With Super Bowl 54 Wrapping Up NFL Season, XFL 2.0 On Deck Saturday For 10-Week Season
(Publisher’s Note: Chris Hartweg publishes Team Marketing Report — which promises to “deliver actionable, measurable fan-centric sports business insights and connect you to people and places behind them.” LVSportsBiz.com appreciates TMI’s work, including its “Fan Cost Index” measuring costs for a family of four to attend major league sports games. Chris was sharing his thoughts about the eight-team XFL, which starts its 10-week season Saturday, and I thought I’d share them with our LVSportsBiz.com readers. The XFL has teams in Dallas, New York, Los Angeles, Tampa, Washington D.C., Seattle, St. Louis and Houston. But this time, no Las Vegas XFL team.)
By Chris Hartweg for LVSportsBiz.com
I’m struggling to grasp the XFL.
Since they are not in my market (Chicago), I saw nothing as a football fan until all the promos during SB LIV.
I’m on their media distribution of course, and have been engaged with that info and following closely. But not seeing fan engagement. Not seeing any sportsbiz coverage on sponsors and partners — other than St. Louis’s deals with A-B and Amren, which I most likely saw because I’m connected to team president Kurt Hunzeker on LinkedIn.
Good thing for them is I have to think the TV numbers will be decent to start at least out of curiosity. I mean, AAF was solid out of the gates. And XFL has a larger, more consistent platform than AAF getting moved around as well as buried on CBSSN.
But will they draw 10,000+ fans? At least 10,000 paid fans? Their ticket prices are pretty low, so maybe. Maybe they can draw enough from superfans and those who are priced out of NFL. Most curious about STL – only market with no NFL team and good sports town. Do they put 20K, 30K or more in the Dome?
In NY, Seattle, Tampa…where they’re in NFL stadiums and playing in a place that’s probably at least 60 percent empty? That would be a lame experience for me as fan.
I get the idea of filling the “football vacuum.” But I can definitely see people watching a bit, and then saying, ‘eh, play isn’t nearly as good, plus I could use a break anyway…’ and checking back out, especially as nicer weather comes around.
Another thing is that we don’t know ANY players. Have seen a few promos that touch on the QBs, but none of them are big names. And no name WRs or RBs.
Maybe fans will eat that up – it’ll be about football and not divas!
I do believe that the league is fan-focused. Their Fan Advisory Network (FAN) sounds promising. And they did a lot of research into what fans want to see and how they can speed up and even improve from the NFL game.
Now comes the hard part – walking the walk, not just talking the talk, right?
If they can cater to the fan, they might even have a hit on their hands.
Will be interesting for sure.
Read Team Marketing Report here.
