The Dallas Jackals must be feeling like college freshmen: they have a new roommate they didn’t pick, and their new friend has made a mess of the place.
The Arlington Renegades of the newly launched (for a third time) XFL have taken co-residency at Choctaw Stadium. Viewers lamented the prominent gridiron markings with rugby lines drawn on top. Last year, Dallas featured one of the few rugby-only pitches in Major League Rugby. With the XFL season starting the same weekend as the MLR season, that visual dream turned to nightmare.
The XFL schedule is runs for ten weeks of regular season matches and two playoff rounds compared to MLR’s eighteen week slate and three week shield battle. The final home game of the regular season for the Renegades is scheduled for April 23th. The XFL has yet to announce the format of the first round of playoffs, but the championship match will be held in San Antonio. A playoff run could extend the Renegades residency until April 29th.
Four of Dallas’s final six matches will be at home after the Renegades season will have wrapped. By that point, the team should have the field all to themselves. A championship run could add up to three more games to their home slate, but the Jackals will need to do more on the current field layout to last that long.
Until then, their roommates have certainly left their ‘marks’.
RugbyFootballTalk 