ILoveTheVikings Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 For like the 5 people that would even care, I've had a hell of a time finding up to date stats but here they are. https://www.cbssports.com/xfl/news/xfl-stats-2020-all-of-the-leagues-passing-rushing-receiving-defensive-leaders-through-week-3/ And now for something a tad sobering. Week 3 ratings are out and they are down. https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/02/25/viewership-declines-again-for-all-four-xfl-games/ Quote The XFL’s TV viewership continues to decline. All four of the XFL’s Week Three games drew fewer viewers than their comparable games from Week Two, according to ShowBuzzDaily.com. The Saturday early game on ABC dropped from 2.3 million viewers in Week Two to 1.9 million viewers in Week Three. The Saturday late game on FOX dropped from 2.3 million viewers in Week Two to 2.1 million in Week Three. The Sunday early game dropped from 2.4 million viewers on ABC to 1.5 million viewers on ESPN. The Sunday late game on FS1 dropped from 1.4 million viewers in Week Two to 1.0 million viewers in Week Three. Those aren’t terrible numbers. The XFL gave FS1 its most-watched event of the weekend, and the other games were in the same general range as various other sports programs like basketball and golf. But at some point, the XFL needs its viewership decline to stop, and it hasn’t reached that point yet. What's interesting to note here is that the biggest drop happened here Quote "The Sunday early game dropped from 2.4 million viewers on ABC to 1.5 million viewers on ESPN." But it was also on a different network so not really apples to apples. The games on all the other networks had a drop as well but not even close from ABC to ESPN and the XFL still gave FS1 it's biggest draw of the weekend. Another thing to keep in mind is that a drop in viewership was expected as the excitement of a new league will always start strong. There are so many unknowns at this point and until we start to see what multiple home games draw for each market it'll be very hard to gauge true interest...but I think it's clear that putting a team in LA is/was a bad idea. Here is the average attendance: Houston Roughnecks (2 home games) : 17,459 DC defenders (2 home games): 16,097 New York Guardians: 17,634 Dallas Renegades: 17,206 Seattle Dragons (2 home games): 25,616 LA Wildcats (2 home games): 13,600 Tampa Bay Vipers: 18,117 St. Louis BattleHawks: 29,554 For reference, by week 3 in the AAF they only had 56,312 attendance and 38,327 in week 4. But who knows how much money putting teams in there pull in outside of just raw attendance. I personally think it'd be better to put some teams in mid markets that are football crazy or don't have any/little professional sports. Louisville? Oklahoma city? Alabama? Looks like San Antonio averaged 27,721 in 4 home games in the AAF and San Diego averaged 19,648 in 3 home games It's only been 3 weeks so obviously there is a huge variance and as noted above the next coming weeks will tell us so much more then the first few weeks. But unless viewership starts to consistently dip below 1 million I don't think there will be any issues, especially since the league is 100% guaranteed for the rest of this year and next. I am curious about the TV broadcasting deal, is that guaranteed for next year as well? Or could any of the networks pull the plug? As the play offs get near I'd also imagine an uptick as well. Exciting times to enjoy the ride! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y*so*blu Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 I expected a drop in ratings across the board if the mild winter weather continued--which it did, in the north. (40 degrees in Minnesota is t-shirt weather, relatively speaking.) Sunday had both games on cable, and neither was very competitive, so I'm not too concerned there. XFL games remained competitive with the NHL (which drew an 0.6) and the NBA. Attendance figures are still above my expectations. I figured L.A. would be drawing 10,000 people or less. 13-14k isn't brilliant but it's something to build on. If Wildcats play continues to improve mid-season, it will help them considerably. I won't be surprised to see a drop in NY next week, as the team has looked quite bad recently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deadpulse Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 11 minutes ago, y*so*blu said: I won't be surprised to see a drop in NY next week, as the team has looked quite bad recently. those jersey doe really embracing the Gotham City comparisons 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveTheVikings Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 (edited) 27 minutes ago, y*so*blu said: I expected a drop in ratings across the board if the mild winter weather continued--which it did, in the north. (40 degrees in Minnesota is t-shirt weather, relatively speaking.) Sunday had both games on cable, and neither was very competitive, so I'm not too concerned there. XFL games remained competitive with the NHL (which drew an 0.6) and the NBA. Attendance figures are still above my expectations. I figured L.A. would be drawing 10,000 people or less. 13-14k isn't brilliant but it's something to build on. If Wildcats play continues to improve mid-season, it will help them considerably. I won't be surprised to see a drop in NY next week, as the team has looked quite