Outlaws GM confident XFL can survive

Victoria Sun

Tuesday, March 27, 2001 | 9:41 a.m.

Despite reports NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol may back out of the network's contract with the XFL to broadcast games through 2002, the end is not necessarily in sight, at least according to local league officials.

"That's not gonna happen," Outlaws general manager Bob Ackles said Monday. "We had a conference call we have each week with all of the general managers.

"Dick (Ebersol) talked to (XFL president) Basil (DeVito) this morning and said that's not exactly what he said (to the newspapers). So the indication from Basil was that NBC is not going to pull out."

At least not now.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, XFL founder and World Wrestling Federation Entertainment chairman Vince McMahon addressed the possibility of the XFL staying afloat without NBC on board.

National ratings for the last two XFL games broadcast on the network have been abominable, though local viewership has been strong.

"I hope NBC steps up with us, but if they can't, they can't," McMahon told the Times. "We won't hold their feet to the fire.

"We won't point fingers. A deal has to work for both partners."

Still, McMahon conceded that the XFL's survival is dependent upon television.

"If we have no network TV partner, we have no league," McMahon said. "We've had preliminary talks with UPN and they are interested."

The Nielsen rating for the XFL season opener on NBC was a smashing 9.5. Since then, the overnight ratings for the last two games aired on the network were 2.1. The national rating for the game between the Outlaws and Birmingham was 1.6, believed to be the lowest-rated show in prime time history. The national number for Saturday's game between the Outlaws and Los Angeles is not yet available.

Ackles has been disappointed by the national ratings, but refused to speculate whether the league would survive if NBC backed out.

"We're working on winning and selling season tickets, but you can't be concerned about what may or may not happen in the future," he said.

So far, ticket sales for the Outlaws have been impressive.

Sales have dropped slightly each game after the team's opener in which an above-capacity 30,389 tickets were sold, but the average number sold for the Outlaws' three home games has been 26,687. For this Sunday afternoon's game against the San Francisco Demons at Sam Boyd Stadium, an Outlaws official said about 14,000 tickets had been sold as of Friday.

But success at box offices across the league hasn't translated to success for the league itself.

An issue of Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal reported two weeks ago that the XFL expects to lose about $40 million, $10 million more than XFL officials projected, because the decline in ratings has hurt advertising revenue. And the league could stand to lose even more.

Because local ratings have been good, a sales associate for KUPN Channel 25 said air time sales during XFL broadcasts haven't slumped, but remained steady.

"I think it's a fight we'll win," McMahon said. "But it's not, 'no matter what.'

"I'm not stupid about it. But it's a dream I think will work."