Even though XFL is free from Vince McMahon, it will still remain in the wrestling family. As per reports, a group of people including Dwayne Johnson, quickly rushed to acquire the bankrupt football league a few hours before it was going to be auctioned. The cost of acquisition was $15 million and was split between the WWE star and RedBird Capital. Dwayne’s ex-wife Dany Garcia is also one of the business partners and a stakeholder in the business.
With my trail blazing partner @DanyGarciaCo & Red Bird Capital, we have acquired the XFL.
With gratitude & passion I’ve built a career with my own two hands and will apply these callouses to our @xfl2020 brand.
Excited to create something special for the fans! #XFL #fullcircle pic.twitter.com/LprJ6HjglD— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) August 3, 2020
The investment company that partnered with Johnson is a private equity firm. It is owned by Gerry Cardinale and makes several sports investments. The company acquired Toulouse, the French soccer team, recently. It is also an investor in the YES Network and the regional sports network of New York Yankees.
Jeffrey Pollack, the XFL President is happy that an actor and wrestling star has acquired the football league. He said that there is a “Hollywood ending” in their sale process and will mark an exciting start for the league.
A new opportunity of XFL
XFL had a great start before the coronavirus pandemic hit the world. Due to the shutdown of sports for times unknown, they were forced to stop. XFL was reformed in 2018 with the same name just like the 2001 football league. However, Dwayne Johnson didn’t have his focus on this before.
After the October 2019 draft, they started to play in February 2020 and included eight teams. They were going to premier with great ratings and streams of 1-2 million every week. The league passed through five games before they announced that the rest of the games will be canceled. On March 12 they had to stop the games and cancel all the remaining ones due to the pandemic.
After a month, XFL filed for bankruptcy. Currently, the acquisition marks as the third chance for XFL. It is early to comment on how the investors are going to work on their new football league. They might try to rebuild the team that was already created, although all the employees were terminated back in April. Thus, they might have to redo the entire process again.
