(02-01-2019 05:06 PM)DoubleRSU Wrote:  Have any financials been released? I doubt these networks are paying much to the AAF. The first CBS game will probably do good ratings. Just depends on the quality of play. One of their goals was to shorten the game time and have fewer commercials. Good luck to both of them. No way both will stick around though. Personally I think the XFL is stupid for playing in NFL cities in some of those stadiums.

Financials are not out for either league. We do know that the XFL is paying Oliver Luck $20M/year with another $10M in bonus opportunities and the rumor that Vince is willing to spend $500M in the first three seasons.

As for the AAF, even less is known. We know that Chernin Group, Shaq, former Washington DC Mayor Adrian Fenty, and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund are investors, but not to what levels they each are involved. Chernin and Founders Fund are venture capitalists, so while they have deep pockets, they also may have a smaller level of optimism and may ask for their money back at any time.

AAF is definitely splitting ad revenue in exchange for the airtime for TNT and NFLN, or just buying time on CBSSN outright. Last week's Sports Business Journal "First Look" podcast took a deep dive into both leagues for about 25 minutes.
Link via Soundcloud

In the staff's discussion of the AAF, one of them (Austin Karp) talked about the AAF's inability to sell to advertisers due to the large majority of games airing on CBSSN. Since the CBSSN is not rated, the advertisers don't know the ROI when buying ad time. Terry Lefton said that while the AAF may have selected the right markets, Karp returned that the markets which typically want more football are in fact markets with NFL teams already. Lefton still added that the overhead is too great for much success for either league.

The addition of both TBS and NFLN illustrates their need for demographics and data to sell spots on CBSSN. In addition, now partnering with the B/R Live app puts in question the AAF's own app, which Ebersol has been touting since when they first announced the league on CBS Saturday Morning. Partnering with both Turner and NFLN is an unforeseen expense

I'll watch Week 1, but I question the quality of play as they only had the same amount of time which XFL teams had nearly 20 years ago.