XFL Folds After One Season
Too Much Money Needed To Revive League
Rodd Monts, Staff Writer
May 10, 2001, 10:06 p.m. EDT
NEW YORK -- The WWF is pulling the plug on the troubled XFL after one season.
World Wrestling Federation Entertainment Inc. and partner NBC announced Thursday that the league will be folded. Their decision was based largely on the fact that a substantial amount of money needed to be pumped into the struggling XFL to ensure its survival, and there was no guarantee that even huge cash infusion would save the league.
"While we believe that it is an extraordinary accomplishment to have created a new professional football league in what amounts to less than a year's time, we feel that it is in the best interests of our shareholders and our partners to discontinue the XFL," said Vince McMahon, WWF Entertainment chairman.
McMahon thanked league employees, XFL fans and NBC and its staff for hanging with the league through its charter season.
The league launched with much fanfare and respectable ratings, but steadily lost its television audience and posted dismal ratings numbers down the stretch. This happened despite sideshows like scantily clad cheerleaders and Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura's openly challenging one of the coaches from his seat as an announcer in the broadcast booth.
The league even tried to speed up games after an early-season contest forced "Saturday Night Live" to start late.
McMahon has repeatedly denied that the level of play in the league contributed to decline in interest.
"You'll see a lot of XFL players playing in the NFL this year," McMahon said.
The championship game drew a 2.1 rating, lower than any other prime time shows on the four major networks that week. Each point represents slightly more than 1 million homes.
Its XFL game on March 17 scored a 1.6 rating, tying the record for the lowest-ever prime-time night among the major networks. It dragged down NBC's entire prime-time rating and caused the network to finish third for the week.
"Launching a new football league in such a short period of time was a daunting and exciting challenge, but we gave it our best shot in what clearly is a difficult and challenging sports marketplace," NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol said.
Ebersol said that the audience came. The problem was that not enough of them stuck around in numbers that NBC was comfortble with.
Ebersol would not comment on the network's losses, but the WWF said that its share of the league's bill would come to about $35 million after taxes.
Ten years from now, the NBC executive said, the XFL and its roller coaster ride would make a good Harvard University study.
The eight-team league sold approximately 1 million tickets during the season, but only managed to draw about 24,000 fans to its championship game in Los Angeles.
NBC was not sorry for taking a gamble of the XFL, even though it turned out to be a costly wager. The network won't be afraid to take similar chances in the future.
"When things don't work, that doesn't mean you stop risking," Ebersol said.
The NFL has not commented on the rival league this season, despite considerable goading early in the XFL's brief history. The league stuck to its guns Thursday by declining comment.
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