Bad Week for the Employees of Vince! Part 2
By Paul Anthony
Last week I did a blog on the XFL shutting down and everyone basically got fired. At this point it was clear Vince was never invested in that league as much as he was suppose to be but in this blog we are going to talk about the employees that he is truly invested in. Last week WWE laid off more than 30 people from the producers to on screen talent in order to cut cost and by that you would think that this outbreak is killing WWE. However that isn’t actually true, yes with the live events being canceled they aren’t bringing in as much money but they are like any other league and that they are still in great shape but there was reason for the cuts which we will talk about in a second.
It has been reported that WWE does have 500 million in the bank at this point to keep the company float if it ever faced some real hard times. I am guessing Vince learned this from the issues WWE faced in 90’s. So they have reserve money basically. Now Vince we all know some times can sign people and over pay them for example and Brock and Bill Goldberg contracts pay them several million dollars combine for their thirty second matches that they do for a few times a year instead of building stars and that would actually increase profits and would actually cut cost but not people that work hard for him and give up their home lives to make him money.
Now the amount of money they saved by cutting people that they did would have only used up a few percent of their reserve money for a few months and they could have easily refunded their bank account once everything returned to normal. Charts showed that even with this shutdown going, they would have still made a profit for the year yet was there something behind this more than what we are to believe? Most likely this was a move to please the investors who want keep making more and more money and Vince who wanted to please them and not touch the reserve and cater to their needs. Down right shame if you ask me that in these hard times, people who have money still want make more money.
There have been rumors that some of the people that they let go would return. Sadly everyone that was on screen still had a 90 days no complete clause in their contract. Which leaves WWE their only option for the next few months. In which WWE would bring them back. Now When things return to normal I have to wonder if wrestlers will truly want to wrestle for Vince after they saw how the hard working employees got treated through these tough times. I hope AEW continues but there also other promotions as well that will treat these wrestlers better than this. In the end of this two blogs about Vince I have to say even if you the money, you can’t trust him.
Bad Week for the Employees of Vince!Part 1
By Paul Anthony
When you work for Vince McMahon one thing is certain and that is your job might not be safe even when times are good which we know they aren’t currently but who could have seen this coming! this week we learn that the XFL is done after just five games into their season, this happen because of the virus that is going around. Everyone knew that part was coming because before that every league was shutting down, so it was only natural and legal that they had to shut down but then just short time after they shut down, the league filed for bankruptcy now we know the league is no more. Once again the league is gone for the second time.
The league was actually doing good for a start up league, they had the money to pay everyone a decent wage, sure it wasn’t NFL money but it was still more than most us make in a years time. The league was ran as whole instead of having single team owners and the average attendance was around 10 to 15,000, which once again wasn’t bad and even in two cities, the attendance was even higher. In St Louis they were pushing over 30,000 fans to the point, they were going to open the upper levels of the stadium, which was a smart move and good signed that the league could grow because even Seattle was going to do the same.
The league wasn’t like the NFL or the AAF that was around a year before. They played football but made it safer and added a way to get more points and make the game that much more interesting. For an example in the NFL if a team is down by 9 points and the game was down to the final seconds, you knew the team that was down was pretty much going to lose because the most they could get was 8 points. In the XFL you can tie a 9 point game. I have watched a few of these games and honestly I thought it could stick around and even grow but in the end its Vince’s fault. Rumors are coming out that the league would have been fine if he was fully committed to the product.
Vince is a business man who wants to see the returns to be good soon as they start the company and I am guessing they weren’t growing fast enough, so in the end he pulled the plug and left hundreds out work with a very little warning. It was truly a sad day for the people who loved and love to play football.
Now Just recently I started to read that the NFL could buy the XFL and make it into a minor league system much like what the other leagues have. This wouldn’t be a bad move on the NFL’s part because they will continue their dominance and prove that there can only be one football league in America but in the end it was and always will be poor ownership and we will see how bad Vince again in part 2!
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!
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