It’s been a long road for the XFL since they forced to suspend its inaugural season due to COVID. This eventually led to the company filing for bankruptcy, which led to it being purchased by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Dany Garcia and RedBird Capital.
Originally the league was planning to return in 2022, but after talking with the CFL about a potential partnership they officially postponed it to 2023.
Since they first hit the field in 2020, a lot had changed in the spring football landscape. They went into their first season un-opposed; but now we have FCF and USFL also in the mix competing for talent. Furthermore, the USFL has already poached a few of the 2020 XFL host cities. With all of this happening, and the XFL under new ownership, there was expected to be some changes to the league was saw under Vince.
After many months of silence, the XFL really seems to be kicking into gear for its return. First we learned of the first set of hires under the new ownership group in November, with a few more being announced earlier this week. Additionally, co-owner Dany Garcia shared an image on Instagram to start the month that revealed the XFL return timeline. Ultimately, the league is set to return February 18th, 2023.
Earlier today we also got some more insight from another co-owner, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson who joined CNBC to discuss the future of the XFL. Here’s what he had to say:
We should maybe within the next month, or maybe two months, announce our broadcast partners, which we’re very excited about and new teams, new cities and very excited about that”
The positive, we’re getting more XFL news and soon. The big item clearly is the announcement of the broadcast partners. With the USFL owned by FOX and in a partnership with NBC, a lot of people expect the XFL to join up with ESPN. It makes sense, former longtime ESPN staffer Jay Rothman recently joined the XFL, and I’m sure he’s willing to pull in a few favors.
The not so positive, depending on how you look at it, is that he mentions new teams… and cities.
It’s hard to say if he meant to say all of the teams and cities will be changing, but it sure seems like that with the way it came out.
As we mentioned, the spring football landscape is different now, and by the looks of it the XFL will be shifting as well.
For one, we hope to see some of the teams return, especially in the markets where they were doing well. Think St. Louis, Houston and DC. But, it may just be in the cards; we’ll just need to wait and see.
What do you think of the latest XFL news? Do you thinks it’s positive or negative for the league? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments below or join the conversation on Discord.
