The XFL wont play in 2021, the league announced Thursday, and is targeting a return in the spring of 2022. Co-owner Dwayne Johnson tweeted the news Thursday early morning, and the league followed with a main statement.
Johnson, longtime company partner Dany Garcia and RedBird Capital Partners finished their purchase of the league from Vince McMahon for $15 million in August. At the time, Garcia stated the group was thinking about a 2021 season in a one-city bubble structure. Garcia said at the time that “those discussions are active.”
Eventually, XFL president and chief operating officer Jeffrey Pollack stated in a statement, the league did not wish to hurry its return.
” For the love of football and for the security of our gamers and fans, well be back on the field in 2022,” Pollack stated. “The chance in front of us, with our brand-new ownership, is merely too huge to rush back. We wish to do this correctly with care and thought for everyone who loves football, specifically our gamers, coaches, partners and fans.”
McMahon laid off nearly the whole XFL workforce in April prior to declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The majority of the former workers, including coaches, stay unsettled lenders in the proceedings, and it would have taken an enormous scale-up of labor force– both on the field and off– to be ready to play in its February-April window in the sports calendar. Former commissioner Oliver Luck, meanwhile, remains enmeshed in a wrongful termination suit with McMahon worth $23.8 million.
Due to the fact that of the coronavirus pandemic, the XFL played half of its original 10-game inaugural season in 2020 before suspending its season. McMahon invested roughly $200 million in the league, which he resurrected in 2018 following a 17-year hiatus.
Dwayne The Rock Johnson tweet says XFL plans to return in 2022 – ESPN
