A view from the XFL game on Cashman Field, Las Vegas, Saturday February 25, 2023. (FX)
In an October interview with the Las Vegas Sun, when the XFL had not yet announced a home location for the Vegas Vipers, Head Coach Rod Woodson said when asked about where the team will play, “If they put AstroTurf on a concrete block somewhere in the middle of the 215, we’ll play on it.”
After last night’s home opener, that may not be such a bad idea.
The Vipers lost to the DC Defenders, 18-6, but the game itself was not the story. Instead, it was about the optics of playing in a minor league soccer stadium, on dead grass that had to be spray-painted green, with a capacity of less than 10,000 fans. Oh, and much of the game was played in a windy downpour. As Kent Brockman once said on an episode of The Simpsons, it was “a veritable orgasm of poor planning” that led to this moment. Somehow, it turned out to be worse than many feared when the XFL could not land Allegiant Stadium for the home of the Vipers.
A twice-failed league trying to gain credibility with mainstream sports fans cannot afford hits like they took last night. Social media was abuzz with how ridiculous the game looked on television – television being the key driver of revenue in the future for a league like the XFL, by the way. The idea that the XFL saw fit to play at Cashman Field while other teams in the same league play in places like Camping World Stadium, the Alamodome, or The Dome at America’s Center, is mind-boggling.
But that’s what happens when you forge ahead with a location without any idea of where you’re going to play. XFL News Hub’s Mike Mitchell has long reported that co-owner Gerry Cardinale had personally chosen Vegas to be one of XFL 3.0’s maiden franchises. I’m sure the idea was to play at Allegiant Stadium, but the fact that they didn’t do their due dilligence enough to figure out if it was actually available has put them in the position they’re in today.
Mother Nature did the XFL no favors by pelting the grass with rain for much of the game. That led to numerous injuries and kickers slipping multiple times. Vipers kicker Bailey Giffen missed a chip-shot field goal when his plant leg went out from under him, and for DC, Matthew McCrane biffed it on a kickoff, resulting in Vegas gaining possession at the DC 45 yard-line. Yet somehow, it seems, it could’ve been much worse. The turf largely held up during the game. The weather conditions may have kept some fans away; they drew just over 6,000 fans for the game, with what appeared to be only a few hundred left by the end.
According to local media reports, the XFL and Cashman Field agreed to a two-year deal as part of the lease. Unless there’s an out clause or the XFL is willing to break the deal, they’ll be at Cashman for at least nine more games. It’s difficult to imagine them playing one more game there let alone nine; but the XFL has made their bed, and now they have to lie in it.
The sad part about this is there are fascinating storylines coming out of the actual game that no one will be talking about because of this mess. DC found its ground game behind backup QB D’Eriq King, who may be in line to start over Jordan Ta’amu next week against the undefeated St. Louis Battlehawks. Vegas came up short once again but Brett Hundley saw the field for the first time at QB and seemed to wrest the job from Luis Perez. Who starts for the Vipers next week also seems to be up in the air.
The early returns for XFL 3.0 have been mostly positive, and the league was coming off some momentum with a nice Thursday night game that popped a good rating for FX. That momentum ebbed with last night’s disaster. Vegas is home again next week, giving the league and Cashman Field just one week to figure out how to improve this situation. Though at this point, it appears that would be akin to putting lipstick on a pig.
4 thoughts on “Vegas home opener a disaster of optics for XFL”
The sentence immediately prior to calling it “a veritable orgasm of poor planning” whines about the weather. Someone thought it was a powder puff league perhaps?
Beggars can’t be choosers, and Vegas has shown to be a town happy to bring in sports teams. One rotten venue out of 8 doesn’t seem too bad given the deep pockets and lobbies pushing for XFL to fail. I, for one, was more apt to notice the absence of politics surrounding the game than the quality of the venue itself.
While the field wasn’t great. BSPN did no favors by not cleaning the camera lenses and showing smeared video for a longgggg time. Plus the lighting could be better.
The look of the field was hidden pretty well considering until the kickers banana peeled it a few times. But its a minor league baseball park, so it is what it is.
But the bigger issue is the lack of scoring (kickers missing) and passing. 6-3 at half with a bad look. And the 6 points was off a fumble at the DC 2 yd line.
King didn’t do to much but the overall ground game and Hundleys Fumble iced it for DC. But for a game to be 6-3 through 3 qtrs isn’t very exciting.
Cardinale is said to have push hard for Vegas, better hope his other decisions are more based in reality.
