WWE: McMahon to Spend $500M on First 3 Years of XFL, Tryouts Update

Vince McMahon Expected to Spend $500 Million on XFL in First Three Seasons

ESPN has a story about how Vince McMahon is expected to spend $500 million over the first three years of the new XFL, which is set to begin its first season in February 2020.

The WWE chairman, who began funding the league by selling approximately $100 million in WWE stock and putting it into his wholly owned subsidiary Alpha Entertainment, has informed insiders that he expects to spend closer to $500 million in the league’s first three seasons. The XFL is scheduled to reboot in February 2020.

“People were focused on the $100 million, but the truth is that doesn’t even get us to the 20-yard line,” league CEO and commissioner Oliver Luck told ESPN. Luck accepted the job June 5 and starts at his office across the street from WWE headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, on Monday.

Luck said the biggest cost will be the salaries to pay players and coaches. He said that the average salary for the 40-man rosters will hover around $75,000, with players who 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.

WWE Tryouts

As mentioned, WWE held tryouts last week at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando and two of the names there were former Impact wrestlers Chelsea Green (Laurel Van Ness) and Robert Strauss (Robbie E).

WWE acknowledged this today with a post on their website, naming Green and Strauss among all the other tryouts.

Impact wasn’t mentioned directly in the post. Green was announced as a “Tough Enough alumna.”

Tough Enough alumna Chelsea Green, a four-year wrestling veteran and product of Lance Storm’s Storm Wrestling Academy in Canada. Prior to wrestling, Green was a standout in soccer, track, volleyball, basketball and dance. She competed in the 2015 edition of WWE’s competition reality series and has since wrestled in Japan, Mexico and India, among other countries. Green has also done stunt work in movies and commercials.