Houston Texans: Why bringing the XFL to the Bayou City is a bad idea

And there you have it. Obviously, you know what the Houston Texans and the XFL have in common and Vince McMahon made it official yesterday with announcement of the return of the once short-lived league in 2020. The XFL shouldn’t even think about expanding to H-Town and I tell you it’s a bad idea. Take a look.

Can you believe it Houston Texans fans? There will be another football league that will give us an alternative to what we’re watching now. The NFL is and will continue to be a superb sport but there are certainly some tweaks that can be made in order to make it better.

That’s what the XFL is all about and Vince McMahon, who will be funding the league himself, looks to bring to the table. There’s no doubt that he’s a shrewd businessman, having reached insurmountable heights with the WWE brand, a multi-million dollar empire.

And rightfully so. Although not always a priority, I’ve been to live wrestling events such as Night of Champions event at Toyota Center as well as myself traveling up to San Francisco a few years back to witness my first Wrestlemania event.

It’s fun, it’s exciting and I enjoyed every minute of it even though well all know that the story lines are scripted to some degree. But as far as the XFL, I think that McMahon just needs to hone in on the intricacies of what fans don’t like about the NFL and I think that’s going to be the recipe for success.

He wants to pick up the pace — games not longer than two hours — he also wants to take away some of the antics that the old XFL had back at the turn of the century. He’s talking about doing away with the cheerleaders — to which I totally disagree with — in order to differentiate his league from the multi-billion dollar behemoth that he will be competing against.

Will we see the return of He Hate Me, at least in the form of a coaching job, on the sidelines? I would love to see that as he was one of the more marketable products of the league back then. I

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was 20-years-old back when the XFL was in existence but the my memories of it still remain vivid and I’d love to see it back.

As far as television, I think that NBC would be natural fit to make a return to. Although FS1 has some room with them being the exclusive producer of content for the UFC and NASCAR, that would be a elongated platform to reach households alike.

But what if it doesn’t go on a traditional network at all? McMahon — similar to the WWE Network — may plan to just have it as part of an exclusive channel where interested patrons my subscribe to its daily content. That would be ideal if he were wanting to maximize his profits but there’s accentuated risk because it may alienate potential viewers who are apt see paying for something like that as an extravagance. But we’ll have to see how that pans out.

Although Houston is excellent sports town — at least right now — I think the market would be over-saturated with football. The XFL would be struggling to compete with the big three of the Houston Texans, Rockets and Astros. The PERFECT market for an XFL team in Texas is in San Antonio. Although the Alamodome is starting to grow bald from middle-age crisis, it’s still a formidable facility to hold a game.

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I was just up there a few years back when the Houston Astros took on the Texas Rangers in the last time they faced each other in the dome. It’s close proximity to downtown as well as the Riverwalk, the city’s entertainment district would make it a viable choice.

I think Austin would make an excellent candidate too but I think there’s more fans to draw from in the Alamo City’s metro area than there. Because it’s just a short hour or so drive between the two cities, there will be fans that will gladly drive back and forth weekly to go to games.

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