XFL is a american football league founded by Vince McMahon in 2000 and folded in 2001 due to its failures.
Can you make it Successful without ASB?
Can you make it Successful without ASB?
AHC: Make XFL Successful
- Thread starter Tales Weaver
- Start date
It would have to be owned by someone other than Vinnie Mac.
Insulting the NFL like a bunch of schoolyard bullies hurt the upstart league at every step.
Single entity ownership wasn't too bright of an idea either. You gotta have owners with plenty of disposable income and patience to allow the league to grow over time.
Insulting the NFL like a bunch of schoolyard bullies hurt the upstart league at every step.
Single entity ownership wasn't too bright of an idea either. You gotta have owners with plenty of disposable income and patience to allow the league to grow over time.
Or at least run by someone else. Hell, even having Shane run it would have been an improvement.
So we should do is keep vince McMahon away from it.. Do we have any other ideas?
Last edited:
Dont use that stupid 'kickoff' gimmick. Either use normal kickoffs or develop something else entirely (making teams kick off like a punt or a safety kick is an obvious one), or just give the team winning the toss the ball at their own 20.
I asked this one a while ago.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/ahc-make-the-xfl-a-success.409887/
A couple of possibilities involved using it as a feeder league to the NFL and having a damn preseason. Maybe better planning in that regard would have worked out - having the league start a year later or even a couple of months later with a couple of preseason or test games to iron out the rules would have been a good idea. As it was, the XFL was a whole lot of "here goes nothing" and very little foresight.
If I were to do an XFL-like league now, I would run test games about 1-2 months before the season started, have each team play at least 2 preseason games, and then I would finalize the rules before the season started so I knew what to expect. Also I would be more subtle about differences between my league and the NFL - nothing that's too gimmicky like the "steal the bacon" coin toss rule where someone got fucking injured on a non-football play, but different enough that it's more exciting than the NFL.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/ahc-make-the-xfl-a-success.409887/
A couple of possibilities involved using it as a feeder league to the NFL and having a damn preseason. Maybe better planning in that regard would have worked out - having the league start a year later or even a couple of months later with a couple of preseason or test games to iron out the rules would have been a good idea. As it was, the XFL was a whole lot of "here goes nothing" and very little foresight.
If I were to do an XFL-like league now, I would run test games about 1-2 months before the season started, have each team play at least 2 preseason games, and then I would finalize the rules before the season started so I knew what to expect. Also I would be more subtle about differences between my league and the NFL - nothing that's too gimmicky like the "steal the bacon" coin toss rule where someone got fucking injured on a non-football play, but different enough that it's more exciting than the NFL.
Fearless Leader
Donor
Agreed on all the above points...
A few more:
-I'm not sure that the whole "bad boy" image of the league helped matters. The slutty cheerleaders and cheerleader/playoff relationships were a needless distraction that IMO isolated a good chunk of the league's potential audience.
-Keep the extra point but move it back: This move has worked well enough in the NFL when they tried it in OTL.
-I also don't think that the grass field requirement helped matters that much. Houston IMO would have been a far better place for a team given that the Texans weren't around yet.
-Give receivers more protection to stimulate more offense (this change was done about half-way through the season).
A few more:
-I'm not sure that the whole "bad boy" image of the league helped matters. The slutty cheerleaders and cheerleader/playoff relationships were a needless distraction that IMO isolated a good chunk of the league's potential audience.
-Keep the extra point but move it back: This move has worked well enough in the NFL when they tried it in OTL.
-I also don't think that the grass field requirement helped matters that much. Houston IMO would have been a far better place for a team given that the Texans weren't around yet.
-Give receivers more protection to stimulate more offense (this change was done about half-way through the season).
That's a tough one, because IIRC the reason for not doing was in response to accusations that the NFL was too strict on it.
The XFL could succeed if it didn't promise their product would be a mix of Football and Pro Wrestling. I find it alienated both WWE and NFL fans from watching the product. The best way for the XFL to succeed is if they dont call themselves the XFL and find a better branding.
The league only existed as a way for Vince to give the middle finger to both the NFL and the CFL for not letting him in as an owner. Make it more like NFL football and Vince isn't remotely interested, so you wouldn't have a league in the first place. He was interested in a parody of football, not the game itself.
I've got a backward idea. Make it successful not as a true sport but as a "reality" show.
The real show isn't the football, it's the scenes behind it. Weekly, we see the tryouts, the practices, the (manufactured) intrigues. All leading to plays from the field before a canned audience. It's not real football ... but it's real drama (in the way "reality" shows are real drama).
