The third version of the league already has a cash crisis.
The third version of the XFL has not yet put out a 2023 schedule but six months before its opening kickoff, the backers of the new XFL are looking for money. RedBird Capital, the people who own the XFL, has brought on PJT Partners to help them find backers. In a sense, the third version of the XFL sounds a lot like the second version of the United States Football League. FOX Sports, who brought the second United States Football League to life and saw it through the 2022 season, is looking for partners who can invest up to $200 million in the product to keep it going beyond the 2023 season. The USFL did manage to get through its inaugural season but costs were kept low as the league operated with eight teams that practiced and played in Birmingham, Alabama. But the league plans to add a market or two or three next year. The cost of producing a weekly football show and the USFL is little more than a TV show is relatively cheap in Birmingham. If the USFL really wants to play games in Philadelphia, East Rutherford, New Jersey, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Houston, Tampa or New Orleans, those cities allegedly have franchises, it is going to cost more money.
The XFL will be based in Arlington, Texas but it does plan to hit the road so to speak. The XFL will have teams in Arlington, Houston, Orlando, Las Vegas, San Antonio, Seattle, St. Louis and Washington. Houston will have a USFL and an XFL team. But there is a need for money to keep the leagues going. And that has always been a problem for spring football leagues. It costs money to produce games and there seems to be a problem generating enough money to keep the leagues solvent.
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