XFL: Review so far!

By Paul Anthony

Sport leagues that we know like NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA. Have been around for a very long time and have earn the right to be at the top and then those leagues have minor leagues to groom their young talent. Let’s look at the NFL with 32 teams and each team has 53 men that makes a total of nearly 1700 players not counting practice squad. Now we know there are clearly more people who want to play pro football when they leave college either through being drafted or graduation. Look at how big the NCAA football system really is. It’s not fair to say those who don’t make it isn’t that good enough to make it, the sad point is there isn’t enough room for everyone to make it. There has only been one other true football league and that is the AFL or Arena Football league. Last year we had the AAF which folded midway through the season and left many players without a job. At This point we knew the XFL would be starting the following year, Which gave everyone hope or at least I thought so. XFL was around once before back in 2001 but folded just after one season. 19 years later they came back but will they last more than one season and will they grow?

I wanted to wait review the season after week 2 because the second week of these new football leagues are very important because now the hype is over, things are settled down and the season is in full swing. There is no doubt AAF folded because it ran out of money and we see the AFL teams fold as well because the league has shrunk but not folded. XFL is different though and that is because they have a little more money to work with and they have been drawing decent crowds which is averaging around 15000 per game and the ratings are around 1 million per game. these numbers sound low but things take time. With more money to spend and not spending like crazy which the average player makes 1000 dollars at the lowest each week and up to 2700 for winners with a salary cap of 4 million for each team it’s something the league can afford and I do hope they give us a second season.

Ratings are important and even at 1 million per average it’s still doing better than some tv shows that networks could use to replace it. Now If the ratings dip below a certain number then it could spell doom for the league. America loves football, we see that football in any market thrives. Just look now Las Vegas has a football team and a hockey team. XFL needs to use a good 5 year plan then see what happens, which I hope they can afford it and maybe even consider playing within the NFL season when people are craving Football more at. At this point XFL is doing good for being a baby league but they will need to grow but for now let’s enjoy more Football!