Vince McMahon’s rebooted XFL is looking at possibly returning to the only city to win the league’s championship. According to several sources, in April the league contacted AEG about the availability of the Stub Hub Center in Carson for XFL games in 2020. We were told the discussions were only preliminary and more to find out if the soccer stadium is open to holding more football when the Chargers leave after next season.
The Los Angeles Xtreme won the league’s only championship in 2001. The team played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and averaged 22,679 per game, good for fourth in the league. The attendance numbers are skewed by drawing over 35,000 to their home opener, and they averaged around 19,000 fans for their remaining games.
When the XFL operated in 2001, the Los Angeles market had no NFL teams, but now they have two. Adding a third team to the Los Angeles area, especially when the market’s enthusiasm for the Chargers has been lukewarm at best, could be a big risk.
Los Angeles marks the second market that the XFL has reportedly show interest in returning to, as Mike Bianchi of The Orlando Sentinel reported on May 1, 2018 that XFL reached out about possibly putting a team in Orlando’s Camping World Stadium. In 2001 the Orlando Rage had the league’s third highest average attendance with 25,563. The Alliance of American Football, which is another spring football league that is scheduled to start next year, has already announced they will have a team in Orlando as well.
The XFL also announced via Twitter on June 6, 2018 that they have sent out invitations to submit a proposal have gone out to interested XFL markets and stadiums. The photo attached to their Tweet shows 47 iPad Pro boxes with the XFL logo on them.
The invitations to submit a proposal have gone out to interested #XFL
markets and stadiums. We can’t wait to review all of the applications and
pick the eight cities where we will kick off in 2020! ??? pic.twitter.com/SOLzgsfTJ3— UFL (@XFL2023) June 6, 2018
We reached out to the XFL several times for comment but did not get a response. Both the Stub Hub Center and AEG stated they couldn’t comment.
The Chargers are bad enough. We don’t need the XFL.