The XFL shutdown along with the rest of the sports world in March. By April, the league virtually signaled that it was out of business, firing most of its staff. Right now though, the XFL is going through the process of bankruptcy and wants to keep its TV deals in place in order to convince a potential buyer that the league may live to play another day.
Before a single game even kicked off, the XFL had TV deals in place with both FOX and ESPN. Partnerships with two of the biggest names in sports broadcasting would certainly be enticing to any buyer. The problem though, according to Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic, is that FOX wants to change its deal with the XFL, while ESPN just wants out.
ESPN’s position is that it entered into a broadcast agreement with the XFL “based on the specific character and quality of certain professionals involved in creating and organizing the new XFL league, and promoting and producing XFL events.” The gist seems to be that ESPN wasn’t interested in a fledgling spring football league. It was interested in working with Vince McMahon. If the league is sold, ESPN doesn’t see much reason for continuing the relationship.
Joe Lucia makes an interesting point about the TV deals that McMahon secured before the XFL’s relaunch that would seem to indicate that ESPN has a valid argument.
“It could be argued that the commitment to high quality telecasts from ESPN and Fox helped the XFL succeed more in 2020 than the league would have if its games were on different networks that committed fewer resources and attention to the product,” he writes for Awful Announcing. And really, if the XFL’s assets are sold to an entity with far less experience in the media world than McMahon, is it really worth it for ESPN and Fox to put as much work into the XFL as they did this spring?”
FOX claims that Alpha Entertainment, the parent company of the XFL, agreed to renegotiate their agreement in the event the league was to be sold. In court papers, FOX wrote that the two sides “are in cooperative discussions” now.
