XFL shuts down, no plan for 2021 season
The shutdown of public gatherings have been tough on everyone and this is especially true for professional sports clubs. Some of the bigger names in more established leagues have the pockets necessary to carry on despite having no income and lots of outgoings, but the fledgling re-start-up of the XFL is not one of those.
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For me, this is a real shame because the relaunch of the league was actually looking quite promising as there was a much better than expected interest in the games and pretty decent attendance and TV viewership.
For a football fan like myself, having a second season of football was always going to be a good thing, especially since I don't particularly care for baseball on television. After just 5 weeks of action, where the league was actually showing great promise as far as balance and excitement in the games, the season was suspended to accommodate Covid-19 fears and social distancing recommendations that later became mandates.
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Initially, before the world went into near complete lockdown, the XFL expressed hopes of reopening the season once things got back to normal. However, just a few weeks later they laid off nearly all staff members and soon after filed for Chapter-11 bankruptcy.
There is also a lawsuit between the league commissioner Oliver Luck and Vince McMahon over wrongful termination. This has been kept very secret and to be totally honest I don't think anyone really cares.
It remains to be seen if XFL bothers to try to come back out of this. My guess is the league will be put on hold for at least another year since the entertainment "dollar" will almost certainly be one of the last things to return to society. People will probably opt to pick up far more essential pieces of their lives before they can even think about professional sports, especially 2nd tier ones like the XFL.
This is a real shame to me, I was quite enjoying the XFL and felt as though it was a great addition for the fans that can not afford the rather high price of attending an NFL game. Time will tell i guess