- The XFL and USFL have proposed adding professional football in the spring
- Both leagues have failed to capture the imagination of most NFL fanatics.
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Pro football’s spring offerings could soon look a little different as the XFL and USFL consider becoming one ahead of the 2024 season.
According to a Axios report, the
If this comes to fruition, the respective leagues would be equal in the union, with game broadcasts “likely split” between FOX and the XFL’s media partner Disney.
The XFL and USFL may pursue similar players, but there is no rivalry as such between the leagues.
Moving forward in partnership makes sense to provide a better product as an off-season alternative to the NFL.
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s XFL could merge with the USFL as early as this week
The USFL and XFL aren’t exactly rivals, so a merger between the leagues makes sense.
“We will not comment on rumors and speculation,” the XFL said in an email to Axios.
After the second iteration of the XFL, first launched in 2001, was shut down in 2020 due to the pandemic, Johnson and other business partners purchased the league for $15 million that summer.
And even though the league returned this year and lasted the entire season, it still has a long way to go to be financially viable, as explained Forbes Reports it lost about $60 million in 2023.
According to Forbes, about a quarter of the league’s revenue comes from ESPN, which pays it $20 million in television rights.
The league was first launched by WWE chief Vince McMahon in 2001, but only lasted one season.
The Rock’s involvement in the XFL followed his own football experience.
Johnson played at the University of Miami from 1990 to 1994 and dreamed of going to the NFL, but went undrafted before switching to wrestling.
“I needed the XFL because football didn’t end on my terms,” he said. Forbes.
The XFL, according to a Forbes report. lost around $60 million during the 2023 season
“Football was a dream. Football was going to be what allowed me to buy my parents their first house, to buy my mother everything she wanted, he continued.
“And when that didn’t happen, it fell apart for me. And there was something psychologically that I realized I hadn’t dealt with.
The USFL, in its first incarnation, began in 1983 and existed as a rival until 1985 before folding. He returned in 2021 with his debut season the following year.
