The XFL is through three weeks already, and every franchise has had the chance to host a game at home. Now, the numbers between attendance, ratings in specific markets, and the retention of viewers allow us to analyze which teams are working in their current homes, and which aren’t.
For now, however, not even a month into the season, we won’t suggest uprooting any franchises. We’ll just give you the numbers:
Attendance has seen a decent rise across the first three weeks of the league. In fact, from week one to week two the league’s attendance rose 9.26% and then from week two to week three attendance rose 7.41%. Those are encouraging numbers to see a 17.36% increase in attendance from week one to week three, but the steady increase could be seeing its end.
It was possibly a genius move to layer the home games the way the XFL did across the first three weeks. The league had to know it had massive markets and hungry fan bases in Seattle and St. Louis, which would provide tremendous boosts to overall numbers after week one. In week one, New York, DC, Houston, and Dallas hosted games, all of which drew in between 17k and 18k.
Then in week two, Seattle hosted, who was rumored to have sold almost 30k tickets and offset that high number with Los Angeles, who hadn’t seen a massive outpouring of support in terms of ticket sales. Seattle ended up with 29,172 at their home opener and LA only managed 14,997. Again the average of those two numbers is still over 22k which appears as a steady increase across the board, despite seeing one number drop by several thousand.
Then in week three, the XFL unleashed St. Louis, a massive fanbase starving for football. They packed the Battle Dome with 29,554 which was the new record for a home opener. In addition, it was Tampa Bay’s first home game of the year, and despite their bad 0-2 record, they still managed over 18k fans and pulled in the third-best gate at a home opener.
Barring the city of St. Louis having something wild up their sleeve, the XFL looks like it’s in for its first dip in attendance in week four. New York, St. Louis, Dallas, and Tampa Bay host this weekend, and while St. Louis should still draw between 26-28k, you’d have to figure a drop in attendance in New York coming off two straight losses and an injured starting QB and a slight dip in Tampa Bay based off it being the second home game and the “wow factor” is gone.
The saving grace for the weekend could be Dallas. The Renegades play at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas the old home of the Texas Rangers, and while not all of the seats are available for the game, there’s still the ability to have attendance over 20k.
