The Relaunch of XFL

Vince McMahon is back at it again except this time, he claims the XFL will listen to their fans and take their considerations under review. Now, if you've been a fan of WWE over the past few decades or so, it was probably difficult to read that first sentence without passing out from laughing or you've become so angry that whatever screen you were reading this on is now smashed. Today, Vince McMahon made it official, the XFL is coming back and even though he's pouring $100 million into it, this will probably the last time we'd see him in regards to XFL. The press conference was amusing to watch, especially since I had just finished watching the "This was the XFL" documentary but it seemed like Vince was addressing all the ways the new XFL will not be like the original. Matter of fact, this almost seems like this will be the exact opposite of the original XFL as McMahon numerous times emphasized that they're not trying to reinvent the game of football, just the presentation of it.

And that's where I stop believing a word Vince McMahon said during the press conference. Being an experienced fan of WWE, I've learned to overlook Vince anytime he tries to convince anyone that hasn't lost touch with the fans but his hard-headed persistence when it comes to promoting Roman Reigns points to the opposite. Don't be fooled, Vince McMahon is a control freak and if the opinion of the fans start to conflict with what he wants to do, the opinion of the fans will be immediately disregarded.

But this isn't the WWE, Vince sold some of his shares in WWE to fund this venture so that if it fails, his new company Alpha Entertainment fails and not WWE. And all that is smart to protect both companies but I find it hard to believe Vince isn't going to use his access to WWE to promote XFL. Vince stated in the press conference that there will be no crossover of WWE and XFL, they will remain separate entities, this includes promotional material, announcers and commentators, everything. And speaking of WWE, this is one of my most skeptical points: Vince stated that he will not be diminishing his position within WWE and he will be running both WWE and XFL at the same time. Now, if Vince showed that he was unable to run both back in 2001, what makes you think he's gonna be able to do both now that he's 72 years old? Sure, he already has a slight diminished role compared to his absolute power of WWE back in 2001 but still, I have my doubts.
And all of this could be a ploy because WWE is in the middle of negotiating a new programming deal and if Vince announces that he's going to be leaving soon, the tv studios might drop their offer significantly. There's still a chance that Vince will step aside once WWE secures a new deal possibly with Fox in May.

There will be 8 teams to start out at the beginning of 2020, all 8 teams will be owned by the XFL as there is no franchise model. The cities for those eight teams have to be determined as are the team names, obviously. Vince stated that the XFL will be safer and concussion and CTE experts will be brought in to ensure the players' safety which is funny because his previous lack of concern has led to a class action lawsuit that I believe Vince is still involved in.
Their game will be shorter, they were explore things such as fewer commercial breaks and eliminating halftime. Vince wants to cut the games down to 2 hours. Also this is interesting considering the amount of commercials in the usual Monday Night Raw episode is staggering and the weekly run-time of 3 hours feels like a weekly marathon. I understand those things aren't necessarily Vince's fault when it was NBC Universal that pushed for longer episodes but it still feels like a pot and kettle situation.
Beyond that, Vince McMahon has nothing right now but that's what the two year planning period is for and once he has something, he won't have any problem securing a broadcast deal. But relaunching the league is no longer the main story in all this, instead the headlines will now be about:

Vince McMahon declared that players will be mandated to stand during the nation anthem. Suddenly everything comes into focus, what this league is going to be and why McMahon bothered to resurrect it. This is a cash grab to try to snag an audience that doesn't understand why NFL players are kneeling in the first place. And just like that, the league where Vince stated that there would be no politics whatsoever got a healthy dose of politics from the man himself. Forced patriotism is contradictory to the freedom we're told we as Americans are born with.
And now that is the story of the relaunch of the XFL, regardless of how you feel about that issue, the focus is no longer on football and that's where the original XFL went south. Just like Vince stated that protesting during the national anthem isn't time time or place, this was not the time or place for Vince to drop a mandate like that. He gave so many vague answers about seemingly everything, one more vague answer wouldn't have killed him. Now, an entire portion of his potential audience has written off the XFL just as he wrote them and their concerns off. But remember, he listens to the fans, right?

Chris Sanders