Hesitant fans

[XFLUSFLGUY]

I had a conversation with a couple of friends recently who flat out told me that they aren’t going to “waste their time” following a league that “probably won’t finish the year” or “won’t make it to year 2”. Their words in quotes got me wondering how many other potential fans there could be but who aren’t going to commit until there is something concrete which proves to them the league will be around at least for a second spring. My guess is, there is probably quite a few who would come off the fence once they’re assured that the league will be around. Fair weather or not, I guess it is what it is what it is

[Tank55]

I had a conversation with a couple of friends recently who flat out told me that they aren’t going to “waste their time” following a league that “probably won’t finish the year” or “won’t make it to year 2”. Their words in quotes got me wondering how many other potential fans there could be but who aren’t going to commit until there is something concrete which proves to them the league will be around at least for a second spring.

I encountered this a lot with my real life friends on XFL 2020, even those that remembered XFL 2001 fondly. I always say, that they're probably right, it won't last. But that's a reason to enjoy it while we have it rather than ignore it. I actually found that line of reasoning to be pretty successful.

But some people just enjoy being cynics and getting the feeling of being right when it fails. Personally, I think that's a pretty lousy way to move through life. We can doubt the chances of long term success of something (whether it's something as trivial as a football league or something as important as relationship) and still enjoy what it is while it's here.

[herns]

I had a conversation with a couple of friends recently who flat out told me that they aren’t going to “waste their time” following a league that “probably won’t finish the year” or “won’t make it to year 2”. Their words in quotes got me wondering how many other potential fans there could be but who aren’t going to commit until there is something concrete which proves to them the league will be around at least for a second spring. My guess is, there is probably quite a few who would come off the fence once they’re assured that the league will be around. Fair weather or not, I guess it is what it is.

This is part of the hub reason I believe as fox has said they think that getting to year 2 changes everything with how it’s perceived

[SamTheRam28]

I had a conversation with a couple of friends recently who flat out told me that they aren’t going to “waste their time” following a league that “probably won’t finish the year” or “won’t make it to year 2”. Their words in quotes got me wondering how many other potential fans there could be but who aren’t going to commit until there is something concrete which proves to them the league will be around at least for a second spring. My guess is, there is probably quite a few who would come off the fence once they’re assured that the league will be around. Fair weather or not, I guess it is what it is.

I think it's a very common sentiment and something that might be partially responsible for the USFL not gaining as much traction as they may have hoped. People aren't willing to commit to a league when 2 very similar leagues, for whatever reason, couldn't even finish a single season.

It's also why I think, regardless of how the TV ratings look at the end of this season, the USFL will have a year 2. I think just having a second season will open a lot of eyes and change a lot of minds. Nobody expects them to make it through the year, let alone have a second.

[Gopher123]

I do believe there is a certain percentage of people that are turned off with the USFL because of other leagues not lasting. I also believe there might be an even larger percentage tuned out for the simple reason that they are XFL loyalists and don’t want to see the USFL survive because they view them as a direct competitor.
XFL 2.0 was viewed as a pretty damn good spring football league by many. Fans didn’t want to see it go and want it to come back because they remember it fondly. I think some of those people view the USFL as an imposter or copy cat league. While others see the USFL as another hurdle standing in the way of the XFL 2023’s success. They would rather see it burn down than support it, even though by doing so it could hurt the spring football concept. While I want to see both leagues have success I know it’s normal for people to want to pick sides and dig in.

[MarkNelson]

Plenty of XFL and AAF fans were supporters of teams within those markets. People supporting the local team. This does not play out the same for a USFL in a Birmingham hub. It’s a setback, and will continue to be an issue until they break out of that model.

[4th&long]

Plenty of XFL and AAF fans were supporters of teams within those markets. People supporting the local team. This does not play out the same for a USFL in a Birmingham hub. It’s a setback, and will continue to be an issue until they break out of that model.

Its a hurdle, but the trade off is wayyyy reduced cost, and it isn't going away in 2022. BTW all this is for 5 home games for each team. So the USFL has 40 reg season games. 25% of which are home games for Birm.

That leaves 30 games. AAF TV numbers were weaker thru 2 weeks despite having way less sports competition on TV and being in inside TV viewing winter. AAF had good attendance in Orlando, SA, and maybe SD, ok in Birm, but nothing to write home about and way less in SLC/Atl/Phx/Memphis

Again - Hub is not ideal - but its a smart biz decision for 2022. People are watching the game not the fans.

[johnnyangryfuzzball]

I do believe there is a certain percentage of people that are turned off with the USFL because of other leagues not lasting. I also believe there might be an even larger percentage tuned out for the simple reason that they are XFL loyalists and don’t want to see the USFL survive because they view them as a direct competitor.
XFL 2.0 was viewed as a pretty damn good spring football league by many. Fans didn’t want to see it go and want it to come back because they remember it fondly. I think some of those people view the USFL as an imposter or copy cat league. While others see the USFL as another hurdle standing in the way of the XFL 2023’s success. They would rather see it burn down than support it, even though by doing so it could hurt the spring football concept. While I want to see both leagues have success I know it’s normal for people to want to pick sides and dig in.

