Vince McMahon apparently doesn’t believe in curses.
As the XFL begins to compile equipment for its debut in 2020, the league has gone bargain shopping. Via the San Antonio Express-News, the XFL hopes to buy some of the equipment used by the ill-fated Alliance of American Football.
Alpha Entertainment, the parent company of the XFL, wants to purchase helmets, shoulder pads, tackling dummies, and other equipment (including “hundreds of rolls of athletic tape”) for $375,000. A deposit of $37,500 already has been paid for the gear.
The AAF’s bankruptcy trustee has formally sought court approval to make the sale. Any money from the sale of equipment would go to the league’s many creditors, who at most will get pennies on the dollar of the AAF’s debts.
“We always hope to get higher offers,” bankruptcy trustee Randolph Osherow said, via the Express-News. “The problem is, it’s a very small market. This is all professional football gear. So it’s probably only going to be sold to someone in the professional football business.
“Colleges have their own way of getting equipment. It has to go through a budgeting process. They are really not in the auction-attending business.”
The gear currently sits in a San Antonio warehouse. And even though it bears the aroma of a football league that turned rancid almost as quickly as a dead fish, the XFL has no qualms about snatching the equipment for a reduced cost, and to use it as their own.