Week to week, the fans vote a team out of the "league." Until they pit the two teams with the most votes for the championship, meeting live in a viewer-called game.
I'll see myself out ...
The real show isn't the football, it's the scenes behind it. Weekly, we see the tryouts, the practices, the (manufactured) intrigues. All leading to plays from the field before a canned audience. It's not real football ... but it's real drama (in the way "reality" shows are real drama).
Week to week, the fans vote a team out of the "league." Until they pit the two teams with the most votes for the championship, meeting live in a viewer-called game.
I'll see myself out ...
Last edited:
That might have been right up Vince's alley. After all, that's what he did to wrestling, which was always presented as 100% real before he came along although most people knew it wasn't.
By the way, for those who don't know what I meant in my original post, Vince tried to buy the Minnesota Vikings in the mid-to-late nineties, but the NFL turned him down. He then turned to the CFL, offering to buy the whole league and run it himself, much like he did the XFL later. The league actually wanted him as an owner; wrestling was a big deal in Canada at the time with the rise of Bret Hart to prominence. But they only wanted him to buy the Toronto Argonauts. He refused, saying he wanted the whole league or nothing, and that was that. Vince never took into account that three CFL franchises (B.C., Saskatchewan, and I believe Hamilton) were public trusts and therefore weren't the league's to either sell or influence the sale of.
By the way, for those who don't know what I meant in my original post, Vince tried to buy the Minnesota Vikings in the mid-to-late nineties, but the NFL turned him down. He then turned to the CFL, offering to buy the whole league and run it himself, much like he did the XFL later. The league actually wanted him as an owner; wrestling was a big deal in Canada at the time with the rise of Bret Hart to prominence. But they only wanted him to buy the Toronto Argonauts. He refused, saying he wanted the whole league or nothing, and that was that. Vince never took into account that three CFL franchises (B.C., Saskatchewan, and I believe Hamilton) were public trusts and therefore weren't the league's to either sell or influence the sale of.
Last edited:
TheRedRageCorps
Banned
For it have been successful they either should've had it focus on it being more "sports entertainment" or more of a "professional sport." Plus give the players time to actual practice and train with their teammates, don't give them a single month to get to know one another. They should've spent the Fall and Winter of 2000-2001 practicing with their teammates to play in the Spring.
If you had the XFL going on in the spring, then people would be more willing to tune into the game, and you'd have better playing games. You wouldn't basically have scrub tier levels of play on a consistent basis. But the teammates would've had half a year to get to know their plays and each other. Also, don't insult the NFL. Don't insult your larger competition, if you want to be competitive you make the game better, but don't insult the league that is miles ahead of you, and its fanbase whom you're trying to steal.
If you had the XFL going on in the spring, then people would be more willing to tune into the game, and you'd have better playing games. You wouldn't basically have scrub tier levels of play on a consistent basis. But the teammates would've had half a year to get to know their plays and each other. Also, don't insult the NFL. Don't insult your larger competition, if you want to be competitive you make the game better, but don't insult the league that is miles ahead of you, and its fanbase whom you're trying to steal.
If you go the "wrestling route" (and I think it might well work) instead of "good guy" and "bad guy" wrestlers have "good guy" and "bad guy" teams. The "good guy" teams play by rules and win most of time while the "bad guy" teams cheat and act like thugs.
"
"
TheRedRageCorps
Banned
So if we were to go the wrestling route of face teams (Good guys) and heel teams (bad guys), we'd have to split the eight teams that did play into face and heel categories.
The Eastern Division consisted of the Orlando Rage, Chicago Enforcers, New York/New Jersey Hitmen, and Birmingham Thunderbolts. Clearly the Rage would be a heel team, simple and easy, along with the Thunderbolts. Cause of the Dubya C' Dubya. Whilst the Hitmen and Enforcers would be considered the face teams. Since their in the north and the WWF's spiritual home is the New York/New Jersey area. Despite the Hitmen moniker.
In the Western Division the Face teams would more than likely be the Los Angeles Xtreme and Memphis Maniax. Because of the XFL and Xtreme connection, and the Memphis connection due to Lawler's involvement. With the San Fran Demons and Las Vegas Outlaws playing the heels in all likelihood.
The 3rd team is Edmonton if Im correct, the Ti Cats have had a spate of owners over the years that I know of.
Best way is to have it fill the hole made by the USFL, and be a spring ball league.