Vince McMahon considers move to bring back the XFL

[GCn20]

I was actually hopeful that the XFL would find it's niche and be a developmental type league for the CFL and NFL. Unfortunately, every spring incarnation is just terrible football and very hard to watch. In America, I don't think you can half ass it when it comes to pro sports. You either start up as a farm league for the big show or you get cratered.

Unlike the CFL, the 4 down game requires too much precision and doesn't allow for athleticism. There are a ton of fantastic athletes that just need some time to develop their pro game attention to detail but are NFL calibre athletes and that is how the CFL has thrived in it's recruitment. However, with the smaller field and different playing style and rules of 4 down football those same players just do not have the opportunity to shine and it just looks sloppy instead.

Edited April 16, 2020 by GCn20

[The Unknown Poster]

Not pay walled 

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/04/21/oliver-luck-sues-vince-mcmahon/

Edited April 21, 2020 by The Unknown Poster

[Tracker]

7 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Not pay walled 

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/04/21/oliver-luck-sues-vince-mcmahon/

Talk about having bad Luck.

[SpeedFlex27]

It's pay walled, unfortunately. I only got as far as Luck being paid $20 million. 

[Stretch]

7 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

It's pay walled, unfortunately. I only got as far as Luck being paid $20 million. 

https://www.si.com/xfl/2020/04/21/oliver-luck-sues-vince-mcmahon-wrongful-termination-xfl

[The Unknown Poster]

Good article breaks down the details of the shut down and scuttling.  Vince is a piece of...work.

https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/SB-Blogs/Breaking-News/2020/04/XFL.aspx?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTWpVd1l6ZzNPVEprTWpOayIsInQiOiJaUGtRVTVyRzZwOUZNR1FlUnVJc2pFdDlVQTlKaWJNUDM4bFVhMUk4WXV2S1ZucElyQ21qK2pkZENhNTFcL0h1dEdvbnBDZklEOWRWQTkwSkswQ0NYR2pESjd1Zk9ZUVZ5YXhBWW8yVkE4YTdCd0t5Tm5TcVo2NW1zaHVBdGZSWkQ1ZmNkK1A2ZXM3Z05hXC9uMHJkdE1HQT09In0%3D

[WBBFanWest]

Wow, I for one am gobsmacked that a McMahon vanity project failed, especially when one considers all the success that other "not the NFL" ventures have had.   Actually, what does amaze me is that there are people out there who will say "Ya, it's failed a whole bunch of times in the past, but this time..."  and of course the ever popular, "This is really going to hurt the CFL."  Bye bye Vince.

[wbbfan]

I wonder if all this will lead to a public exodus for vince. How man times can you make such huge swings and miss and still come up to bat? 

[SpeedFlex27]

27 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

I wonder if all this will lead to a public exodus for vince. How man times can you make such huge swings and miss and still come up to bat? 

McMahon has become like a hermit the past few years. He used to be a workaholic & from all the stories I've read  about him was he never slept. Recently, he had stopped running the show & attending Smackdown leaving it up to Paul Levesque (Triple H) to run the show. In his 70's now & obviously slowing down I wonder how hard this massive failure is going to hit McMahon health wise. It had to have taken a toll.  TUP might have some insight into that. 

[The Unknown Poster]

10 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

McMahon has become like a hermit the past few years. He used to be a workaholic & from all the stories I've read  about him was he never slept. Recently, he had stopped running the show & attending Smackdown leaving it up to Paul Levesque (Triple H) to run the show. In his 70's now & obviously slowing down I wonder how hard this massive failure is going to hit McMahon health wise. It had to have taken a toll.  TUP might have some insight into that. 

He doesnt attend the shows as often but he's still the same in terms of control and never sleeping.   He will often call a creative meeting and everyone sits around waiting for him to start the conference call and its sometimes 3am before he does.  He's a mad man.  Still a workaholic.  He just relies more on Heyman, Prichard and Hunter to run things backstage.  Scripts still have to be approved by him and he will make changes last minute (very WCW like).  

