Category: Alternative Football

You know those cool people on Twitter who you feel like are your friends even though you’ve never actually met them?

In a way, that’s how I feel about the Canadian Football League.

I actually did “meet” the CFL back in 1995 when it had teams in the United States, but it’s been 25 years since we’ve been in the same room, so these days we really only correspond through social media.

Anyway, I consider the CFL my buddy and I care about its well-being. And under normal circumstances, we’d be together again and our Twitter relationship would be in full swing.

I’d have already gotten a taste of a new campaign with some preseason clashes, and the start of the regular season would be right around the corner with Edmonton hosting British Columbia on Thursday.

But the coronavirus pandemic has done away with normal circumstances, so there is no CFL preseason and there’s a real chance there will be no 2020 season, period. The league has already pushed back its start to September at the earliest, and best-case scenario it will feature a truncated schedule.

There had been some chatter about it partnering with The Spring League (a U.S.-based, extended stay scouting combine) and playing games in American hub cities. That, apparently, was mostly wishful thinking coming from south of the Canadian border, though.

“Barring some huge development, like a vaccine for COVID-19, it now seems clear we can rule out playing games this summer,” CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie said during a virtual town hall meeting on May 20. “There are several reasons, including the continuing restrictions on assemblies, travel and border crossings. Notably, several provinces and municipalities have already decided to prohibit until September 1 all sporting events featuring large gatherings.”

The Grey Cup, originally slated for Saskatchewan, has been shifted to the site of the competing team with the best record (if held at all).

The annual “Touchdown Atlantic” game in Nova Scotia has also been scrapped for 2020.

Of course virtually all sports organizations have been forced to call audibles. The pandemic has had a devastating economic impact on businesses large and small, and the business of athletic competition is hardly immune.

The NBA and NHL had their regular seasons abruptly halted, with pro roundball set to resume on July 31 and hockey aiming for an expanded tournament to complete its campaign later in the summer. Major League Baseball has yet to have an Opening Day and no agreement has been reached on what kind of scheduling format is possible.

The NFL, meanwhile, maintains a wait-and-see attitude with its regular season slated for an early September kickoff.

Yet while the “Big Four” will be able to weather the storm despite taking huge financial hits, the CFL is another story.

Compared to the NFL, its television deal is modest. A six-year contract with The Sports Network, signed in 2019, is worth around $37 million (in U.S. dollars) annually and shared among the nine Canadian teams. That sounds pretty good until you realize the NFL’s 32 franchises shared $8.78 billion in TV revenue in 2019 – about $275 million per club. Those figures are based on the annual report released by the Green Bay Packers, the only team that publicly releases its finances.

The CFL also counts on paying customers to help the bottom line (average attendance last season was 22,917 per game).

“We know there is a great deal of interest in whether we might play with or without fans, or with social distancing rules in place. We are examining all possibilities with both public safety and financial viability in mind. It’s just too soon to speculate on what a return to play in September might look like.”

One of those possibilities, of course, is no season at all.

“We are not announcing or promising a return this fall,” Ambrosie said. “We are just letting our fans know this remains one of the remaining possible scenarios for 2020. A canceled season is also possible. Again, it’s too soon to make a sure call at this point.”

I know next to nothing about business and a quick glance at my bank account reveals I know little about finances, but I know enough to be worried about the CFL.

While it has plenty of history and tradition, I have no idea if it has the infrastructure to survive a lost year.

The league has asked the Canadian federal government for emergency funding, with the CFL hoping for an immediate $30 million bailout and millions more if the 2020 season is washed out.

I’ve heard some people suggest Ambrosie and a few of the owners are crying wolf about the long-term fate of the league; they think it would get knocked down, but not knocked out. I have no idea if that’s true, but I’ve never heard anyone claim that the CFL was too big to fail.

So from a fan’s standpoint – and I’ve been a serious fan since the 1970s – I’m not just bummed about a possible canceled season but what happens going forward for one of my favorite sports organizations.

Chances are that five years down the road the NFL, MBA, NHL and MLB will be functioning basically just as it did before COVID-19.

I want to believe the Canadian Football League will do the same – but I have my doubts.

After all, we only really know each other through Twitter.

Welp, I finally got my gubment stimulus debit card and I think I’m gonna use it to try to buy the XFL.

Why not? It’s in bankruptcy and will supposedly come cheap, and I’m about as cheap as they come. The auction isn’t scheduled until August, but I figured I’d go ahead and put my plans out there now so everyone will know where I stand.

NEW NAME

XFL, as you know, doesn’t stand for anything.

When the first version was founded in 2001, early claims were that it was short for “Extreme Football League.” Founder Vince McMahon said that wasn’t the case. Plus, had it been the Extreme Football League the acronym would’ve been EFL.

Also, the original XFL sucked.

The XFL that was rebooted 19 years later did not, in fact, suck. As far as minor league pro football goes, I thought it was a fine product. Still, it made it through only half of a regular season before it was forced to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even though the second attempt at the XFL didn’t die by its own hand, it still died. And now when you think of it, you think of failure.

It’s why the Ford Motor Company hasn’t tried to revive the Edsel, why the Coca-Cola Company won’t give New Coke another try, and why DC Entertainment and De Line Pictures aren’t making “Green Lantern II.”

Right or wrong, some names have negative connotations and the bad publicity is hard to shake.

If I decided to go with a blast from the past rebrand, I’d call what used to be the XFL the Continental Football League. That would honor what was arguably the United States’ best minor football league.

