Alpha Entertainment sent out a notice stating Vince McMahon will make a "major" announcement this afternoon. Get ready for the XFL 2.0. McMahon is a guy who learns from past mistakes, and I see this company (which is separate now from the WWE) as being much better planned and well-run.

My guess is the coaches and players know the rules prior to the week of the first game, and some of the kayfabe stuff will be gone.

I'm also wondering if this will be partially geared toward younger players who don't want to go to college.

The return of XFL and JFF in the same stroke of the pen? It's like christmas all over again.
HE HATE ME 2.0.

it will fail just like the first time. there isnt a talent pool to properly stock the nfl with more than 15-20 QBs.

I wonder which 8 cities will be chosen.

You have to think New York will be one of them, but I don't know if LA will get one. They have a hard time supporting the Rams and Chargers.

I think it will be these cities so the XFL can capitalize on football fans who've had it with the NFL:

1. New York (#1 media market)
2. St. Louis (lost NFL team due to stadium deal and is bitter)
3. Oakland (losing Raiders in 2020 due to stadium deal)
4. Orlando (#18 media market -- near Tampa #11)
5. San Antonio or Austin (#31 and #39 markets respectively, and neither has a team)
6. Raleigh (#20-something and could pull fans from Charlotte)
7. San Diego (lost NFL team due to stadium deal)
8. Chicago (league needs another Midwest team and the Bears have been mediocre for a LONG time)

Thoughts?

agproducer said:

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I wonder which 8 cities will be chosen.

You have to think New York will be one of them, but I don't know if LA will get one. They have a hard time supporting the Rams and Chargers.

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The NFL will sell the Chargers to the XFL.

I assume the league will run during the summer. If they try to have games during the same time as NFL and CFL, it'll definitely fail.

It needs to be a spring league and go from March-May. You need a break in February after the Super Bowl. Those are the months all the talk is about NFL Draft.

Was talking about this earlier regarding how to differentiate his league and not lean on gimmicks. Get the recruits that have no interest in heading to college before the NFL. Lots of players would be willing to get paid $100k+ for a couple years before heading to the NFL. Might be a difficult sell at the beginning but there will be players that would rather be professional football players at 19 than a college sophomore.

Seasons will begin in January according to Vinnie Mac

brents1975 said:

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Seasons will begin in January according to Vinnie Mac

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that will make for some fun fun home games for the chicago and nyc/nj area teams. half a dozen home games in chicago in jan/feb. FEEL THE EXCITEMENT!

Louisville
Memphis
DFW

A few others that might make sense.

agproducer said:

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I wonder which 8 cities will be chosen.

You have to think New York will be one of them, but I don't know if LA will get one. They have a hard time supporting the Rams and Chargers.

I think it will be these cities so the XFL can capitalize on football fans who've had it with the NFL:

1. New York (#1 media market)
2. St. Louis (lost NFL team due to stadium deal and is bitter)
3. Oakland (losing Raiders in 2020 due to stadium deal)
4. Orlando (#18 media market -- near Tampa #11)
5. San Antonio or Austin (#31 and #39 markets respectively, and neither has a team)
6. Raleigh (#20-something and could pull fans from Charlotte)
7. San Diego (lost NFL team due to stadium deal)
8. Chicago (league needs another Midwest team and the Bears have been mediocre for a LONG time)

Thoughts?

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Replace Chicago with Alabama.

Replace Raleigh with Portland

That's my guess on the 8 cities.

agproducer said:

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I wonder which 8 cities will be chosen.

You have to think New York will be one of them, but I don't know if LA will get one. They have a hard time supporting the Rams and Chargers.

I think it will be these cities so the XFL can capitalize on football fans who've had it with the NFL:

1. New York (#1 media market)
2. St. Louis (lost NFL team due to stadium deal and is bitter)
3. Oakland (losing Raiders in 2020 due to stadium deal)
4. Orlando (#18 media market -- near Tampa #11)
5. San Antonio or Austin (#31 and #39 markets respectively, and neither has a team)
6. Raleigh (#20-something and could pull fans from Charlotte)
7. San Diego (lost NFL team due to stadium deal)
8. Chicago (league needs another Midwest team and the Bears have been mediocre for a LONG time)

Thoughts?

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These are good guesses, but i think if they are playing January and February, if you pick a team in the North, it better be in a dome. Fans may sit outside for an NFL franchise in the playoffs, but not for a minor league level play.

