A year away from its reboot, it looks like the XFL is garnering significant momentum. Vince McMahon‘s professional football league is negotiating a TV deal with major networks.
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According to the Sports Business Journal, the XFL is in serious discussion with both FOX and ESPN for the broadcast rights to the 2020 season.
Per the report, if ESPN lands the rights, then the XFL games will also air on ABC, but not ESPN+, the sport’s conglomerate streaming service. A FOX deal would also put the XFL on FS1. The report stated that current expectations have two-thirds of the XFL games airing on television.
An announcement for the XFL’s broadcast rights could be made as soon as next week.
The XFL will officially restart on the weekend of February 8, 2020 — the weekend following the Super Bowl. The XFL announced its eight hosting cities a few weeks ago and the football league’s reboot will take place in New York City, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Seattle, Tampa Bay and Washington, DC.
The XFL was believed to be dead and gone after its first and only season in 2001 failed. However, about a year ago, Vince McMahon announced that he would exhume his football league for another go. McMahon sold $100 million of WWE stock to help kickstart the league but Oliver Luck, an XFL administrator told Darren Rovell of ESPN that McMahon could be on the hook for $500 million.
“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,” wrote Rovell.
It’s worth underlining that WWE and FOX have gotten cozy as of late, to the tune of $1 billion. In the fall of 2018, FOX bought the rights to SmackDown Live and will air WWE’s Blue Brand later this fall. Per this report, it looks like FOX could be doubling down on the mind of Vine McMahon and make another hefty purchase.