As someone who leans toward the "XFL loyalist" camp... I'm well aware that there is almost certainly not room in the United States for two alternative football leagues with national TV coverage.

The XFL was good. It got shafted by a government that thought it could micromanage an airborne virus. It is perhaps the only league that didn't have a glaring hole in its business model in the past 20 years. It had good capitalization, good media coverage, good fan bases, and good talent. The one thing it needed to do was to build upon its Year 1 success and ratings to get a better rights fee.

But I look at the USFL. It was started by Brian Woods. Woods has a long record—and it's not great. He can keep a league running but only because he doesn't pay his talent. It's part of the reason why Fox demoted him and bought him out. So now Fox is paying its players. Yet its talent seems to be even lower on the totem pole than Woods's leagues—at least TSL was able to get a few end-of-career vets with name recognition. So the USFL has good media coverage, (we think) good capitalization, unrecognizable talent (when your biggest NFL veteran QB is Paxton Lynch... ouch. Good luck.), only one of its teams has any decent attendance (the flaw of the bubble plan and more importantly, a comical attempt to attach teams to cities where they aren't playing)... I just don't see it at the same level as the XFL was. I see it as MAYBE AAF caliber, but even AAF had the benefit of good home markets at least in a few spots like San Antonio. AAF, of course, flopped and lost around 88% of its investment.

If we're going to have a spring football league, I'd rather it be the XFL because it showed itself as a good product that people wanted to see. The USFL hasn't shown that, and I believe the structural issues it put upon itself will very likely prevent it from becoming the product it needs to be.

[4th&long]

I do believe there is a certain percentage of people that are turned off with the USFL because of other leagues not lasting. I also believe there might be an even larger percentage tuned out for the simple reason that they are XFL loyalists and don’t want to see the USFL survive because they view them as a direct competitor.
XFL 2.0 was viewed as a pretty damn good spring football league by many. Fans didn’t want to see it go and want it to come back because they remember it fondly. I think some of those people view the USFL as an imposter or copy cat league. While others see the USFL as another hurdle standing in the way of the XFL 2023’s success. They would rather see it burn down than support it, even though by doing so it could hurt the spring football concept. While I want to see both leagues have success I know it’s normal for people to want to pick sides and dig in.

As someone who leans toward the "XFL loyalist" camp... I'm well aware that there is almost certainly not room in the United States for two alternative football leagues with national TV coverage.

The XFL was good. It got shafted by a government that thought it could micromanage an airborne virus. It is perhaps the only league that didn't have a glaring hole in its business model in the past 20 years. It had good capitalization, good media coverage, good fan bases, and good talent. The one thing it needed to do was to build upon its Year 1 success and ratings to get a better rights fee.

But I look at the USFL. It was started by Brian Woods. Woods has a long record—and it's not great. He can keep a league running but only because he doesn't pay his talent. It's part of the reason why Fox demoted him and bought him out. So now Fox is paying its players. Yet its talent seems to be even lower on the totem pole than Woods's leagues—at least TSL was able to get a few end-of-career vets with name recognition. So the USFL has good media coverage, (we think) good capitalization, unrecognizable talent (when your biggest NFL veteran QB is Paxton Lynch... ouch. Good luck.), only one of its teams has any decent attendance (the flaw of the bubble plan and more importantly, a comical attempt to attach teams to cities where they aren't playing)... I just don't see it at the same level as the XFL was. I see it as MAYBE AAF caliber, but even AAF had the benefit of good home markets at least in a few spots like San Antonio. AAF, of course, flopped and lost around 88% of its investment.

If we're going to have a spring football league, I'd rather it be the XFL because it showed itself as a good product that people wanted to see. The USFL hasn't shown that, and I believe the structural issues it put upon itself will very likely prevent it from becoming the product it needs to be.

Everyone has their opinions. But lets be honest, the level of play between these leagues is more comparable than not, including TSL. I would give the slight edge to XFL 2.0 but USFL falls between AAF/XFL 2.0. We do know Perez and Ta'amu were both starters in the XFL 2.0 and now in USFL.

XFL 3.0 is no different that USFL 2.0, its in name only. Don't think its XFL 2.1.

In the end I don't care who survives but I still believe a merger will take place - mostly in ownership - as someone else stated. RBC is not in the biz of owning/running companies. If they can merge and get ownership while someone else runs it - they will. That was another reason for the CFL talks.

So at end of day I could care less which league makes it as long as its solid. Right now USFL is on TV and that's cool!

[XFLUSFLGUY]

That was another point I forgot to mention in my original post. Both of these guys I talked to also mentioned that the fact that there is going to be not 1 but 2 spring leagues also was a factor in them not really caring to get invested because as my one friend said, “like that movie the Highlander, there can be only one. I’ll wait till one of them kills the other or a merger happens, then I’ll watch, but there’s no way I can support both”.

He said that when the USXFL is created, he’ll be all in.