The XFL 3.5 and 2023 Plans

I read that it averaged 256,000 viewers you can view that through 2 different lenses. 1) it is terrible absolute dumpster fire. 2) factor in that they got 256k to watch on a Thursday night with a 10:30 est kickoff going up against March Madness - a sporting event that costs the US economy $17 billion usd in lost productivity etc. A sporting event that is a Superbowl “lite” type of thing.

Draw your own conclusions.

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I do not know the magic number or threshold, but well over 200K is still more than I would have figured.

I doubt we get the data, but just WHO is watching would be even more telling including on a regional basis in the US.

On Saturday up directly against March Madness all day, I think it’s a write-off on FX, and Sunday 9PM on ESPN2 with two Texas teams after an entire weekend of sports and many more people going back to work on Monday morning, meh.

The real story should be told by the numbers out after next weekend especially for the two games on ABC.

The weather is warmer far more often by day now in much of the Northeast and Midwest with more daylight in the evenings, and soon the weather will turn by night so there’s that competition as we go into April.

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The next two weekends should be interesting to see and as you say as we head into spring and the weather in the Northern States gets nice enough to go outside etc. Truth be told I don’t see this thing bleeding out in year one.

And even for as messy and a grease fire as the Vegas situation has been - it is not a financial Chernobyl catastrophic event for the league. It is a PR mess and makes the XFL look bush league but it is not a league killer. We are half way through the season and I think we will see it live another year at a minimum.

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The rest of the games this weekend are on FX for the Saturday Games and ESPN 2 for the Sunday Night game which has an 9pm EST kickoff time. I would expect maybe 200k tops for each of the two Saturday games and 150k for the Sunday night game.

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not sure if this is the thread to put this comment in.

I have been thinking about the XFL rules and I have come to the conclusion that although I am not advocating for it, I would not find it such a bad idea for CFL and XFL to join playing under XFL rules. The main things that would bother me about it would be the smaller field (I so love the CFL field size) and I believe no onside puint recovery. I could actually live with 4 downs in that case.

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you must be eating the wrong kind of mushrooms.

seriously though, i can get behind most this idea without the kickoff formation rules.

better idea - lets merge them into the CXFL or something but with CFL sized field.

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And no ratio.

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and this

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So essentially, XFL expanding to Canada.

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well not necessarily. i think the quality of football (and players) would go up from what both leagues have now. i like bigger field.

has 4 downs been tried on a CFL sized field yet?

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But continue to ask taxpayers to build stadiums / supply infrastructure for them to play in.

The St. Louis DC game will draw well, at least for the night. 350-400k I’m predicting. The Orlando Vegas game could be under 300k. I’m thinking 400-450k for the ESPN2 night cap

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There are leagues at the high school level that use Canadian rules except for four downs

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A merger IMHO does a lot for Lions, Argos and Als - I think those three markets draw much better playing in a cross border league. I think a Lions Sea Dragons rivalry would be a good draw. Then throw in having 8-10 games a week, with probably 3 or 4 of them must see TV. I think this is the direction that things are heading.

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Ambrosie has opened the door to American sized fields with his “temporary-permanent” solution in Atlantic Canada. One could very well say that they would have American sized stadiums temporarily until such time as a team gets established and new Canadian sized fields get built.

However, with teams putting players on one side of the field currently, it’s easier to fit CFL width into an American field. Places like Lumen field also hold soccer games so they might have the width as well. There is a chance that the CFL sacrifices length as discussed by Farhan last year.

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The CFL reduced the ratio during the last CBA. I’m expecting a further reduction for 1. any expansion and 2. during the next CBA. The CFL would rather get rid of it altogether so they were facing this dilemma anyway.

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The XFL has done quite well in the 18-49 demo. Even with last night’s lackluster drawing, 175k of the 256k were in the coveted 18-49 demo, over 2/3rds were in the target demo. The USFL skews much more towards the “remember when” generation. As the old adage in TV goes, a 2.0 rating with a 5 demo is more attractive than a 5 rating with a 2 demo.

To put it into even more context, the game drew a larger demo than Fox News in the same timeslot although they drew 3 million viewers overall, or 10-1 ratio.

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A real problem imo is a lack of grassroots training opportunities for football in Canada although it is improving each year. Existing developmental programs are mostly US based. Teams recruit based on where the talent is playing.

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Canadians like football Americans love football. Americans Chop football for breakfast on a mirror. Case in point Colin Cowherd spent the last two days talking about Aaron Rogers and NFL free agency and a little bit about the NCAA hoops tournament. He has said multiple times that he talks about where the numbers take him.

A high school district in Houston - Katy ISD (bo levi mitchell) built a $70 Million usd football stadium. Halfix won’t kick in the cash for a multipurpose stadium. Different levels of affection for football. And that is high school.

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i’m a football girl in a hockey country.

i like hockey. i love football.

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