Ugh, I can’t believe I’m going to have to waste brain space thinking about this league.
The general idea behind it is that the league can survive living off of rights fees if they can hook up with at least a major cable outlet. While you could argue football is down in popularity, the reality is the rights fees for the NFL are only going up. Unlike the XFL, which was partially owned by a network and thus was never really going to see a ton of money from rights fees; in theory if they could get a following the league could survive on rights fees from networks. It wouldn’t have to necessarily draw large attendances to remain viable.
Of course, the UFL was able to link up with some cable companies and had a lot of very wealthy business people backing it, and it never made anyone a dime. Vince is allegedly backing on the idea that people are sick of the NFL because they don’t like how the league is being run; whether that be anthem protests, concussion rules, etc. so a renegade league would have a chance at snagging those fans and building his league. Maybe he’ll get Trump on board as well. However, that thinking is ignorant to the fact that A) The decline in popularity of the NFL is exaggerated and B) People who stopped watching football probably stopped because of over-saturation of football or they were worried about player safety, or they thought the owners were assholes. All of those things would be counter-intuitive to what McMahon (allegedly) thinks will attract fans to his league.
Speaking of right-wing billionaires, Rupert Murdoch selling his company rather than pass it on to his children likely did have an effect on Vince. Vince has three “children” involved in the company; but Shane is only a performer and does not have any real control over the company and Stephanie is involved as a performer and as an ambassador and public relations role. Both of those roles would still be there for them if WWE was sold to a buyer. Stephanie’s husband, Triple H, is the only one really involved in the company in an executive capacity and is the heir apparent to Vince’s role whenever he decides to step down or dies; and he of course would likely still have that role if WWE is sold, since there are so few people in the world that would be qualified to have that position. Vince has always been unlikely to sell; but I know for a fact that when UFC sold for $4 billion that changed everything. There is no way WWE iS worth that much, but if they get an offer for say, $2.5 billion, it would be hard to turn down.
It should be noted that Vince’s ventures outside of wrestling; whether it was the World Bodybuilding Federation, ICOPRO, WWF New York or the XFL, have all been massive failures. If you watch wrestling now the general consensus is that Vince is behind the times and doesn’t have a good handle on what the mass audience in 2017 wants; so yeah, this isn’t likely to end well.
