I think the CFL/XFL collaboration is exciting. Yes, there are lots of ways it can go wrong for the CFL, but there are also a few ways it could go right. After reading all the analysis and listening to all the podcasts, there seems to be a lot of confusion about how these teams could mutually benefit from cooperating. Here are my thoughts:
What the XFL needs from the CFL:
  1. The infrastructure and institutional knowledge necessary to manage a football league. While the CFL hasn’t proven it can make a boatload of profits, they have successfully run football seasons for nine football teams since the 1950s. Without this, the XFL would be starting from scratch and would have to build their own, which is costly and prone to errors and growing pains. Why not take the money that they would have spent getting their management and logistical operations together and instead pay the CFL a fraction of the cost to do it for them? Collaboration here would take advantage of economies of scale.
  1. Nine established teams that will be able to reliably field players week in and week out against the newly formed XFL sides. This means the XFL wouldn’t have to start off with 8 or 10 franchises (of which only 4 or 5 are strong). It could instead launch with the most promising 4 to 6 markets and then rely on inter-league play with the CFL teams to fill out their schedule. It allows them to grow slowly without placing undue pressure to launch in weak markets.
  1. TV production relationship with TSN. The CFL already has an established relationship with a respected TV broadcaster in TSN that can produce football games with a first-class feel and appearance. We’ve seen spring football leagues be able to get on TV, but they were most likely paying for the production and not benefiting financially. While I’m sure inter-league games wouldn’t draw quite as well as CFL-only games, I expect that the additional content would be valuable to TSN and they would be willing to pay something for it. Those games could then be re-broadcast in the US for the XFL, who wouldn’t have to pay to produce the games and might even get a share of TSN money. That leaves the XFL having to only pay to produce the XFL-only games, which TSN could probably do best given that they already have the infrastructure and institutional knowledge. In sum, the XFL could save a lot on getting their games produced by piggy-backing on the CFL’s relationship with TSN.
What the CFL needs from the XFL:
  1. Cooperation, not competition. I think the CFL looked at XFL 2.0 and saw an operation that almost worked, and might have even succeeded if not for COVID. While the CFL has survived upstart US leagues in the past, but all it takes is one to gather momentum and become a competitor that could put the CFL out of business, given the current shaky financial situation. Rather than continue to rely on luck, I think the CFL has decided it’s better to cooperate and have some influence on how spring/summer US football moves forward.
  1. A marketing game-changer. Yes, there are lots of people in Canada who are not CFL fans, but the league has been trying to reach them for 15 years and has not been successful. This is not for lack of trying, and it could be that the current form of the league (only 9 teams, playing the same teams over and over) has exhausted its options for growth in Canada. It needs to make a splash in order to capture peoples’ attention. Look at how much media attention the CFL has gotten from just EXPLORING collaboration with the XFL. The opportunity for inter-league play, and having CFL teams analyzed by US sports outlets alongside the XFL teams, is shaking things up for a change and it could jumpstart interest in Canadian non-CFL fans. Also…
  1. Increased US media exposure. While it continues to struggle to attract new fans in Canada, inter-league play with XFL provides exposure in the US that the CFL has never had. Showing games on ESPN has never worked because Americans didn’t care to see two Canadian teams competing. However, with CFL teams playing XFL teams, American outlets would have no choice but to pay attention and provide analysis for CFL teams and players. If the CFL’s collaboration allows the XFL to remain sustainable long enough to land a substantial TV contract, and the CFL becomes a stakeholder under this collaboration, then this could be the best opportunity to stabilize the CFL’s finances.