XFL 2.0 Ends In Bankruptcy For WWE’s Vince McMahon!
Bloomberg reports:
Vince McMahon’s XFL files bankruptcy, heads for liquidation
Vince McMahon’s XFL, the upstart football league that twice promised fans a reinvented game, has landed in bankruptcy with plans to wind down the business just weeks after suspending its comeback season. Massachusetts bankruptcy lawyers provide you all the information related to bankruptcy.
Alpha Entertainment LLC, the McMahon-owned corporate entity behind the XFL, filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in Delaware Monday, court papers show. Alpha cited as US$50 million each in assets and liabilities in its bankruptcy petition, which lists XFL as an alternate name for the business.
The XFL launched in February with eight teams, almost all of them in cities that also have NFL franchises. The league had broadcast agreements with Fox and ESPN, and promised to embrace new technology, and gambling, in a novel way. It played five weeks, half its regular season, before shutting down.
Last down
The XFL joins a long list of professional football leagues that have challenged the NFL’s dominance and failed. The Alliance of American Football folded last year in the middle of its first season, stranding players at hotels; the original XFL, McMahon’s first attempt, folded after one season back in 2001.
McMahon will help wind down the business during the Chapter 11 case, according to the bankruptcy petition.
“The XFL quickly captured the hearts and imaginations of millions of people who love football,” the league said in a statement. “Unfortunately, as a new enterprise, we were not insulated from the harsh economic impacts and uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 crisis.”
Alpha’s largest creditors include the St. Louis Sports Commission — owed US$1.6 million — and XFL coaches Bob Stoops and Marc Trestman, owed almost US$2 million combined, court papers show. World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. holds a 23.5 per cent stake in Class B interests.
The XFL is among the first U.S. sports properties, and likely not the last, to suspend its business operations because of the virus, which has halted the entire U.S. sports calendar for about a month. Teams and leagues in all sports are dealing with the economic fallout of having no games, trying to asses the damage through conversations with local health experts, insurance carriers, media networks, sponsors and ticket holders.
The case is Alpha Entertainment LLC, 20-10940, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware
Both XFL 1.0 and XFL 2.0 both lasted only one season. Lots of cost-cutting for the WWE McMahon family in recent days.
