ESPN’s Kevin Seifert recently published an article about the return of the XFL. He recaps what we know so far, the hub concept, coaches hired, personnel directors, the league’s partnership with Disney/ESPN, the CFL talks, and more. But there are two bits of information buried in there.
Both The Rock and Dany Garcia will be at this weekend’s player showcase at Jackson State. We suspected that Dwayne Johnson would be there with Deion Sanders in attendance. Now it has been confirmed.
“This weekend with a focus on HBCU schools, with the participation of Jackson State coach Deion Sanders. League co-owners Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Dany Garcia will be among the XFL executives on hand.”
Sanders and The Rock together will indeed generate a lot of media buzz.
The other part is that we will finally get XFL cities and venues by the end of the month. Something that we have been reporting for some time. We kept hearing early August as the time frame, similar to the XFL 2.0 era timeline.
“The league plans to announce its eight teams and venues by the end of this month… That process will likely prompt the league to shift some of its 2020 locations. But industry sources expect the cities that embraced the 2020 teams — especially St. Louis, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. — to remain in place. Games will again be played in a mix of NFL, MLS, and smaller college stadiums.”
XFL Insider Mike Mitchell has been reporting on the XFL eight XFL cities for some time. Houston, Orlando, San Antonio, Dallas, DC, St Louis, Seattle, and Las Vegas. What we don’t know is where they will play. We assume St Louis will return to The Dome. All the other teams are up in the air.
Will all the original XFL 2.0 return to their home locations? Where will Orlando, San Antonio, and Las Vegas play? It looks like we will find out at the end of the month.
We expect the week of July 26th as the earliest. The first week in August would be the latest when we get an announcement. Interest in the XFL will be buried soon, with the NFL pre-season starting on August 4th, when the Jacksonville Jaguars face the Las Vegas Raiders at the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio.