I could see Birmingham and Louisville make the cut.

I don't understand why they are stating they are starting in January. Go Sundays in February after the Super Bowl when meatheads like myself still just turn on the TV on Sunday afternoons. Then your playoffs can be in March, when people are ready to be outside.

100% agree. The beginning of their season will get overshadowed by the NFL playoffs. For the local teams, they will have to cultivate a new fanbase - watching a mediocre product in freezing weather without existing emotional ties to the team will be a hard sell.

Max Power said:

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Was talking about this earlier regarding how to differentiate his league and not lean on gimmicks. Get the recruits that have no interest in heading to college before the NFL. Lots of players would be willing to get paid $100k+ for a couple years before heading to the NFL. Might be a difficult sell at the beginning but there will be players that would rather be professional football players at 19 than a college sophomore.

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You would think so, but I have thought about this with the NBA D-League as HS players have a choice to play there, instead of going to college or overseas. However, I think one reason the big HS stars don't do it is because the D-League, unlike Kentucky, Duke, Indiana, Utah, etc actively recruit specific kids.
At best, the D-League (or XFL) can tell a kid, come play in our league. We can't tell you what franchise will draft you, nor where you'll be living, but at least you aren't in college. No reason to make a visit anywhere, because your destination is unknown." There is no reason for a specific team to recruit if another team can draft, and so any recruiting has to be done by the league.

Even European teams can invite a kid over, get housing arranged, meet the coach, etc before the kid decides to play there.
Plus, in spite of the whoa to the poor college athlete message the media sends out, it probably is so much more appealing to play in a packed house in Lexington or Lawrence vs playing in front of 1500 in Maine.

The league will probably make it easy to stream all of their games and try to enhance the FF & gambling aspect.

Remember when he wore that Adidas headband during the Super Bowl? That was insane.

Sorry but there is no way in hell a legit team, much less 8, can be fielded if players with criminal/arrest records aren't allowed.

I get what's going for but that's gonna be a huge setback to this thing.

Agreed. There will have to be a disclaimer, or maybe everyone starts with a clean slate. If he wants to institute that sort of policy after the league gets going, alright, until of course JFF gets caught with blow on the strip or something...then what?

I don't see starting in January that big of deal, it kind of makes sense. The first weekend of January consisted of 4 playoff games, two games each on Sat/Sun. If they were to kick off their season, say on that Friday, that could potentially work.

Take Championship Sunday last week, the first game didn't start until 2:30p. The XFL could have all of Friday night and/or Saturday while football is still fresh on everyone's mind. Again, we are only talking 4 games every week for the XFL, so it's not like they need a huge window.

I think a team in DFW would thrive, regardless of how good the Cowboys are. Enough people in the area would show up to games just because Jerry doesn't own them.

You've got to play games while football is still on the mind. Who wants to go watch football in March/April?

It would be a huge mistake to start the league and its schedule in any kinda conflict with the NFL. January is not smart.

He should let the Super Bowl play out, let fans start missing football again a bit, and then start the schedule. I think a March to June or July schedule would work.

Overall, I still believe a 2nd league as long as its in the spring CAN work if things are done right with it. I also can see some very talented kids foregoing college ball to get paid in this league instead. Personally the things I'd like to see (not saying they are do-able, but just things I'd like to see):

-Smaller rosters. Maybe 45 per team, with just 40 being active.

-Limited free agency movement. I actually kinda liked the NFL's old plan B rule. Maybe let teams every year pick 35 players to protect and let the other 10 work the market? Make original contracts 7-8 years rather than 4-5 years.

-College Football OT rules

They promised a 2 hour game, so don't see college OT rules being used

McMahon is going to own all 8 teams, so there won't be any "free agency" as we typically think of it

I think Vince needs to take a hard look at the UFL (09-12) and figure out what happened there. He already has a leg up on them, being that he's bringing back a brand that a lot of people from 25-35 feel rather nostalgic about. Based on that here's my suggestions to Vince.
A. Pick large markets that in the past have shown good support for minor league sports, but perhaps name them after the states or region for TV reasons.
B. Network TV deal (him and universal work well) that will show at least two games a weekend. Air the rest on the WWE network (the network will be involved in some way, mark my words.)
C. PUT JR IN THE BOOTH!
D. Similar draft and Designated Player system like MLS. Spread out the top talent with a good chunk of the roster coming locally or regionally.
E. Come up with some groundbreaking innovation that changes how we watch football. I mean, that's the real legacy of the XFL after you get over the gimmicky football.
G. College OT
H. Apart from JR, ZERO WWE presence.
I. Nicknames on jerseys

TLDR: I've been thinking about this since I was a kid heartbroken that my spring league was taken away from me.

