Is the XFL setting up to pull out of Vegas? (Pixabay)
Is the XFL setting up to pull out of Vegas?
Lost in the noise surrounding the XFL parting ways with Vegas Vipers Head Coach Rod Woodson were the comments made by XFL News Hub’s Mike Mitchell on Matty Fresh’s Springball Boulevard podcast Sunday night in relation to the future of the Vegas team itself.
“There’s some smoke building in terms of Vegas overall…it’s a developing thing where there has been talk of Vegas being out,” Mitchell said on the show. The idea of Vegas being dumped after one year is at odds with comments made by XFL co-owner Dany Garcia in a USA Today article leading up to the league’s championship game last month. From the story:
“Garcia indicated that the XFL does not have plans to relocate any of its eight teams to new markets in 2024… ‘We made a commitment to our cities and we’re excited to be there,’ she said.”
So what changed? It’s easy to assume that Vegas simply wasn’t pulling its weight in any number of areas related to the league’s financial bottom line. As ownership looked at the numbers in the aftermath of year one, perhaps they found that it would be easier to cut their losses and move the team rather than continue to dig a deeper hole by staying.
It’s been reported that RedBird Capital’s Gerry Cardinale was the driving force behind an XFL franchise being awarded to Vegas. Cardinale would have to take a big ego hit to agree to leave the desert after just one year. In this industry, the one thing that speaks more loudly than ego is money, and with Cardinale being the point man for the deep pockets behind the league, he may decide it’s in the best financial interest of the XFL – and RedBird Capital – to look elsewhere.
The pros and cons of relocating the Vegas franchise after one year
There are pros and cons to pulling out of Vegas after just one year. Many of the pros are obvious to anyone who watched the product, and largely have to do with the atmosphere and presentation of Cashman Stadium. The XFL averaged about 14,000 fans in attendance over the course of the season; due to its limited seating capacity and late start in selling tickets, Vegas averaged less than half that number.
For as much of a television product as the XFL is, aesthetics counts. The league and Vegas drew pointed criticism (including from yours truly) for the condition of the field after the first home game in week two, as well as the general visual presentation of the stadium itself. In terms of appearing “major league,” Cashman Stadium was a major step down compared to the rest of the facilities throughout the XFL.
Those facilities in Vegas may make it difficult to attract a quality head coach for the team. With Rod Woodson gone after one season, the XFL is currently looking for his replacement. If ownership goes after another first-time head coach as they did with so many in year one, this may not be an issue. But anyone with any kind of head coaching pedigree may balk at leading a team that would play in such a poor home venue relative to the rest of the teams in the league.
Unlike in other markets, the fanbase and local media never seemed to fully embrace the Vipers. Vegas has been flooded with professional sports teams of late, making it difficult for a new entity to stand out above the rest. The league recognizing all of these negatives and being willing to cut their losses and move elsewhere, not falling into the sunk-cost fallacy trap, would show prudent financial decision-making, which is something that will be needed for the XFL to survive over the long-term.
Most of the cons relate to taking a short-term hit for an admittedly long-term gain. Leaving a city after one year is a hallmark of failed sports leagues; frequent team movement, or even the appearance of that, is a trap the XFL doesn’t want to fall into. We know that mainstream sports-media types would latch on to this move as a sign of a league that doesn’t have its act together, and that’s the kind of press the XFL doesn’t need.
To local fans in other markets around the league, the move could be read as a lack of commitment; you don’t want to plant that seed that “if it can happen to them, it can happen to us.” For as sparse as the crowds were in Vegas, they did have die-hard fans that the XFL risks alienating with no guarantee of success in an alternate locality.
The short-term negatives are not just in optics, but in finances as well. Breaking the Cashman Stadium lease will likely force the XFL to fork over some money. They’ll have to pay to rebrand the new franchise, design new logos, uniforms, merchandise, etc. It will cost money to apply for trademarks for the new names and logos. These may be minor charges to a league spending tens of millions of dollars if not more, but the little things do add up.
Given the comments by Garcia back in May, if the XFL does move away from Vegas, it’s likely a decision that, if already made, was only made relatively recently. The league then risks going into year two with the same issues that plagued its year one build-up when the search for a home for the Vegas team held up so many announcements. The process of relocating a franchise is not an expedited one, and the risk of dragging a city or stadium search into the fall would be disastrous for as important as year two will be.
I’ll bet that the new coach of the Vipers, whenever that hire is made, would like to know where he’s playing next year. The league, once again, is on a time crunch to get this move done – if they ultimately make a decision in that direction. Thus far, we’ve seen ownership move at a glacial pace on some key issues. This is not one of those things they can afford to wait around on. Otherwise, the same problems that surfaced in the lead-up to the 2023 season regarding Vegas will rear its ugly head again, only this time in a different city.
