Xfl Influence On American Football History

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American football is arguably one of the nation’s most prominent pastimes. Dating way back to its original inauguration in 1869, the NFL grew to become one of America’s top tier sports league. In early 2000 the NFL was dominating the playing field, drawing in league revenue that soared over roughly 4 billion dollars. Vince McMahon, (founder of WWF) saw the league as a profitable investment and decided to form a new competitor. On February 3rd, 2000 a new football league was announced, The XFL. It’s first (and last) season was scheduled to kick off in 2001, with ten teams set to compete and a chance at a championship trophy. McMahon created a league that combined the entertainment of the gruesome WWF and the classic NFL. The league took on a …show more content…
McMahon wanted it to be football with a little more hype to it. Was it 100% legit football? Not quite. Subtle rule changes were made to advance the action and create a more extreme game, hence the league name the XFL. The league was able to obtain a massive television contract with NBC, as well as agreements with start up cable companies such as UPN and TNN. The head to head battle with the NFL was fight that the XFL and McMahon couldn’t win. The league failed and shut down operations a year after being introduced. For the last decade, the public media has sought to discover why the league was a disaster, and how it could’ve been fixed. From a business standpoint to an entertainment standpoint and beyond, it’s safe to say that the league had many problems, which quickly lead to its …show more content…
This goes to show that the XFL is mainly known for its failure, not its success. It’s relevance to the business world is huge because if McMahon can do it right, it would arguably serve as the best turnaround in sports history. On the opposite spectrum, if the XFL failed a second time around, business aspects can still be learned from the attempt. The key debate is how can McMahon use what was learned in 2001, to fuel success in this new

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