Vince McMahon Expects to Spend $500 Million to Reboot XFL

A few weeks before Vince McMahon he planned to exhume the XFL, the WWE Chairman and CEO sold $100 million of company stock to float his second attempt professional football.

But he's going to need a little more do the job. Potentially five times as much.

ESPN's Darren Rovell spoke with Oliver Luck—a newly appointed XFL CEO about bankrolling McMahon's project. Luck revealed that the original $100 million was well short of what it will cost to bring the XFL back to life.

"People were focused on the $100 million, but the truth is that doesn't even get us to the 20-yard line," said luck.

Rovell was able to expand on where exactly this lucrative amount of money needed to go:

"Luck said the biggest cost will be the salaries to pay players and coaches. Luck, for the first time, said the average salary for the 40-man rosters will hover around $75,000, with players that are more in demand making much more than that. Players in the first iteration of the XFL, co-owned by McMahon and NBC, paid players an average of $45,000 for a 10-week schedule"

"I've been at all levels of football, and the importance of a broad-based insurance program cannot be understated," Luck said continued. "There are very few participants who underwrite for this market anymore and it is obviously costly," he said.

The costs of an insurance policy for a professional football league can only be colossal. While Luck didn't give too many specifics he did note that premiums will be more than $10 million a year.

This story is developing...

Photo: Getty