WWE's Vince McMahon To Spend $500 Million On XFL
Owner looking to splurge over $160 million per year, for three years.
As per a report from ESPN's Senior Writer Darren Rovell, WWE impresario Vince McMahon is planning to spend/squander an astronomical $500 million across three seasons of the relaunched XFL.
Last December, McMahon sold $100 million in WWE stock to help fund the revived American football league, but it looks like the chairman is expecting a much larger outlay going forward.
XFL CEO and commissioner Oliver Luck, appointed to the role at the start of the month, whipped up his best sporting metaphor to describe the investment ahead: "People were focused on the $100 million, but the truth is that doesn't even get us to the 20-yard line."
Luck further told ESPN that the biggest drain will be player and coach salaries, with the average wage budget for members of the 40-man rosters estimated in the region of $75,000. Obviously, higher profile players can expect to earn significantly more.
The other big cost is players' insurance, with premiums believed to be the wrong side of $10 million a year. The original XFL was beset by a spate of injuries to personnel, with only three of the league's opening eight quarterbacks still in position by the end of the season.
The newly restored XFL is scheduled to launch in early 2020, in competition with Charlie Ebersol's Alliance of American Football, kicking off on CBS Sports a year earlier. Ebersol is the son of NBC executive Dick Ebersol, McMahon's partner on the original XFL.