Which cities will get a team?

[MarkNelson]

What type of criteria will the XFL use to award the teams? Market size? Lack of NFL presence? Past history as an XFL city?

[Sykotyk]

A lot of factors haven't been settled. Crowd expectations, ticket costs, facility requirements, turf/grass/dome stipulations, etc.

If they're going for a 20-25k average, you're looking at only needing a 40-50k seat stadium at most. You could avoid the major NFL stadiums due to higher rent and wasted unused space. And stay away from playing in the shadow of the NFL.

Eight teams...

Major markets:
1. NYC
2. Chicago
3. Los Angeles

Pitching it to the Yankees or Mets may be the best bet. Yankees already host NYCFC, so that's probably doubtful. Citi Field is probably an ideal location if it can fit a football field. Otherwise, you're going really small, such as Columbia's Wein Stadium that holds only 17,000. If you venture outside NYC, you can go to Rutgers, but that's barely the metro area. Red Bull Arena sounds great, but the disconnect between them being NYC and not is strong. NYRB has a tough time drawing fans from NYC given the time it takes to get there.

Chicago could head to Toyota Park home of Chicago Fire OR head to Northwestern in Evanston north of the city. There's also the prospect of Wrigley Field or the White Sox's stadium. Soldier FIeld itself may not be worth it. Though the remodel may make it more inviting.

Los Angeles has a few notable options instead of the monster-stadium being built for the Rams/Chargers. You can go back to the Coliseum (which is undergoing a facelift and remodel), the new Banc of California Stadium adjacent to the Coliseum, home of the new LAFC. There's StubHub that has worked well for American Football, and also possibly Anaheim if the field configuration works. Rose Bowl is out due to limited available game dates allowed at the venue.


After that, it's probably: Big Cities that lost NFL.

1. St. Louis
2. San Diego
3. Oakland

St. Louis, assuming the stadium wants to configure to host football, is a shoe-in. In fact, you might see them in lieu of Chicago. Same can be said for San Diego. IF they can play in San Diego and really go the 'let's show we still love football' marketing angle, you might not see LA with a team. Or go the WFL route and just use "Southern California/SoCal, etc" for the location name.

And Oakland will have a football venue available and the old Demons did well in San Francisco in 2001. Putting the Demons, imagery and all, right in the venue of the Black Hole, you might have a winning product.


Then, it's onto large cities without NFL:

1. Birmingham, AL
2. Orlando, FL
3. Norfolk VA
4. Salt Lake City, UT
5. Albuquerque, NM

Birmingham, once they get the new UAB 45,000 seat stadium over Legion Field would be a good spot. Orlando has had a long history of supporting secondary team names. With Orlando City and UCF moving out of now Camping World Stadium, they need a full-time tenant other than prepping for bowl games and state HS football championships. Norfolk is a key market that has been overlooked but may be due. They have a 30,000 seat college venue. They're a major military hub and a grouping of many smaller cities. Their television ratings for football are consistently high for markets without NFL teams.

Salt Lake City may play well with the family-friendly focus. Rice-Eccles is easy access from most of the city via the light rail. There's Rio Tinto in Sandy, also near light rail. Doubt you'd see BYU in contention. Rice-Eccles hosted Real Salt Lake for years. So, hosting a professional team isn't unusual for them.

And Albuquerque may just be to latch onto the growth of the American Southwest without fighting to get into Arizona for the sports dollar. A New Mexico team would have the entire state all to themselves for marketing and local pride. UNM is located in Albuquerque and their stadium seats 37,000.

Next up, is NFL markets with secondary stadiums and additional fan support from outlying areas:

1. DFW area
2. Houston
3. Northeast Ohio
4. New England states
5. Upstate/Western New York
6. Michigan
7. Upper Midwest
8. Carolinas
9. KY/TN/GA

Texas SHOULD have a team this go around. A big issue last time might have been a lack of XFL team in two major football markets: Texas and Ohio. One or both of DFW and Houston work. DFW has the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, or Carter Stadium in Fort Worth. There's also SMU and you could head up to Frisco at Toyota Stadium, home of FC Dallas and the NCAA Division I Championship Game. Houston has Rice and UH, as well as Dynamo's stadium and possibly Minute Maid Park.

