Today Axios held its inaugural dealmaker summit in New York City called Axios BFD.
Gerry Cardinale, Founder, Managing Partner & Chief Investment Officer of RedBird Capital Partners, and co-owner of the XFL, along with Dany Garcia, Founder, CEO & Chairwoman, The Garcia Companies and TGC Management and co-owner and Chairwoman of the XFL. Both spoke about the XFL together at this event.
Dany Garcia was asked about getting involved in the XFL and her vision for the league.
“I saw an opportunity to take this football universe and wrap it around with layered storytelling. Bring it closer to the audience, invest in the athletes even more. Bring more technology and make a property and extend it as if it was it’s a live IP. And when I called my partner, Dwayne Johnson, I said, hey, I want to buy the XFL. This is a crazy idea, but let me tell you why. Everything we’ve done in our life has led to this moment. He said absolutely.”
For Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Dany Garcia, this is their most significant project, which she reiterated during the interview.
Gerry Cardinale was asked if the XFL is a minor league for the NFL.
“Let me just Say. There’s no need for a second NFL. However, there is a need for a development organization for the NFL on player development. One of the things that I learned is there are 53 players on an NFL team.
53 to 75 could have easily made An NFL team. There’s just only 53 slots.
So you ask yourself, is there a value proposition? We can actually put an NFL-quality product on the field but make it more entertaining and you have the two best people in the world (Dany and The Rock).
If you want to create a live event entertainment company rooted in legitimate football, this is how you do it.”
Clearly, if this was an interview run by XFL insiders, we would have asked a lot of different questions. Overall, based on the interview, fans should feel good the league is in good hands.
Cardinale did mention they have learned from the past mistakes of other leagues and bring that knowledge to the XFL 3.0. They feel between their front office team and partners. They have a winning combination.
We will find out soon as the XFL draft is set to take place on November 16th and 17th in Las Vegas. Local activation events are set to take place next week as we build towards the 2023 return on the XFL in February.