Better yet, though, I’ll just go with the North American Football League. This name has been used by semi-pro circuits and leagues that failed to launch, but I don’t think there’d be much of a legal tussle if I decided to use it for my XFL makeover. If there is, I’ll call one of those lawyers with the 999-9999 numbers and take ’em to court.

FRANCHISE CHANGES

If you take a look at the 2020 XFL and the 2019 Alliance of American Football, you can see there are some cities that are much more enthusiastic about spring football than others.

In the XFL, the St. Louis BattleHawks and Seattle Dragons were far and away the most popular teams among fans, with the Hawks averaging 28,541 paying customers per game and the Dragons pulling in 25,616.

In the AAF, the San Antonio Commanders led the league with 27,721 fans per game while the San Diego Fleet and Orlando Apollos flirted with close to 20,000 supporters for their home contests.

So, I’d make sure those five cities were in the NAFL and think of getting rid of some of the teams that drew poorly.

One problem is that you need major markets for TV purposes, and unfortunately New York and Los Angeles were two of the biggest box office disappointments in the XFL.

Not sure what I’ll do about that, so I’ll wait until my bid is approved before considering the matter further.

RULE TWEAKS

For the most part I thought the 2020 XFL’s rule package was excellent – especially the low-collision kickoffs and the banning of gunners on punt teams.

And while the gimmick of one, two and three-point conversions was cool at first, that novelty wore off quickly.

Instead, I’d steal from the old World Football League and make touchdowns worth seven points (with a single point conversion attempted via a run or pass from the two and a half yard line).

And the one rule I’ve always wanted to see in an alternative football league is the defense getting a tangible reward for forcing turnover, whether it’s a fumble or interception. So if the Dragons pick off a Commanders pass, they score a point.

Anyway, those are my bright ideas for bringing the league formerly known as the XFL back to life. I truly think if my offer is accepted, it’ll be $1,200 well-spent.

Wish me luck.

When billionaire rasslin’ tycoon Vince McMahon decided to reboot the XFL, he dumped enough of his own money into the league that it could last three years without taking in any other cash.

There’s a big difference, however, between “could last” and “would last.”

The COVID-19 global pandemic forced the league to join all other sports entities across the world and suspend play in March. Yet while the economic devastation has already taken its toll on the likes of the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball, those leagues have enough long-term stability and capital to survive.

Obviously, that’s not the case for the XFL.

Last Friday the league announced that it was laying off all employees with no plans to return in 2021, and then on Monday it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Debts and assets ranging from $10 million to $50 million were listed in the filing, and seven of the XFL’s eight head coaches were among the top creditors.

So how did McMahon go from having plenty of disposable income to being forced to dispose of his second attempt at the XFL?

According to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio, McMahon was prepared to lose $375 million during the first three years of the XFL revival. After that, he expected to secure TV deals totaling $125 million annually which – eventually – would help him recoup his losses. Ultimately, of course, the goal was to see the XFL finish each year in the black and become a staple of the spring sports scene.

But back in January Bloomberg reported that McMahon’s primary business, World Wrestling Entertainment, lost more than $1 billion in market value following a corporate shakeup, so suddenly the XFL went from something of a vanity project for McMahon to a venture much more important to his bottom line.

Then came the pandemic.

XFL employees were paid up through what would’ve been the final week of the 10-game schedule. But while they were supposed to be on the payroll at least through playoffs that never came, the axe fell on Good Friday. McMahon had lost millions more dollars, and I’m guessing he’s unwilling to lose any more on offseason football.

Thus will be the conundrum of any person or group going forward who wants to create what has yet to be created – an alternative American football league with staying power. Simply put, you have to be willing and able to lose millions and millions of dollars for who knows how many years on the slim hope that eventually you might – might – make a profit.

Back when the new XFL kicked off I was asked how long I thought the league would last. I predicted a two-year run, figuring the novelty would wear off by then and McMahon would decide to cut his losses. Now we’ll never know, but had the pandemic not hit I still think that would’ve been the case.

With the notable exception of St. Louis, in-house fan support was starting to dip and TV ratings were sliding at the midway point of the league. If the season played out I think that trend would’ve continued (although not to the degree that it would cause McMahon to bail on it like he did the XFL’s one-and-done 2001 iteration).

But when the XFL returned in 2021, it would’ve done so without that new car smell. Plus, some of the stars established in its inaugural season would’ve moved on to the NFL, and each team would basically be starting from scratch again.

TV viewership for all programing tends to drop in the spring, so I find it difficult to believe the broadcast revenue McMahon was hoping for would ever materialize. I’m not confident the number of hardcore fans (like me) needed to turn a gap league into a box office success are there, either.

None of this is a criticism of the product itself; with the notable exception of the United States Football League, I think this was far and away the best spring circuit to come along. It had cool rules, good players and coaches, and overall it was minor league football done extremely well. Ultimately, though, it was not a moneymaker. No non-NFL pro football organization since the American Football League has turned a profit.

And regardless of how badly McMahon or anyone else wants a new football venture to succeed, I can’t imagine they’d be willing to endlessly lose money to keep one afloat.

COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the economy, and I think it’ll be a long, long while before an entrepreneur gives spring pro football another try. But, it will happen eventually.

And when it does it’ll join the USFL, World League of American Football, NFL Europe, XFL 2001, the Alliance of American Football and XFL 2020 as good ideas that will never make enough dollars to make enough business sense.