It's not incompetent, just biased towardso teams/stars that NBA wants to promote. Wife and I used to go to Grizzlies games when we lived in Memphis. It seemed that refs' calls were always biased towards the other team and star players could take about 20 steps without getting called for traveling. After the ref betting scandal, I just stopped watching altogether...T
I watched most of both games. Give them credit. Football needs this. Too many player coming out of college and cut from NFL teams that are at roads end. This is a great boast for these athletes whose option were to hang it up.
I actually think they'll be a tad higher than expected. Plus NFL players were watching yesterday. Watt was tweeting about the first game yesterday.
I agree Tom, you actually said this much better than I. This is actually what I meant, the NBA definitely favours the star power....like the NFL it's all about the Benjamins
Haven't watched much at all today, but the fact the players and ex-players are involved tells me this will last at least 2 years. They're presenting this very very well.
The highlights of the Houston - LA game was on my YouTube suggested feed, so I checked it out. Houston seemed to have some talent at the skill positions. So, is this league destined to be a minor league or feeder league to the NFL, or an outdoor version of the Arena Football League? T
This may be the best indicator of possible success? NFL is talking it up on their website. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000001101549/article/xfl-debuts-this-weekend-with-fourgame-schedule T
We have had many leagues try to come in over the last 15 years, none made it, but this one is different. They are not 'hyping' any one player (per team), the play seems to be faster, it just has a much more NFL 'feel' than all the others. One thing is for sure - the league owner just needs to keep his face out of it, and it may do very, very well.
Troy aikman was on the sidelines watching. Was that other league even on fox or CBS like these were? Or ESPN I can't remember. Luck and McMann in particular knows how to market. He made sure they got proper tv time. All of this played out exactly how I expected. Easily over $1b was spent just to get it to game one.
I recorded and watched all four games. Pretty entertaining. As good as Premier League soccer for me. No huddle and 25 seconds between plays means l don’t have to ff between plays. When there is a booth review we actually get to see the process instead of listening to announcers opine on what they think happened. Considering this was the first real game they did well and will only get better. The DC qb was the best of the eight teams IMVHO.
I think it should be considered a 'feeder league' to anyone that can land a better paying contract elsewhere. Eh, not so sure about a billion, but Vince sold off a whole bunch of his WWE holdings to fund this, he is the sole owner, he just needs to keep a low profile, if he gets too animated I can see it 'turning off' a lot of people, who will then 'turn it off'. I actually went looking to see if it was publicly-held, it's not. The other leagues did have major TV contracts on FOX and ESPN, I'd like to see a comparison on how this league is different (financially) from the other league from a year ago, AAFL or whatever it was called. Alliance of American Football League.
They didn't market it. I never came across the games on TV, and we've already talked more about the XFL than we did the other league. I will say I don't think the XFL was marketed well either, but I at least heard it mentioned here and there. But yea, I'd like to hear the differences too. My broker said he watched all 4 games over the weekend, and he hasn't watched the NFL in a while, and loved it. He was saying the couple of things like the kick off that he loved. So, if someone who hasn't watched football in a while, but loves sports went out of their way to watch it and wanted to talk about it. It got a lot more discussion about it. Oh, and one of the agents in the office's boyfriend was at the game and said exactly what my friend did. That is was rowdy.
Jason, I think the XFL, playing right after the SB, is the difference. The other league played in the summer, IIRC, and folks had already taken a mental break from football. This schedule is in a sweet spot after the NFL and before MLB gets really cranked up. They DID market the AAFL - but the timing was not right.
I'm gonna say this happened because Houston had to biggest attendance. I did not read the article. lol https://abc13.com/sports/xfl-championship-game-coming-to-houston-source-says/5924367/