Share This Article
- Announcement that XFL will not rush back in 2021, but instead restart in 2022
- League plans to overhaul its entire infrastructure next year
- Ex-WWE wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson bought the league for $15m in August
And now we know.
The XFL (Xtreme Football League) will return in 2022, with a YouTube video released confirming the news.
The XFL also released an accompanying statement on its website. As said by Jeffrey Pollack, XFL President and CEO: “The opportunity in front of us, with our new ownership, is simply too big to rush back.”
ESPN reported that players who participated in the 2020 season received letters thanking them for their efforts. The letter outlined the league’s hopes for its relaunch.
“We are going to take our time to come back and ensure that we build a league of culture, passion, and purpose for the benefit of our players, coaches, staff, partners, and fans. And, given the continuing uncertainty of the public health environment, a 2022 re-launch will help us provide a safe gameday experience for everyone together.”
Jeffrey Pollock, President & COO of the XFL
The reason for 2022 is quite obviously stated in this letter and centre on the current Covid-19 pandemic. Even established leagues are struggling badly due to little to no fans in the stands of live sporting events. Given the XFL’s startup status, it could ill-afford to kick off in 2021 with no fans in the stands.
In a separate interview with Sports Illustrated, Dany Garcia (whose ex-husband is The Rock and was also part of the team who bought the XFL) revealed further the goals of the rebooted league.
It will focus on the potential expansion of the current eight-team format, integrating more technology into the product, and finally, building a culture for the XFL.
More recently, The Rock also launched the XFL shop. Previous to this, he also posted an Instagram photo of a deck of slides entitled “Football Operations Workshop 9/10/2020”.
This will be the third (and what must be final) attempt at launching the XFL. The original XFL failed in 2001, while the second version shut down during the pandemic this year
So what can we expect in 2021 from the XFL?
As evidenced by the launch of the XFL shop and the workshop, much pre-planning is currently underway for the retooled league. If you’ll remember, XFL 2.0 followed a similar path of holding a very long lead in time to kick off in order to iterate the product offering.
What we are likely to see most of in 2021 is content, and more content, followed by even further content. In an interview with People Magazine, Dany Garcia spoke about owning her own production company. “I have a production company, so making sure that content is there, and sharing that with the audience is going to be a big part of our work as well,” she said.
This focus on quality content production and 24/7 engagement seems to tie in with comments made by an XFL insider after the purchase of the league by Johnson and his partners. As outlined by the New York Post, the plan is to make the XFL into “an entertainment powerhouse” focused on creating reality TV programming, much like HBO’s wildly popular Hard Knocks show. Whereas Hard Knocks only details of the pre-season of the NFL, the XFL may roll out a year-round show, according to the source.
“You’re only going to launch this one more time”
XFL insider tells the New York Post, 2020