bad recently. At week 3 the AAF was only getting like 500k iirc. Even with the ratings drop the XFL is blowing them out of the water Edited February 25, 2020 by ILoveTheVikings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ET80 Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 Does anyone have ratings by market? Because it seems like PJ Walker is a hot topic in Houston, all the sports talk radio stations are talking about him and whether or not he can make it as a starter in the NFL. If people in Houston haven't watched yet, they will very soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y*so*blu Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 (edited) 14 hours ago, ET80 said: Does anyone have ratings by market? Because it seems like PJ Walker is a hot topic in Houston, all the sports talk radio stations are talking about him and whether or not he can make it as a starter in the NFL. If people in Houston haven't watched yet, they will very soon. I'll find out if somebody on the XFL board has a link to those numbers. Houston should be buzzing by now; they have the league's last undefeated team, the flashiest quarterback, and are hosting the championship game in just two months. Plus temperatures down there will jump into the 70s later this week. You lucky devils. In other news, some are still decrying the league's QB play and insisting that the XFL sign up Manziel, Tebow, Kaepernick, et al. These people don't get it. The league is trying to establish itself without a lot of known quantities and divisive personalities capturing the headlines. I personally I am relieved that none of those guys have been signed up. The big names they eventually land should come from the college ranks, not the NFL. And the panel on this ESPN segment touches on not only that, but other possibilities we fans have explored. Edited February 26, 2020 by y*so*blu 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
animaltested Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 XFL dropped the ball saddling Seattle with the Worst QB and Worst Coach. From a Ratings-Attendance perspective, the Dragons are the strongest franchise. But they might end up as at the bottom of the league record wise. Way to muzzle a potential cash cow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ET80 Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 8 minutes ago, animaltested said: XFL dropped the ball saddling Seattle with the Worst QB and Worst Coach. From a Ratings-Attendance perspective, the Dragons are the strongest franchise. But they might end up as at the bottom of the league record wise. Way to muzzle a potential cash cow. Houston has Connor Cook collecting dust on the bench behind MVPJ Walker. I would like to think there could be a trade to be had... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lions017 Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 How is the XFL expected to work going forward? How do teams that struggle this year add talent? Is there are draft of college players/players who got cut from the NFL next year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y*so*blu Posted February 27, 2020 Share Posted February 27, 2020 (edited) To date, the Roughnecks have drawn an average rating of 4.6 in Houston. The Rockets are a distant second at 2.3. In fact, every team but the Wildcats (who are still behind the Lakers) is leading its local sports market. The Vipers yet again are starting Taylor Cornelius for Week 4 against DC. Are they masochists or something? Edited February 27, 2020 by y*so*blu 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
x0x Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 On 2/25/2020 at 12:47 PM, ILoveTheVikings said: For like the 5 people that would even care, I've had a hell of a time finding up to date stats but here they are. https://www.cbssports.com/xfl/news/xfl-stats-2020-all-of-the-leagues-passing-rushing-receiving-defensive-leaders-through-week-3/ And now for something a tad sobering. Week 3 ratings are out and they are down. https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/02/25/viewership-declines-again-for-all-four-xfl-games/ What's interesting to note here is that the biggest drop happened here But it was also on a different network so not really apples to apples. The games on all the other networks had a drop as well but not even close from ABC to ESPN and the XFL still gave FS1 it's biggest draw of the weekend. Another thing to keep in mind is that a drop in viewership was expected as the excitement of a new league will always start strong. There are so many unknowns at this point and until we start to see what multiple home games draw for each market it'll be very hard to gauge true interest...but I think it's clear that putting a team in LA is/was a bad idea. Here is the average attendance: Houston Roughnecks (2 home games) : 17,459 DC defenders (2 home games): 16,097 New York Guardians: 17,634 Dallas Renegades: 17,206 Seattle Dragons (2 home games): 25,616 LA Wildcats (2 home games): 13,600 Tampa Bay Vipers: 18,117 St. Louis BattleHawks: 29,554 For reference, by week 3 in the AAF they only had 56,312 attendance and 38,327 in week 4. But who knows how much money putting teams in there pull in outside of just raw attendance. I personally think it'd be better to put some teams in mid markets that are football crazy or don't have any/little professional