Columnist Dean Juipe: New league apt to fail in Las Vegas

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, June 28, 2000 | 9:56 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

The "X" in XFL doesn't stand for X-rated, although it's apparent the new football league is going to have a raunchy, outrageous style.

The "X" is really a concession, a come-on, to its intended market: Generation X.

That group, particularly its males, is being counted on to support a venture that readily admits what many might see as shortcomings. The Xtreme Football League isn't going to pay its players much in the way of money and, conceptually, despite its initial denials it is almost certain to employ many of the nuances of professional wrestling.

It intends to be brash and loud and as violent as possible.

Its sale pitch will be easily understood: anything goes.

Founded by pro wrestling magnate Vince McMahon, the XFL will debut next year and among the cities that appear to have landed a team is Las Vegas. As detailed elsewhere on this page, negotiations between the league and UNLV for use of Sam Boyd Stadium are under way and the city is expected to have a franchise in a league that has been bolstered by the money and presence of television network NBC.

Las Vegas has seen many a professional sports endeavor come and go, including a few that were proposed before being reconsidered and canceled. As everyone who has lived here a reasonable length of time knows, none of these ventures has met much success and most were downright failures.

In all probability the XFL will be added to that list in due time.

As recently as two years ago, at least five new football leagues were on the drawing board in the United States. None came to fruition, and, in the meantime, NBC -- which had been talking to Ted Turner about a pro football league -- merged with McMahon for the XFL idea of tapping into the same 20-ish audience that has made pro wrestling a TV ratings bonanza.

But is there a demand for an alternate football league, let alone one that will accentuate the sport's deadly collisions and blast loud music at the spectators between every play?

If the XFL was making a pitch to rival the NFL and pay good money and pick off a few top players, as the old United States Football League did during its abbreviated run in the 1980s, then, perhaps, the new league would pique the average fan's interest. But the XFL has no such intention, which leaves it with nothing but castoffs and misfits who not only lack the credentials to play in the NFL but who probably wouldn't be up to the challenge of the Canadian Football League or the NFL's auxiliary league in Europe.

The quality of play is apt to be questionable, at best. It may be terrible.

So who's going to feel a need to see it, particularly with the league playing in February, March and April and particularly in Las Vegas where so many other attractions are vying for your attention and recreational dollars?

The local point man for the league, former Caesars Palace executive Rich Rose, is a decent guy with business acumen and plenty of smarts who has to realize the XFL is going to be a very tough sell.

He should know a Las Vegas team, even if it is coached by Hulk Hogan and stocked with World Wrestling Federation ruffians, is a long shot to succeed.