Northeast Ohio, as opposed to Columbus. In Columbus, Ohio State is king. Even basketball and endless talk of Buckeye football will always make other sports teams in Columbus second fiddle. That's been the case for years with the Crew, the Blue Jackets and ever secondary league to setup shop there. Northeast Ohio is a huge football area, that's declining and frankly fed up with the endless struggle of the Browns to turn things around. That may happen before 2020, but it's clear there's enough football fans in the vicinity to make something work. There is not a suitable secondary stadium IN Cleveland, but to garner more support of outlying areas, Akron has InfoCision Stadium (30,000), Canton's Tom Benson Stadium (23,000) or Youngstown's Stambaugh Stadium (20,630). Canton seems like a great fit by the Pro Football HOF, but there's strong ties to the NFL and capacity is smaller. It's also the furthest south from the actual Cleveland Metro area. Akron works best and accessible from all sides. Youngstown is an outlier. Pittsburgh has no other 'major stadium' outside of PNC Park for football. And given PNC Park's near aneurysm to even HS baseball played on their field tearing it up, I can't imagine even off-season or early-season football standing a chance. So, for 20-30k seat venues, Youngstown is the closest unless you want to drop into West Virginia and Morgantown. Any team from the Ohio area could just be called "Ohio (somethings)" and have broader appeal.

New England states have a lot of options. Boston has a few stadiums: Boston U, Boston College, and then you have Rentschler Field by Hartford, Connecticut. Depends also what plans are with a potential NYC area team.

Though New Era Field in Orchard Park may be appropriately sized, there are other options. Syracuse is most notable. It has a dome and an underserved population for professional sports. Working around Syracuse basketball games would be the issue. Rochester, if you went smaller-scale has a 13,768 seat stadium (Capelli Sports Stadium). The open endzone gives opportunity for an endzone section to be built and potential bring seating closer to 20,000. But it is outdoors, and late winter/early spring in the area makes the dome very inviting. One weirdly intriguing option would be to see about Coca-Cola Stadium in Buffalo. It's a AAA baseball stadium that seats 17,000 but temporary stands could be served for the outfield not in use. Also, by 2020, there might be plans for the Bills to have a new stadium closer to downtown. A place where tailgating may not be as common. And New Era may sit unused except as Bills practice facility sits across the parking lot.

Michigan has a lot of potential. There's many large stadiums. Steer clear of UM or MSU, probably, but there's CMU, EMU, and WMU across the state. It depends just how far from the major metro area you're willing to stage games. Say Chicago doesn't get a team, could a team in Kalamazoo and go after the 'anti-big city' fans stuck between Chicago and Detroit work? Grand Rapids doesn't have a big stadium of its own, unfortunately. But those three have 30,000 or so seats. EMU hosted professional football in the past (WFL). With the Silverdome completely out now, there's no historical trend toward those stadiums. And without Detroit getting an MLS team, no other real options aside from Ford Field in the shadow of all things Lions, or across the street at Comerica.

Upper midwest is a broad stroke of a huge area to sum it up. Basically, there's a huge territory of people between ND, SD, NE, KS, WY, MT, MN, and IA that don't have access to a major professional team outside Kansas City MO and Minneapolis, MN. Omaha makes the most sense given its size, but that's not far from the next nearest NFL stadium. Someone else mentioned Fargo. Big domed stadium, and ND is growing due to oil reserves, but market-wise too small. But, Arena Football found success in the smaller areas such as Grand Rapids, Alabany, and Des Moines. So, maybe getting a rabid fan base of NDSU (6-time in 7 year national champs) stocked with a lot of NDSU players and you might have something. Maybe their logo could be a leg sticking out of a woodchipper (which, btw, the one from the movie is located AT the Fargo-Moorhead Visitors Center).

