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Vince McMahon came up with the idea for the XFL. The WWE owner, a keen football fan, has long believed there was an opportunity to benefit from the NFL's loss of viewership following the Super Bowl.
Aimee Leone, one of Dick Ebersol's employees, watched McMahon on television as he was in his NBC office promoting the new football league during the opening press conference. Within six weeks of witnessing the interview, Ebersol's NBC and McMahon became equal partners in the league.
The rollout was pushed back to a year after the Super Bowl in 2000. To put it gently, the establishment's reaction was suspicious. The media discounted the league's possibilities while simultaneously criticizing the league's inadequate marketing. Even a handful of Ebersol's friends were skeptical.
On its first night, the new football league received a 10.3 Nielsen rating, which was double the level promised to advertisers. The next week had a 50% drop, caused in part by a blackout and TV equipment fault during a live game. By the end of the season, NBC was carrying the weight of the load.
Poor play and low viewership are two of the most often cited reasons for the league's demise. Both McMahon and Ebersol agreed that the league was rushed onto the field. Even while NBC's marketing machine promised an unrivaled football spectacle, teams scrambled to put together competitive lineups.
There were rumors that cheerleaders were not only allowed, but also encouraged, to date athletes and personnel. There were many additional, far worse rumors, but it appeared that the sports audience was not prepared for that level of sexualization on television in 2001.
The XFL returned and failed again in it's second season in 2020
The first league had numerous problems, but with the XFL 2.0, it looked like the league may truly compete with the NFL as the next major professional football league.
The eight-team XFL 2.0 season began on February 8th, and was set to end on April 26th, with a championship game at TDECU Stadium in Houston, Texas.
The league's games were aired on ABC/ESPN and Fox, but they generated little revenue and saw a significant decline in viewership beginning with the first game of the 2020 season. The first game averaged 800,000 viewers.
The league earned $14 million, but it lost $44 million while employing 400 employees and 500 football players. It is, to put it mildly, a sizable investment.
Despite the fact that Petition, a legal analysis website, declared that XFL 2.0 had undoubtedly done a better job than the initial edition in 2001, game attendance had decreased considerably in February. Viewership continued to fall considerably by the final week of March.
On March 15th, five days after discovering that a Seattle Dragons player had tested positive for COVID-19, the league canceled the remainder of the season, and the team's owners declared bankruptcy.
Dwayne Johnson, an actor, and Dany Garcia, a longtime business associate and ex-wife, organized a group to buy the XFL for $15 million in August 2020. In 2023, the league resumed play for a third season.
Will the XFL 3.0 succeed this year and establish itself as the premier alternative football league to the NFL?
