Spring football leagues for decades have been trying to establish their footing to stick around. Knowing coming in you are competing with the NFL. Thinking football fans want more after college and the pro games are done from their fall seasons. The first year is always the toughest for the new league in town. You need lots of money and a strong football backing. Building a fan base and keep them wanting more. A new league needs a good product on the field. If they can get good competition on the field, a new league needs to be seen. Games need to be easy to view where they can get word of mouth going around. Especially in a social media world. Plus get fans from-other cities with no team present. Both the XFL and AAF the last two seasons, you can say they checked a few of those boxes. The AAF did not have enough coin in the piggy bank to finish their season. The Coronavirus wiped out the XFL relaunch and they could not finish the season. These new leagues are not planned well financially as they can not even finish their scheduled season that included playoffs. XFL suspended their season due to the Coronavirus in hopes of resurfacing in 2021. This week the rest of the XFL employees were cut loose. Then Vince McMahon filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in the state of Delaware. The league now will be for sale. Any takers?

The XFL’s second go around was a success. The league scrapped all the added wrestling hoopla from the first attempt. They got rid of rules like the mad scramble for the kickoff and no fair catches on punts. Rules that made their game dangerous and because of which players got hurt. The new XFL added some additional rules this go around that were liked. The new kickoff was done in a different way to keep one of the most exciting plays in the game. The AAF abolished the kickoff. In the NFL, the kick off is mostly a touch back. The XFL had no kicks for extra point. The XFL did three different extra point tries as the furthest away from the goal line was worth more points. The XFL kept the standard football rules as well as their additions. The league had 8 teams. Each team had a well known head coach with plenty of football pedigree. The league lacked quarterback super power. The games were still fun to watch because the XFL kept it football on the field. The league averaged about 15,000 excited fans per game. Each week, the league played two games on Saturday and two games on Sunday. The television viewers started off big and continued to dwindle each week. They still had a nice cult following. The XFL games were on big networks such as ABC and Fox, so every week like the NFL, you could just turn on the television and see a game.

The first sign the XFL would not come back was the league let all their players be free to sign elsewhere. This was not too long after the league cancelled the rest of the season. Some may have thought in 2021, do another draft out of another pool of players available. The Coronavirus knocked out 5 weeks of regular season. The Virus eliminated the post season as well. The XFL lost a lot of money for those games. The league has paid off all the fans who deserved their prepaid money back from ticket purchasing. The refunds were paid out before the league filed chapter 11. The XFL owes millions of dollars for a variety of things with many different creditors seeking pay outs. Some of the payouts included stadium leases from all eight venues. The League still owes 7-8 coaches money which includes Dallas Renegades head coach, Bob Stoops, over a million dollars. Wonder what coach had naked pictures of Vince McMahon with a donkey to get his full contract paid out ?

I know nobody can plan for Coronavirus. Vince McMahon, before the league even kicked off, said that his investors and the wrestling king himself had plenty of money to fund the league for three seasons if nobody showed up in the stands. Perhaps that was taking a parting shot at the AAF for not being able to finish their inaugural year due to running out of money. The AAF came closer than the XFL. The AAF finished 8 weeks out a ten week season, unlike the XFL who completed only half. With the Coronavirus lurking, nobody has a time table when everything will be clear. The NFL could be delayed on their regular start time in 2020. That would definitely delay the XFL return in 2021 if they continued. Would the Spring league turn into a Summer league? I can see why they need to fold up shop with the uncertainty. This league will become some tax write off for this weasel, Vince McMahon. You can’t trust guys like Vince McMahon to start something and finish something. Look what President Trump did to the USFL in the 1980’s. These billionaires do not care. Stick to wrestling Mr.McMahon, at least you know each winner from the daily script written in that fake sport. I don’t even want to hear something in ten years about XFL part three. The beer cup snake in DC will be missed. Maybe the next Spring football league will actually play the whole season. By doing that, the people running the league will have accomplished what both the XFL and AAF could not do. They should also do the opposite of what those leagues did to ensure success for those wanting more football.