By CultureBanx Team
- Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Dany Garcia and RedBird Capital have completed their $15M acquisition of the XFL
- The XFL averaged 1.9 million television viewers per game and generated nearly gross revenues of $20M in 2020
Spring football’s biggest sensation is on its way back, thanks to the pending XFL deal that closed on Friday. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Dany Garcia and RedBird Capital have completed their $15 million acquisition of the once bankrupt pro football league. With Johnson’s new iteration of the he XFL comes new rules, new television contracts and an opportunity to tap into the market that made the NFL $8.78 billion during the 2018-2019 season.
Why This Matters: The XFL, like the NFL, is more than 70% black when it comes to players, with two of the league’s eight teams being helmed by black head coaches/general managers. Player contracts are directly correlated to how successful a league is, so The Rock and crew must sign a new television contract and consider a schedule when it’s appropriate to return to play. This will be imperative, because prior to the shutdown the XFL was projected to bring in $46 million in gross revenues for the 10-game season, but suspended play after five weeks, according to court filings. In reality the league averaged 1.9 million television viewers per game and generated nearly $20 million in gross revenues in 2020.
Prior to the shutdown the XFL was projected to bring in $46 million in gross revenues
Since Johnson and his investors got the league for a steal, they should be able to capitalize as the XFL already had Disney (DIS -0.53%) owned ESPN and ABC, along with Fox as its broadcasting partners. They should easily be able to re-start those sports TV contracts. Not to mention that as a single-entity league, Sports Illustrated reported that all revenue from television rights, ticket sales and endorsements went straight to the XFL to be distributed. This is drastically different from how privately-owned NFL teams mix league-wide revenue sharing with local revenue.
What’s Next: This sale was complicated by the fact that thousands of creditors claimed they were owed money by the XFL, after it declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in April. Ownership of the new XFL has agreed to assume previous debt, including the payment of cure amounts up to $9.2 million for designated contracts, according to Sportico. The Rock and RedBird Capital are making plans to play next season, according to ESPN.
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