Fairfield County Business Journal 020320

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PRINT JOURNALISM: BECAUSE IT STILL MATTERS. FEBRUARY 3, 2020 VOL. 56, No. 5

westfaironline.com

Vince McMahon is looking for success on the gridiron with the XFL.

McMahon’s $500 million bet

INSIDE PAGE

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STAMFORD IS BOOMING

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STARTING A BUSINESS

COULD TOM BRADY SAVE GREENWICH’S REAL ESTATE MARKET?

THE NEW XFL: STARS SEEM ALIGNED FOR SUCCESS, BUT WILL VIEWERS PUNT? BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com

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ith Super Bowl LIV finishing the National Football League’s 100th season on Feb. 2, many in the sporting world are wondering if football fans will pivot quickly and embrace the XFL — or take a pass.

“I think, overall, curiosity will get the best of most of us, at least initially,” remarked Josh Shuart, director, sport management, at the Jack Welch College of Business & Technology at Sacred Heart University. “They’re taking a completely different approach than they did before, which was very gimmicky. This time they’re being more

methodical.” This is XFL 2.0, following the 2001 version that was the brainchild of Vince McMahon as a 50/50 joint venture between the Stamford-based World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) and NBC. NBC earned an impressive 9.5 rating — 86% higher than its Saturday night average at that point of the 200001 TV season — for the premier game, a Feb. 3 tilt between the New York/ New Jersey Hitmen and Las Vegas Outlaws. But that yardage was almost immediately lost. Ratings for NBC’s Saturday night games » MCMAHON

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BY PHIL HALL phall@westfairinc.com

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n Jan. 14, Bostonbased WEEI-FM sports talk show host Greg Hill dropped an exclusive scoop: New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and his family had reportedly moved out of their home in Brookline, Massachusetts, and relocated to a recently purchased home in Greenwich. Hill’s story was immediately picked up by every media outlet in Connecticut as major breaking news, and Gov. Ned Lamont took to Twitter to welcome Brady

to his new Connecticut residency. Greenwich First Selectman Fred Camillo went even further, taking a guest shot on Hill’s show to trumpet his town’s newest arrival. But there was one problem: the story was incorrect. The day after Hill’s story broke, WEEI quietly slipped an update on its blog that acknowledged “Brady does not in fact own a house in Connecticut.” While it is not uncommon for news outlets to report stories that require a retraction, the Brady-inGreenwich story sparked an excited frenzy that inadvertently highlight» BRADY

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