Pliny Petes Official XFL Chat Thread 2023 Season Edition

Crash Lance said:
In my opinion, you should give the USFL a chance. Last season was great and the 2023 season will probably be even better.

I'm sort of surprised that there isn't a St. Louis club in the USFL yet.
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If the St. Louis team did not actually play in St. Louis, I doubt St. Louis would care much about it.
 
RedBeard_ said:
If the St. Louis team did not actually play in St. Louis, I doubt St. Louis would care much about it.
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What's your opinion on St. Louis BattleHawks this year? It seems like the St. Louis fans are really happy that they have their own football club again.
 
Crash Lance said:
What's your opinion on St. Louis BattleHawks this year? It seems like the St. Louis fans are really happy that they have their own football club again.
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Extremely. St. Louis isn't a particularly huge media market that can produce a lot of revenue, but I think it is a good market to occupy to demonstrate interest in the league. If there was a USFL team called "St. Louis" that played in Birmingham or Canton, I doubt those people would care about that team. It saves the USFL a lot of money not to transport players between all markets, but people tend to care about the teams that they can physically see and are contributing to their local economy (jobs, etc.). The USFL's ratings were also putrid. Some games were only getting about 100,000 viewers. That is probably the reason why.

San Antonio and Orlando are probably dead weight for the XFL though. Interest was probably not as great as the league expected, and they are both relatively small markets that do not produce much revenue. Las Vegas isn't a whole lot better.
 
This DC at St. Louis game is how all the venues should be. Nice crowd turnout and a decent field that isn’t a painted over soccer field. lol
 
Iron Mang said:
This DC at St. Louis game is how all the venues should be. Nice crowd turnout and a decent field that isn’t a painted over soccer field. lol
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Soccer stadiums are the perfect size though for most of these teams. No other team can draw the crowd that St. Louis can.
 
RedBeard_ said:
Soccer stadiums are the perfect size though for most of these teams. No other team can draw the crowd that St. Louis can.
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Wouldn't matter if nobody actually attended the games. If they had teams in NY and LA the TV money would piss all over anything St. Louis could imagine.
 
Poon Goon said:
Wouldn't matter if nobody actually attended the games. If they had teams in NY and LA the TV money would piss all over anything St. Louis could imagine.
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It matters a whole lot less. I am surprised you still have not figured that out. The XFL is probably drowning in debt right now because they are not nearly drawing ratings needed to cover the expense of producing a professional football league. Football is a pretty expensive sport.

What do you think of the crowds in San Antonio, Orlando, and Vegas? Was it worth it?
 
RedBeard_ said:
What do you think of the crowds in San Antonio, Orlando, and Vegas? Was it worth it?
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I think they had a better shot of getting the people in those cities to give a shit than they would have with NY and LA.
 
Poon Goon said:
I think they had a better shot of getting the people in those cities to give a shit than they would have with NY and LA.
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I think the ratings from 2020 prove you wrong. They were getting far stronger ratings from NY and LA in 2020 than they are in those three relatively small markets. Stadium sales alone do not nearly come close to paying the bills for sports leagues. Advertising revenue from television commercials eclipses all other sources of revenue for sports leagues that have a positive profit margin. That is a fact.
 
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RedBeard_ said:
I think the ratings from 2020 prove you wrong. They were getting far stronger ratings from NY and LA in 2020 than they are in those three relatively small markets. Stadium sales alone do not nearly come close to paying the bills for sports leagues. Advertising revenue from television commercials eclipses all other sources of revenue for sports leagues that have a positive profit margin. That is a fact.
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We have already done this several times. You have a simple minded view of population=money. The people who put their money into this thing disagreed and you think they just overlooked your theory of more people=more money.
 
Poon Goon said:
We have already done this several times. You have a simple minded view of population=money. The people who put their money into this thing disagreed and you think they just overlooked your theory of more people=more money.
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It's not a theory at all. Clearly, the league did overlook that more heavily populated cities have more television viewers (and therefore draw more revenue from television advertisers), and they are now drawing about 1/3 of the ratings that the XFL was drawing in March of 2020. That is 100% fact (not theory).

Other start up football leagues have learned this same lesson over and over again. It is shocking that a multi-billion dollar investment company didn't foresee their ratings being in the toilet at this point (and that is where they are as of last week).
 
