(02-10-2020, 09:35 AM)The Real Marty Wrote:

(02-10-2020, 09:29 AM)Rico Wrote: Meh, it was OK at best.  It's minor-league football.  I guess I forced myself to watch a total of a couple of quarters while switching channels.  It's nothing that I could go out of the way to watch, whereas the NFL I am glued to the TV from 12:30ish (unless there is a home game) until 7:30 on Sundays.  Maybe it's because I was brought up around pro sports for 30+ years, I have trouble watching anything else.  It's kinda like the Jumbo Shrimp/Suns...it's OK to watch as a novelty or something to do for a night but I just can't get myself to follow it. 

The problem, as I see it, with the XFL and every other new professional football league since the USFL is that with 32 teams the player pool of truly star players just isn't there.  That, and viewership is already down in the NFL.  I just don't see how a new league is going to sustain itself.  I guess the answer will be evident enough and soon enough.  But the XFL has a steep uphill battle to stay in existence.  The NFL and AFL were able to pull off a merger in 1966 because there were only 14 NFL teams, and the league has expanded several times since.  I just don't see success happening.  We'll see.

According to this article, viewership has gone up the last 2 years.  

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/31/nfl-tele...eason.html