IIRC the previous "franchise" player situation was called the "Marquee" player. It was a bust that drove up costs for clubs without any real overall benefit. The difficulty was that every team felt that they needed to designate one guy as their marquee player, otherwise their fan base would assume that their club wasn't competing.
I'd rather see them bump up the minimum so that the journeymen players get better rewards for their pain and efforts.
Personally, I'm not overly worried about the XFL and the AAFL. I've seen too many various attempts south of the border, and they've all gone bust. I just don't see them attracting crowds at the gate nor significant TV following.