As an aggregate of everything Tampa Bay sports, one would feel completely remiss to not mention the XFL, and Tampa Bay Vipers when there is a little news to share. As with this time of year though. First things first. So far this season the officiating in the NFL has really stunk. There! Now where was I?
XFL Ticket Pricing
As expected. The pricing for an upstart professional Spring football league is family friendly. With the Tampa Bay Times reporting that five game ticket packages will start as low as $100. Fans that purchase season ticket package for the season will receive a VIP field pass that will allow field access before one of the seasons home games.
With Vince McMahon’s “Alpha Entertainment” owning the league you can be assured there will be a narrative. Being able to take a family out to a professional football game in the Spring for a decent cost is a good start.
XFL Draft
Sports Illustrated ran a story this week about the interesting draft the XFL will hold next week(seen here). The two day draft will take October 15th and 16th. Each team will first be assigned a quarterback from the yet to be announced pool. The rosters will consist of 71 players selected from a pool of approximate 1,000 players. This is where it gets interesting.
The draft will be divided into five subsets of positions;
Skill Players(QB, RB, WR, TE)
Offensive Line(OT, OT, OC)
Defensive Front Seven(DL, LB)
Defensive Backfield(CB, NB, SS, FS)
Open Draft(all remaining players in addition to P, K, LS)
Picking 10 players though each of the first four phases. Then 31 players to fill out each roster in the last phase. The format for the inaugural draft of the XFL looks pretty much like how you would hope an expansion draft looks when every team is an expansion team.
Also Mentioned
The Tampa Bay Times piece rounds out by mentioning that training camp will take place at Plant Stadium (former sprint training site of the Cincinnati Reds). No mention of if there will be any sessions open to the public.
Another factoid is that the inaugural season of the XFL will start on Saturday, February 8th, just six days after the NFL season completes.
Photo credit: XFL.com