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XFL ratings take another dip. The XFL is probably praying for a ratings bump after March Madness ends, but it is unlikely to come close to the 2 million mark again. They do also have NHL and NBA playoffs to contend with and then the start of the MLB season.

https://www.thebiglead.com/posts/xfl-ratings-week-5-01gw2yxrgfj2

#XFL2023 Week Five TV Ratings:

Seattle/Houston (ESPN): 256,000
St. Louis/DC (FX): 320,000
Vegas/Orlando (FX): 234,000
SA/Arlington (ESPN2): 246,000
 
RedBeard_ said:
Football is a pretty expensive sport.
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You said it yourself. Football is sort of expensive to organize.

It seems like the USFL agrees with your opinion and they made the correct decisions regarding how expensive Football is to organize.

The USFL keeps all of their matches inside one or two states (for the moment). In my opinion, they made the correct decisions because they're thinking of the long-term future.

In the short-term, many folks can keep dragging the USFL's name through the mud and saying that the XFL is much better than the USFL. XFL can keep being "much better" than the USFL and the XFL can also keep losing lots of money. The XFL can keep drowning in debt right now (like you said that they probably are).

I can only speak for myself. I'm really excited about the new USFL season that starts in a few weeks. Until then, I'll attempt to watch as many XFL matches as I can.

I wonder what Vince thinks of all these subjects.
 
Crash Lance said:
You said it yourself. Football is sort of expensive to organize.

It seems like the USFL agrees with your opinion and they made the correct decisions regarding how expensive Football is to organize.

The USFL keeps all of their matches inside one or two states (for the moment). In my opinion, they made the correct decisions because they're thinking of the long-term future.

In the short-term, many folks can keep dragging the USFL's name through the mud and saying that the XFL is much better than the USFL. XFL can keep being "much better" than the USFL and the XFL can also keep losing lots of money. The XFL can keep drowning in debt right now (like you said that they probably are).

I can only speak for myself. I'm really excited about the new USFL season that starts in a few weeks. Until then, I'll attempt to watch as many XFL matches as I can.

I wonder what Vince thinks of all these subjects.
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Yeah, but the USFL was only getting about 100,000 viewers in television ratings for many games. That's because no one cares about a team named after their city that is playing 300 miles or more away from their actual location. Those ratings are not sustainable long term (even when reducing costs by keeping teams stationary in one or two locations). If the USFL doesn't garner more interest, it will die.
 
RedBeard_ said:
That's because no one cares about a team named after their city that is playing 300 miles or more away from their actual location.
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I do. For the most part, I watch all of these matches on my awesome HDTV (which I love and adore).

Furthermore, I save a lot of my own money by not attending these USFL or XFL matches live. Anything is possible. Maybe that will change (one day).

Maybe I'll visit Alabama at some point in time and watch a live USFL match.

I would also consider watching live XFL matches that have something to do with Seattle Sea Dragons, DC Defenders, Houston, and other clubs.
 
Crash Lance said:
I do. For the most part, I watch all of these matches on my awesome HDTV (which I love and adore).

Furthermore, I save a lot of my own money by not attending these USFL or XFL matches live. Anything is possible. Maybe that will change (one day).

Maybe I'll visit Alabama at some point in time and watch a live USFL match.

I would also consider watching live XFL matches that have something to do with Seattle Sea Dragons, DC Defenders, Houston, and other clubs.
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Considering how low the USFL's ratings are though, there are not many who feel like you do. That is a problem for the USFL. The XFL appears to have its own problems as well. There isn't a lot of room for fucking up with these start up leagues, which is why so many have tried and gone under over the years.
 
RedBeard_ said:
Considering how low the USFL's ratings are though, there are not many who feel like you do. That is a problem for the USFL. The XFL appears to have its own problems as well. There isn't a lot of room for fucking up with these start up leagues, which is why so many have tried and gone under over the years.
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And to think that there are actually folks that think that start up leagues like the new USFL and the XFL should have their matches in the middle of every NFL season. Can you believe that?

Over the years, I've actually met folks that have said that these matches "don't count" unless they take place in the middle of every NFL season. When I say that I've met folks, I mean that I've been in the same room with them.

Do they have no idea how powerful and ubiquitous the NFL is? Do they NOT realize that having matches in the middle of every NFL season is probably suicide?
 
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