New football league XFL partners with Elevate for ticket sales

[May 01, 2019]  By Hilary Russ

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The yet to launch professional American football league XFL has chosen the sports and entertainment consulting firm Elevate Sports Ventures to run its ticket sales for its first two years, the companies said on Wednesday.

Elevate will design and manage the database marketing and ticket sales for the XFL's eight teams, in Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, St. Louis, Seattle, Tampa and the District of Columbia.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The XFL, which plans to launch in February 2020, was founded by pro wrestling legend Vince McMahon, who is personally funding the venture.

American history is filled with attempts to start new football leagues to crack the dominance of the National Football League. Most of them failed. The most recent example is the Alliance of American Football, which ceased operations last month before even completing its first full season of play.

Decades before he became U.S. president, Donald Trump even owned the now-defunct New Jersey Generals in the short-lived United States Football League, which folded in 1986.

The XFL itself has failed once before, playing one season in 2001 before shuttering. Football fans will be watching to see if the second time is the charm.

The revived XFL will have a 10-week regular season with a postseason of two semifinal playoff games and a championship game.

With Elevate and its partners "equally committed to our cause and with important seats at our table, we're even more confident in our ability to launch intelligently and effectively," said Jeffrey Pollack, XFL president and chief operating officer, in a statement.

Elevate is a joint venture of NFL team the San Francisco 49ers, Ticketmaster Entertainment LLC, Live Nation Entertainment Inc, Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment and the Oak View Group.

(Reporting by Hilary Russ in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

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