Vince McMahon says he’s planning to spend what it takes to keep the XFL in business longer than just the one year it lasted in its first incarnation.
McMahon says he’s ready to spend $500 million over the first three seasons of the XFL, which is slated to launch in 2020, according to ESPN.
When McMahon first announced he was bringing the XFL back, he sold $100 million worth of WWE stock to get it off the ground. But that’s only a small part of the league’s expenses.
“People were focused on the $100 million, but the truth is that doesn’t even get us to the 20-yard line,” XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck told ESPN.
Luck said the biggest expense will be player and coach salaries, and Luck said the average XFL salary will be around $75,000, with the possibility for well-known players to make significantly more than that.
Spending $500 million in three years sounds like a lot, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the NFL, which spends more than $5 billion a year just on player salaries.