continuing to add commercials, but it seems no one these days is able to resist the short-term urge to maximize revenue at any cost. Has the anthem thing hurt? Beats me. I can't recall ever tuning into a game of any kind, excited about watching the national anthem. Seems like just another one of those endless Fox vs. CNN arguments that no one will ever win. So maybe it matters to the six million or so who watch one of the news channels daily. I don't know. I think the future will be difficult for professional sports because kids are more into their devices than television. If the XFL has figured out a way to tap into that, then it might succeed. If not, it will be a sideshow again.

Joined: 11/27/2016

MGoPoints: 7239

Michigan4Harbaugh

January 25th, 2018 at 3:13 PM ^

I, for one, have stopped watching. Was an avid Steelers fan, but was done the minute they cowered in that tunnel in Chicago week 2. Haven't missed the NFL. I'll stick to Michigan football. Hope the XFL succeeds in some fashion.

Joined: 01/20/2015

MGoPoints: 4252

Solecismic

January 25th, 2018 at 4:42 PM ^

It's possible that a lot of the 10% reduction is due to people who feel as strongly as you do about the anthem issue. But there's a lot competing for that 10%, primarily that viewership for all programming is down by considerably more than 10% over the last 2-3 years. I get what you're saying in the sense that it destroys the illusion that sports operates in this vacuum where politics and other strong non-sports opinion ceases to exist. But you say you're sticking to Michigan football, and some notable Wolverines have taken a knee as well. Other problems include the CTE issue, academic fraud on the college front. It's hard to keep up that illusion about anything. We're simply too informed these days and we tend to turn toward biased sources (one side or the other) when it comes to being informed. We're living in a very divided society. But I will maintain that the key to a new venture is to figure out how to attract kids, who have extraordinarily limited attention spans these days. As a computer programmer, I struggle with this. When I learned programming, the most popular operating system was task oriented. Today, it's an operating system designed to interrupt you constantly. It requires a completely different mindset. If McMahon thinks a red, white and blue XFL (instead of black and red) is all he needs to make this succeed this time, he's going to lose a lot more money.

Joined: 11/27/2016

MGoPoints: 7239

Michigan4Harbaugh

January 26th, 2018 at 5:40 PM ^

What the Steelers did was completely disrespectful to our country, and our military. It REALLY pissed me off. The same goes for the rest of the overpaid NFL players who have done the same with their in-game protests. Protest for whatever you are protesting for on your own damn time. I haven't watched a game since Week 1, so I am not aware of which former M players have chosen not to stand. What they choose to do in the NFL has no bearing on the current team at Michigan. The NFL has been going downhill over the past several years anyway with their spineless commissioner at the helm. Then he is given an extension! Ha! The NFL has really become nothing more than a platform for social justice warriors, and less about the fans and the game of football. It is truly a shame.

Joined: 01/20/2015

MGoPoints: 4252

MI Expat NY

January 25th, 2018 at 6:13 PM ^

I'm willing to bet that for every person taking your position, there is someone who is boycotting the NFL because nobody signed Kaepernick, and a nother person (maybe more) who can no longer watch knowing the damage these guys are doing to their brains.  

I'd also imagine that people in each category greatly over estimate the number of people taking their respective positions, because people tend to operate in an echo chamber.  

Joined: 07/24/2008

MGoPoints: 8641

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

January 25th, 2018 at 12:09 PM ^

A league whose entire premise was that the players will be more actively trying to kill each other should go over much better the second time around, now that we all know what CTE stands for.

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 41586

brad

January 25th, 2018 at 12:15 PM ^

The main problem with the XFL was that they eliminated rules and processes from the game that they thought made NFL football boring, but the elimination of those rules made the game itself more difficult to play. So they wound up with guys who were clearly not as good as NFL players playing a more difficult version of football, and it predictably suuuuuuuuuuucked.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 15805

Clarence Boddicker

January 25th, 2018 at 3:51 PM ^

The league can't very well succeed without viewers--unless you plan to buy millions of different cable packages all on your own and play the XFL on millions of televisions at the same time. Concerns about CTE aren't limited to the NFL but exist at all levels of football, so I don't get your point there. Interest in the NFL isn't flagging for that reason or probably any factor specific to the sport. Sports viewership is down in general--NASCAR is getting pounded, for instance. People are cutting cable subscriptions, and broadcast t.v. numbers are dropping overall. They're jumping in at the worst time.

Joined: 05/27/2011

MGoPoints: 71103

Boner Stabone

January 25th, 2018 at 12:37 PM ^

I would watch, but they need to appeal to each cities fan base.  Maybe do what the USFL did and have local college guys play on that city's team.  The fans can then feel a connection to the players and then the team itself. 

I remember watching the Michigan Panthers all the time, because they had Anthony Carter (UM) and Ray Bentley (CMU) on their team.  There was a local connection there that made me want to root for them.

Joined: 01/06/2015

MGoPoints: 24100

bronxblue

January 25th, 2018 at 12:37 PM ^

At best it will be a AAAA version of the NFL, and my guess is it will be G5-level talent playing games in the middle of March in front of a couple thousand people. About the only semi-realistic option I've heard is it would be a super-patriotic/anti-Kaepernick-type product that tries to draw in eyeballs like it's a bad Michael Bay movie versus the actual performance on the field. So in effect, the type of black/white, good/bad style you see on wrestling. It won't work on a big scale, but maybe if you carve out a niche you could pull it off for a bit.

Joined: 11/22/2008

MGoPoints: 171806

carolina blue

January 25th, 2018 at 12:50 PM ^

Changes. Basically make it real football but with tweaks. Forget about field size and crap like that. Here’s a few rule changes I would make. 1) unlimited eligible receivers 2) no formation requirements 3) 10:00 quarters with always running clock except after scores 4) no punting allowed 5) fgs worth 1pt from inside 20yd line, 2 from 20-29, 3 from 30-39, etc (this encourages going for it) 6) ball can be thrown forward at any time from anywhere (this I’m less confident about, but it’s worth thinking over)

Joined: 02/12/2014

MGoPoints: 30259

saveferris

January 25th, 2018 at 12:56 PM ^

The running clock idea is intriguing.  I'd be interested to see what kind of performances we'd get on the football field when teams had to behave more like rugby players rather than American football players.  Also, it would be interesting to see how much public interest you could drum up with games that end in under 2 hours.

Of course, it's hard to see Jim McMahon not allowing anything with his name on it not turning into some variation of a WWE clownshow.

Joined: 07/02/2009

MGoPoints: 24841