News that the newly reborn XFL football league is looking to San Antonio for a franchise has drawn both cheers and groans, but a sports expert says the kneeling and the overt politicaztion of the NFL may give the upstart league an opportunity for success, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The XFL lasted for one season in 2001 as a joint venture between the World Wrestling Federation and NBC. The XFL failed after one season largely due to questions surrounding the honesty of pro wrestling, and some of the stunts conducted by XFL founder Vince McMahan.
But Mike Shaub, a professor at the Mays School of Business at Texas A&M, says times have changed, and the XFL may have an opening this time.
"There are going to be people who remember the stuff that was 'way out there' compared to the NFL," Shaub said. "Then there will be the nostalgia for the idea that its something I can really just enjoy watching, and I am not getting all tied up into the politics."
The city says only that is is 'examining' a proposal from the new XFL to locate a franchise in the Alamodome.
Shaub says 2018 is far different than 2001 when it comes to pro sports, and all of the streaming, online viewing, and podcasting should help the reach of the league. And he says what seemed to be 'edgy' in 2001 is now not so edgy today.
"They can probably keep enough of that image to benefit them with the types of fans they are trying to attract, and yet stay close enough to the vest to sustain cash flow."
But Shaub questions whether the Alamodome is a good fit for the XFL.
He says there is no way that the XFL will be able to fill an 80,000 seat stadium, and he questions whether the league wants the 'optics' of rows of empty seats at its games.