BMX Bandit said:

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They promised a 2 hour game, so don't see college OT rules being used

McMahon is going to own all 8 teams, so there won't be any "free agency" as we typically think of it

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granted i haven't followed all this as much as some others here but maybe he means a non OT game would typically be 2 hrs. anything less than that would be way too short imho. (and yes, i'm not a fan either of long ass games in general)

also, at the outset i can see him owning the 8 but perhaps when popularity grows he starts selling franchises and thats where he makes so much of his money back on this venture? there are a ton of celebs and investors who cannot pull off the $2B NFL purchases but can certainly pull off $300-$400M purchases of teams. lets say the league does well, expands to about 16 teams or something within 15 years (if its around 15 years I think its likely it sticks as a long term successful product) then he could probably sell all the teams and maintain an interest in league ownership and management. whats better than making about $7B plus continued income from a central league revenue pool?

AggieTFA06 said:

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agproducer said:

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I wonder which 8 cities will be chosen.

You have to think New York will be one of them, but I don't know if LA will get one. They have a hard time supporting the Rams and Chargers.

I think it will be these cities so the XFL can capitalize on football fans who've had it with the NFL:

1. New York (#1 media market)
2. St. Louis (lost NFL team due to stadium deal and is bitter)
3. Oakland (losing Raiders in 2020 due to stadium deal)
4. Orlando (#18 media market -- near Tampa #11)
5. San Antonio or Austin (#31 and #39 markets respectively, and neither has a team)
6. Raleigh (#20-something and could pull fans from Charlotte)
7. San Diego (lost NFL team due to stadium deal)
8. Chicago (league needs another Midwest team and the Bears have been mediocre for a LONG time)

Thoughts?

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Replace Chicago with Alabama.

Replace Raleigh with Portland

That's my guess on the 8 cities.

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My predictions mainly had to do with media markets. The reason I said Raleigh is that Charlotte is so close. There are two markets in the 20s. That is a sizable group.

A team in Alabama may draw locally, but if you look back at World League in the 90s and XFL, they didn't do so well and it was kind of a kiss of death for the leagues.

Portland could be doable, but I don't know if the market is large enough. The city is starved for pro sports since all they have are the Trailblazers.

Louisville would be a nice option.

agproducer said:

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AggieTFA06 said:

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agproducer said:

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I wonder which 8 cities will be chosen.

You have to think New York will be one of them, but I don't know if LA will get one. They have a hard time supporting the Rams and Chargers.

I think it will be these cities so the XFL can capitalize on football fans who've had it with the NFL:

1. New York (#1 media market)
2. St. Louis (lost NFL team due to stadium deal and is bitter)
3. Oakland (losing Raiders in 2020 due to stadium deal)
4. Orlando (#18 media market -- near Tampa #11)
5. San Antonio or Austin (#31 and #39 markets respectively, and neither has a team)
6. Raleigh (#20-something and could pull fans from Charlotte)
7. San Diego (lost NFL team due to stadium deal)
8. Chicago (league needs another Midwest team and the Bears have been mediocre for a LONG time)

Thoughts?

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Replace Chicago with Alabama.

Replace Raleigh with Portland

That's my guess on the 8 cities.

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My predictions mainly had to do with media markets. The reason I said Raleigh is that Charlotte is so close. There are two markets in the 20s. That is a sizable group.

A team in Alabama may draw locally, but if you look back at World League in the 90s and XFL, they didn't do so well and it was kind of a kiss of death for the leagues.

Portland could be doable, but I don't know if the market is large enough. The city is starved for pro sports since all they have are the Trailblazers.

Louisville would be a nice option.

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Agreed about Louisville. That didn't cross my mind.

Will Tim Tebow make a come back???

AggieTFA06 said:

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DSAg44 said:

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Will Tim Tebow make a come back???

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Johnny Manziel vs Tim Tebow would be PPV worthy

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vy vs jff would get some interest as well