sports. Louisville? Oklahoma city? Alabama? Looks like San Antonio averaged 27,721 in 4 home games in the AAF and San Diego averaged 19,648 in 3 home games It's only been 3 weeks so obviously there is a huge variance and as noted above the next coming weeks will tell us so much more then the first few weeks. But unless viewership starts to consistently dip below 1 million I don't think there will be any issues, especially since the league is 100% guaranteed for the rest of this year and next. I am curious about the TV broadcasting deal, is that guaranteed for next year as well? Or could any of the networks pull the plug? As the play offs get near I'd also imagine an uptick as well. Exciting times to enjoy the ride! Choosing LA over San Diego was the wrong move from a fan stand-point but it's clear McMahon was gong for exposure, which even with the lower attendance he is getting in LA. I also think it was expected the league would expand by 2 teams after year 2 if things went well and in that scenario San Diego and Oakland make the most sense and I think they would indeed get teams. The viewership doesn't surprise me with the scorelines. You've had 5 of 12 games be competitive and of those 5 I believe only 2 were really good finishes. The league obviously needs more close, down to the wire games and obviously when the wins matter more. For week 4 the Dallas/Houston match-up can do wonders if it's a good close game, same deal for Seattle-St. Louis actually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
x0x Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 Also, a really important factor to note with progression is ticket sales. Tix for St. Louis games going forward start at $53 a pop. Averaging say $70 for the 29,000 sold is over 2 million before fees, etc. That's decent money when you consider the rental for the stadium in St. Louis is $700,000 for the 4 game regular season plus $100k for additional playoff game if it happens. I can't find concrete numbers for team salaries but going off averages it's likely under 3 mill per team. So assume ticket sales for 4 regular season games is $8 mill total before fees and overhead, this doesn't include concessions or store purchases. That should theoretically cover the stadium and salary costs at least. Unless I'm missing something. It'll obviously take for the season to end for us to know total net losses but keep in mind McMahon can use losses to write off taxes. He accounted for a total $375 mill loss over 3 years and again unless I'm missing something he seems to be well below that after granted 3 weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
megatechpc Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 There were some shenanigans with the XFL on TV this weekend as well. I was trying to catch one of the games on ESPN but an NCAA basketball game was running long so they actually had to start the XFL game on ESPNews, then flipped it back over to ESPN once the basketball was done. Also having the games on FS1 rather than Fox is going to hurt the viewership. At any rate, I am really loving this new league. I've watched at least some of every game so far and have found the quality of play to be FAR beyond what I feared it would be. There are some really talented cats in this league and I've seen multiple plays that would've been #1 highlight reels even in the NFL. That one catch by the RB for the Vipers where he got absolutely leveled at the same time he was catching the pass was spectacular. PJ Walker alone has accounted for at least 5 different "Is that PJ Walker or Deshaun Watson???" plays over his three games so far... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drained Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 Wanted to talk about this before but welcoming college and HS players inevitably results in the XFL becoming a farm league for the NFL. I don't know if the XFL wants that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drained Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 11 hours ago, x0x said: Also, a really important factor to note with progression is ticket sales. Tix for St. Louis games going forward start at $53 a pop. Averaging say $70 for the 29,000 sold is over 2 million before fees, etc. That's decent money when you consider the rental for the stadium in St. Louis is $700,000 for the 4 game regular season plus $100k for additional playoff game if it happens. I can't find concrete numbers for team salaries but going off averages it's likely under 3 mill per team. So assume ticket sales for 4 regular season games is $8 mill total before fees and overhead, this doesn't include concessions or store purchases. That should theoretically cover the stadium and salary costs at least. Unless I'm missing something. It'll obviously take for the season to end for us to know total net losses but keep in mind McMahon can use losses to write off taxes. He accounted for a total $375 mill loss over 3 years and again unless I'm missing something he seems to be well below that after granted 3 weeks. Most definitely will start recouping profits by the 3rd year. I assume that is when he's going to start selling teams which will allow the teams to run without his cooperation and bigger contracts can get offered. He just needs to show the model can make money first Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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