What’s In a Name? The XFL Gets It Right!

They all end in an “S!” By golly, it’s a new football league and the nicknames all end in “S!”

The XFL is attempting to do something that has never been done before.

They want to have a professional football league where the league owns all the franchises.

In the history of sport, this has never worked. Just a look at the Alliance of American Football bears this out, where a single wealthy investor in the league decided he no longer wanted to fund it.

So it died.

If the teams have individual ownership, yes, there will be a disgruntled owner who realizes he is losing his shirt. But then one team fails, not an entire league. And that owner can always sell the team. The league remains solvent.

This is one of many examples as to why league ownership doesn’t work. The Arena Football League tried it initially and wound up folding their league champion in year two and playing almost entirely at neutral site venues in year three. By year four individual owners had to be found, and by year five all of the original franchises were gone.

Hence the up and down popularity and cult-like following for Arena Football. It’s currently at a “is that still around?” status with the contemporary sports fan.

But the XFL announced their team names and logos for their inaugural season.

And they got something right.