Rumors that Vince McMahon wants to reboot the XFL are officially more than just rumors.
Today the WWE revealed to the Securities and Exchange Commission that McMahon has sold about $100 million worth of stock, and that he did so “primarily to fund a separate entity from the Company, Alpha Entertainment LLC, which Mr. McMahon established to explore investment opportunities across the sports and entertainment landscapes, including professional football.”
Translation: McMahon wants to try to create a rival pro football league again. And now he has enough cash on hand to give it a go.
There had already been plenty of smoke around McMahon wanting to reboot the XFL, which crashed and burned after one season in 2001. Most of that smoke was about McMahon securing trademarks related to the XFL, trademarks that he previously abandoned because he thought he was out of the pro football business.
But securing a trademark is a far cry from selling off a huge amount of stock in the business McMahon has spent a lifetime building. This is a move that indicates McMahon very much wants to run a pro football league again, and will spend a lot of his own money to make it happen.
McMahon has said nothing publicly about his plans for a new league or when it could start play. He announced his plans for the first version of the XFL in early 2000, and that league began play in early 2001. So perhaps McMahon will announce XFL 2.0 in early 2018, and play will begin in early 2019.