Carolinas are a broad area with a lot of big college venues. Columbia SC would make the most sense as SC doesn't have a major professional team of their own and might latch onto it more than most. Clemson is in a high growth corridor and hosted the Panthers when their stadium was being built and may be up to having a tenant. Then in NC, you have Wake Forest, UNC, Duke, and NC State all with large venues. There's also the home of ECU. Pinning down exactly which one is best would probably come down to numbers and projections of income and viewerships.

And lastly is the underserved areas of Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, western Virginia, and northern Georgia. Not to be confused with Atlanta, Birmingham, SC/NC, or what not. If Cincinnati is out as a possibility, Louisville is a good location with a big stadium. Papa Johns Cardinal Stadium will hold 65,000 seats soon and probably willing to get some revenue in the offseason. Also, another area would be Lexington and UK's Kroger Field. North of Nashville, there is Bowling Green's WKU that has LT Smith Stadium. It seats 22,000 but in an area not served by major professional sports. If St. Louis has a team this area will probably overlap potential viewership/fan bases. Also, to the east you have Knoxville and Chattanooga. Knoxville obviously has a huge stadium, but Chattanooga sits near the junction of three major metro areas (Nashville, Knoxville, Atlanta) and I-75/I-24 are major traffic corridors through the area. Getting to or from Chattanooga for a Saturday or Sunday afternoon game shouldn't be an issue for fans wanting to make a trip and Chattanooga itself may come out in droves. The stadium seats just over 20,000, so a little small compared to what should be expected.

[XFL_FAN]

Here are the 8 I like:

New York-They averaged 28 thousand people per game in attendance there with the first XFL. I think less gimmicks this time will bring more people in.

Columbus-No pro team but a town that is hungry for one. This will also help bring an Ohio State relationship to maybe get J.T. Barret or another well known QB that is good, but not good enough for the NFL.

Orlando-They averaged 25k in the first XFL and with Tim Tebow, more will come.

St. Louis-They averaged 50k with the St. Louis Rams in their final season there. There is a desire for football here, also they can use Edward Jones Dome.


San Francisco-They led the old XFL with an astonishing average of 35k

San Diego-50k in final season with the Chargers, can use Qualcomm.

Phoenix-5th largest city in America, they are going to need big markets to thrive, this is one.

Somewhere in Texas-Texas is going to get a team, just so many cities to choose from.


Sykotyk, you did a good job with your evaluation as well.

[MarkNelson]

Thanks for the analysis of this Sykotyk. After the last go-around with nthe XFL I am not convinced that logic will dicate the decisions. It will be fun to see how they do it differently this time.

I hope Birmingham gets a team. If there is a place that absolutely loves football, it is Alabama.

[XFL_FAN]

I hope logic is used which I think it will. The new XFL has nothing related to the old XFL besides its name basically.

[MarkNelson]

Vince McMahon basically said he would be "hands off" (this time) and let others make the important decisions. I am waiting to see if this comes true.

[XFL_FAN]

Hope so.

[XFL2020]

The eight cities they choose for the first teams have to be specially hand-picked to succeed. In other words, no "experiments". To ensure the league has more lengthy success, the first eight teams must be solid.

[XFL_FAN]

The eight cities they choose for the first teams have to be specially hand-picked to succeed. In other words, no "experiments". To ensure the league has more lengthy success, the first eight teams must be solid.

Agree 100% with this statement.

[XFL_FAN]

XFL Coloumbus petition has 943 supporters, the most on change.org for any potential XFL location

https://www.change.org/p/vince-mcmahon-xfl-to-columbus

Supprisingly, people have donated to a GoFundMe page for a Dayton team, albeit a small amount:

https://www.gofundme.com/bring-xfl-team-to-dayton-ohio

Just interesting to see how Ohio is receiving quite some support.