The XFL 3.5 and 2023 Plans

Totally correct there is no way any such league is going to go head to head with the NCAA and NFL in the fall months. The window any league has to operate is between the middle of February and the Middle of September. - Maybe end of August at the latest.

Merged, not merged or whatever - that is the window of operation. The CFL realizes this as they have it written into their Collective Bargaining agreement that they can move the start of the season 30 days earlier and that would start in early May.

Also look at the first 12 weeks of the schedule and it is all Thursday Friday Saturday and Sunday night games. That is a TV schedule if there ever was one. I would also venture a guess that they are gathering data for the next move in whatever they have planned.

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I agree with your last two points but I’m out of likes.

:+1:

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Let’s note that Week 13 of 21 weeks of regular season games in the CFL will be on Labour Day Weekend. That’s over 60% of the regular season schedule!

There’s more later on this front and I’m not going to get ahead of myself now, but most of us can already see that this percentage of regular season games to be played by Labour Day is very likely going up in future seasons.

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@Paolo_X I agree with you on the specifics not being able to be determined but I look at the April to Labour Day window as I would if I were driving by a piece of property and they have heavy equipment out there and they are clearing the trees and brush and there are surveyors out there working. I look at the site and I might not know what is going up and what the purpose will be as well as the time frame for construction but I know something is going to be built. That is how I see all the XFL CFL Genius Sports activities. I don’t know if it is a subdivision, a Walmart or a 7-11 but someone is doing some site prep work.

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I think everything will be monitored closely. Someone in the league office knows what the revenue from concessions, ticket and merch sales is on week 1 and they’ll compare it to week 21. Revenue coming in related to gambling will also be taken into consideration. We already have Ambrosie trotting out that the CFL makes more money in the summer months. For the sake of argument we’ll say that week 1 revenue is higher then. They’ll take advantage of the early start clause in the CBA and start monitoring the data again.

While all of this is going on they’ll talk to their broadcast partners and I have a feeling that TSN would rather avoid a conflict with CFL vs NFL. I have to think that the American broadcast networks most likely feel the same. If the money is right the CFL will change the start of the season and if it’s not then they won’t.

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Here’s another heavy sign via the NCAA media in the US, which is buried in an article about the Pac-12 Conference by CBS’s Dennis Dodd.

The article summarizes the general media situation with the expanded television and media rights to NCAA Football.

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Yeah I think that the Pac-12 is in trouble - Maybe NBC Is what they are talking about? Then the games are going to be on USA? That might get ugly for the Pac-12 - ESPN is not going to give them the “bag of money” as they are going to get squeezed hard by the NBA. The NBA is looking for 3x the current media deal when they renegotiate in the next couple of years.

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As summarized otherwise in the article, and as noted previously in the NCAA thread when the new Big Ten media deal was announced last autumn, Saturdays, especially after Labour Day, are now locked up by all the major US media for sake of college football.

Otherwise I have been watching the CFL on Saturdays in autumn since 2010 with only some attention to college football and hardly any since 2018.

And of course as we noted in the NCAA thread, it’s all about the increased handle for all the gambling also for the NCAA, for which we have already seen one major disclosed gambling scandal after legalization in more states in recent years.

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After reading these posts, it has become obvious that there are dots that I am unable to connect.

the Genius Sports dot. Why does the fact that Genius Sports is working with both the CFL and the XFL mean they are working on a merger? The XFL and CFL are both sports leagues. Perhaps, they are just clients of Genius and there are no dots to connect.
The sports betting dot…Does sports wagering on CFL and XFL games lead to direct revenue to the leagues? Do leagues get a cut of the bets made on their teams? Does it lead to more eyeballs on their games?

I’m not saying that that folks who are connecting these dots are wrong. I just don’t get it.

For me connecting the dots - I don’t think that the CFL or the XFL has any real credibility with the betting community with 8 or 9 teams. I personally think that there needs to be 18 or 20 teams so you have 3 or 4 games a week that are must watch. Toronto playing Hamilton 4 times a season is not something that can be sold to the betting public. A 20 or so team CXFL has critical mass and number of good games. USFL, XFL and CFL might have weeks where all the games are “dogs” if you have 18+ teams you have 3 good compelling games and you put the dogs on Fx or some other cable channel.

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Keep the Larger CFL Field For Any Cross-Border Expansion

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7 PM Friday, in Denver, CO is 9 AM Saturday, in Macao. The Macau gaming and gambling number is 7 times as big as Vegas. Don’t know if the gamblers in Macao bet on American football but those times line up sort of well for anything happening over there.

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It was confirmed at media day, no relocations or expansion for XFL in 2024. I love this, first time in spring football history the lineup will return completely unscathed. Now let’s pick up the marketing for 2024 and build momentum for next year

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I don’t know what the financials look like but I would guess that the situation is not full on AAF dumpster fire mode. Was everything perfect? No but as you say they are not going to move teams or shuffle cities or whatever. I agree with you that this year was a good starting point to build from.

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Yeah this time around they got cheap stadium leases, better travel with the modified hub, saved lots of money staying in Texas. I’ll be interested in seeing how it goes for year 2 considering fans are wanting to see training camps in individual cities.

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I’ll be here for the championship game tonight from quiet work, and if it’s good I will stick with it too instead of sticking with the hockey game in Seattle. Thank you again Pirate Sports Network. See any of you other fans here too.

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I will be watching the game, cheering for Arlington !! I think DC has more chances, but I hope QB Luis Perez will have a good performance to lead and inspire the team!!

But I feel sad fot St. Louis, they deserved to be in the finals, I hope the management takes note and changes the playoff format for next season.

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Great opening drive by Arlington for a touchdown.

On the next drive by Arlington whenever it is, I want to see if DC will play good defence at all, which they did not except the first play (Perez just managed to avoid that sack and complete that pop pass) and on the 2-point conversion attempt.

Wow ABC and ESPN, I am not sure you can load us with many more commercials early on already, but enough already.

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Well okay then you won’t have to eat that hat. :stuck_out_tongue:

I figure Orlando is hometown favours for Dany Garcia, and Las Vegas is their strategic site for sake of a live nearby showroom for their gambling and business friends. Both are retained for strategic purposes not so much local interest.

It’s telling that the quarterback Perez was traded late in the season from Las Vegas too. :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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Big crowd in DC tonight. One of my friends is in the less box covering the game. Said 20k easily in the seats. DC coming out flat, and Luis Perez showing the world why he’s the Spring King. Glad I didn’t bet this game😅

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