I had a text chain going with multiple friends while watching the XFL game Saturday and the only complaint was the cam operator that couldn’t clean his lenses. Outside of that the game was good and it was fine with me the surface they were playing on. The only thing impacted was the kicking game and that’s the way it goes sometimes.
We (and I’ll count almost 20 of us that were watching) all loved the game.
This has been the best attempt yet at a secondary football league. The games have been enjoyable to watch and competivie.
I made the statement “this is not on par with the NFL but to be fair I watched a number of NFL games this year that weren’t NFL quality either 🙂 ”
I appreciate the league, I appreciate the effort and I appreciate the entertainment they have provided already in this short season. As usual it’s writers like this that believe they have to make something out of nothing that completely miss the point of the sport and the effort.
Robert, your sooooo right ! The only problem I had with the game Saturday night was the camera operator that could not clear his lenses. The XFL could play all the Vegas Vipers home games in Arlington. But this is the XFL !!!!!! Damn the naysayers, we miss old school football. Mud, Dirt and grass fields, football don’t have to look pretty!! It’s war !!! When you come into VEGAS, PERPAIRED TO PLAY OLD SCHOOL BACK YARD FOOTBALL. You’re going to get dirty, with a few grass stains on your uniforms. The Vegas Vipers should turn this into a home field advantage. Now what’s wrong with that ??? You XFL haters !!! I’m sick of the NFL pretty fields and high dollar players. You can’t go to a NFL game because the ticket price. Football games are also for the fans, who makes it look good on TV. The NFL will realize that in the near future…. So XFL fans keep your heads up. In five or so years from now. People will say , That’s why the XFL won the hearts of real football fans all around the world. I CAN’T WAIT UNTIL NEXT WEEK!! ….. For the LOVE of football !!
The sentence immediately prior to calling it “a veritable orgasm of poor planning” whines about the weather. Someone thought it was a powder puff league perhaps?
Beggars can’t be choosers, and Vegas has shown to be a town happy to bring in sports teams. One rotten venue out of 8 doesn’t seem too bad given the deep pockets and lobbies pushing for XFL to fail. I, for one, was more apt to notice the absence of politics surrounding the game than the quality of the venue itself.
While the field wasn’t great. BSPN did no favors by not cleaning the camera lenses and showing smeared video for a longgggg time. Plus the lighting could be better.
The look of the field was hidden pretty well considering until the kickers banana peeled it a few times. But its a minor league baseball park, so it is what it is.
But the bigger issue is the lack of scoring (kickers missing) and passing. 6-3 at half with a bad look. And the 6 points was off a fumble at the DC 2 yd line.
King didn’t do to much but the overall ground game and Hundleys Fumble iced it for DC. But for a game to be 6-3 through 3 qtrs isn’t very exciting.
Cardinale is said to have push hard for Vegas, better hope his other decisions are more based in reality.
I had a text chain going with multiple friends while watching the XFL game Saturday and the only complaint was the cam operator that couldn’t clean his lenses. Outside of that the game was good and it was fine with me the surface they were playing on. The only thing impacted was the kicking game and that’s the way it goes sometimes.
We (and I’ll count almost 20 of us that were watching) all loved the game.
This has been the best attempt yet at a secondary football league. The games have been enjoyable to watch and competivie.
I made the statement “this is not on par with the NFL but to be fair I watched a number of NFL games this year that weren’t NFL quality either 🙂 ”
I appreciate the league, I appreciate the effort and I appreciate the entertainment they have provided already in this short season. As usual it’s writers like this that believe they have to make something out of nothing that completely miss the point of the sport and the effort.
Robert, your sooooo right ! The only problem I had with the game Saturday night was the camera operator that could not clear his lenses. The XFL could play all the Vegas Vipers home games in Arlington. But this is the XFL !!!!!! Damn the naysayers, we miss old school football. Mud, Dirt and grass fields, football don’t have to look pretty!! It’s war !!! When you come into VEGAS, PERPAIRED TO PLAY OLD SCHOOL BACK YARD FOOTBALL. You’re going to get dirty, with a few grass stains on your uniforms. The Vegas Vipers should turn this into a home field advantage. Now what’s wrong with that ??? You XFL haters !!! I’m sick of the NFL pretty fields and high dollar players. You can’t go to a NFL game because the ticket price. Football games are also for the fans, who makes it look good on TV. The NFL will realize that in the near future…. So XFL fans keep your heads up. In five or so years from now. People will say , That’s why the XFL won the hearts of real football fans all around the world. I CAN’T WAIT UNTIL NEXT WEEK!! ….. For the LOVE of football !!