For example, his most recent craziness was WWE decided RAW & SD would be taped.  So friday afternoon they taped SD and during the show, he decided to scrap it and go live.  One of the ways XFL was supposed to be different was Vince being more hands-off.  WWE, he's still hands on and even more so now because he fired their two co-presidents and havent replaced them.  So he's Chairman, CEO and de-facto President, head of creative etc.

[The Unknown Poster]

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/05/08/xfl-is-actively-looking-for-a-buyer/

[The Unknown Poster]

 

Edited May 13, 2020 by The Unknown Poster

[SpeedFlex27]

Yeah, Luck was a shitty Commissioner. Lol. 

[The Unknown Poster]

^^Sorts agent. 
 

Also word is it was Vince ignoring Lucks messages the last two weeks before termination.  And it makes sense why they wanted Luck’s iPhone back.  Probably so luck wouldn’t have evidence of the work he was doing and his interactions with Vince.  
 

I hope this proceeds.  A Vince deposition has the potential to be tremendous.  

Edited May 14, 2020 by The Unknown Poster

[Tracker]

20 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

^^Sorts agent. 
 

Also word is it was Vince ignoring Lucks messages the last two weeks before termination.  And it makes sense why they wanted Luck’s iPhone back.  Probably so luck wouldn’t have evidence of the work he was doing and his interactions with Vince.  
 

I hope this proceeds.  A Vince deposition has the potential to be tremendous.  

Where is a "Meh" emoji when you need it?

[SpeedFlex27]

Oliver Luck asking for The Moon. Instead, he'll get some moon rocks still worth a few million. 

[JuranBoldenRules]

The biggest problem with this league was McMahon.

I don’t think it will dampen the idea of spring pro football in the US.  Would not be surprised if the next league is created by ESPN and the NFL.  There’s a decent gap there to play an 8 game season on Saturday’s and Sunday’s between Super Bowl and March Madness.

[SpeedFlex27]

4 hours ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

The biggest problem with this league was McMahon.

I don’t think it will dampen the idea of spring pro football in the US.  Would not be surprised if the next league is created by ESPN and the NFL.  There’s a decent gap there to play an 8 game season on Saturday’s and Sunday’s between Super Bowl and March Madness.

And it will fail. The only way another league in the US has a chance is if some big money investors start a new league that competes directly for players with the NFL in the fall. 

[The Unknown Poster]

There is talk Vince is trying to buy back a debt free XFL out of bankruptcy court. 

[SpeedFlex27]

It just never ends. McMahon can run a successful pro wrestling company but he sucks at pro football. 

[The Unknown Poster]

12 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

It just never ends. McMahon can run a successful pro wrestling company but he sucks at pro football. 

Well this fine he wasn’t doing too badly.  It was Luck’s efforts in running the company but they were doing financially better than their own expectations.  
 

And Vince has good lawyers.   Shortly before they went bankrupt Vince loaned his own company money which was odd since he was financing it from the beginning.  But doing it that way makes Vince the largest creditor of his company which gives him an advantage on buying the assets out of bankruptcy court.  If he wants another go at it the plan seems to be to ice the league this year and stiff  everyone they owe money to and then start back up next year or whenever it’s prudent. 

[The Unknown Poster]

 

[SpeedFlex27]

On 2020-04-22 at 11:19 AM, WBBFanWest said:

Wow, I for one am gobsmacked that a McMahon vanity project failed, especially when one considers all the success that other "not the NFL" ventures have had.   Actually, what does amaze me is that there are people out there who will say "Ya, it's failed a whole bunch of times in the past, but this time..."  and of course the ever popular, "This is really going to hurt the CFL."  Bye bye Vince.

Why would anyone want to go into business with McMahon?? He has no legitimacy when it comes to anything outside of wrestling. 

[The Unknown Poster]

Some news & analysis from Dave Meltzer

Quote

Certain strategies have led to speculation that Vince McMahon will attempt to buy the intellectual property of the XFL in bankruptcy court and then resurrect the league.

Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic first wrote the story on 5/19, based on the fact those involved with the bankruptcy are attempting to refund the $3.5 million in money owed fans for tickets for the remainder of this season and season tickets that were sold for next season. Before declaring bankruptcy, McMahon had ordered all ticket money to be refunded, including for next season, which was the first public hint that the league was done.

Other creditors who are owed money want the $3.5 million as part of the debt with whatever money could be left by selling assets going to the creditors. Another aspect of the story is that McMahon himself is also listed as a creditor because he loaned the XFL money for the last few payrolls and is still paying XFL President Jeffrey Pollack and some office workers basically to facilitate the closing of the league.

The idea being floated is that McMahon would purchase the assets of the league, the key being intellectual property and some contracts he would want to keep, at a fire sale price, while allowing him to get out of paying up to $50 million in bills still owed from the launch of the league.

Axios had reported that the XFL itself was launching a Hail Mary to find a new financial backer after the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing with Houlihan Lokey managing the process and letters of intent being due on 6/12 and formal bidding among those interested for the assets taking place on 7/6.

The league was owned 80 percent by McMahon and 20 percent by WWE, which came out at bankruptcy and also called into question many statements, including at conference calls, where McMahon claimed the WWE would not be involved with the XFL and it was his solo venture. The WWE was actually given the ownership rights and did not put money into the league, in a deal that McMahon essentially made with himself so he would own the league name and other intellectual property rights that WWE owned from the first version of the league.

Unsecured debtors expressed concern in recent court filings that moves they had learned make them believe the bankruptcy could have been a “cutthroat finance ploy by McMahon to ride out the pandemic and resultant economic turmoil without paying the costs of operating the league...(and then acquiring the rights to the league again) at a fire-sale price.”

The story noted that Pollack has contacted the stadiums in both Seattle and St. Louis, two cities where they drew well, about reinstating the league’s lease agreements. The XFL owed money all over both of those markets and one of the biggest debts listed in the bankruptcy was to the stadium in St. Louis.

While some look at this like it was a plan, it was a bad plan because McMahon, while perhaps saving some money, pretty much ruined his name in football when stiffing Oliver Luck, and many of the coaches who were well respected in that world. There perhaps could have been the idea to get out of the huge salary he paid Luck and some of the higher-priced coaches on multi-year contracts and start up with a lower budget. The original marketing idea was to build teams around well-know coaches, who got big contracts, and star quarterbacks.

Perhaps it was also a way to get out of his television deals which paid no money, with the idea that with the ratings the league did at first, there was value in those shows. But that’s tough right now because with the state of the television economy, nobody is looking at adding new costs and XFL ratings were declining significantly by the week. While the early numbers looked good, particularly in the first three weeks and even the fourth week, when they continued to decline at such a big level in week five, there were great concerns about the long-term viability.

The feeling is that getting players, even after so many were also stiffed, won’t be a problem because there are tons of players coming out of college every year who still want to play football and won’t make NFL teams. In addition, the Canadian Football League is also facing great economic hardships right now related to the pandemic and the economy.

But getting quality people working in administrations, promotions, coaching and other facets of running a league will become far more difficult. Host cities and stadiums will almost surely want money up front or be ambivalent about working with the league. The league will be seen, rightly so, as something with no stability and being headed by someone who can’t be trusted given the stiffing of the coaches and the publicity around the Luck firing.

“I would be shocked if Vince wasn’t trying to purchase the XFL at a fire sale price,” said Daniel Ericson, who teaches law at George Washington University. “It seems like there is no other reason to pay out season ticket holders from the bankruptcy estate who are unsecured creditors and probably would get little or nothing out of protracted litigation. “

”Relatedly, I think Vince will quietly settle the Oliver Luck lawsuit, which is unlike him,” said Ericson. “The reasons supporting the for cause termination in Vince’s answer to the complaint seem particularly contrived. Lucks’ deal was just to large in the age of corona. One can argue about the business ethics of all this, but it strikes me as a sophisticated legal strategy.”

 

[The Unknown Poster]

Vince released a filing with the course claiming he will not be trying to buy back the xfl.  Also reportedly there are 20 entities that have filed interested including buying the assets and re launching in 2021