According to Jeffrey Pollack, President and Chief Operating Officer of the XFL, via Bloomberg, we have been given a reminder that the XFL was a valued entity and will be sold to the highest bidder.
“We are in the middle of a sale process,” Pollack said. “Bids are due July 30. In just a few short weeks here we’ll know the future of the XFL, who the new owner will be, and hopefully we’ll be headed to relaunch at the right time.”
On July 30th, the bidding process will be complete, and the new owners of the XFL will be announce in early August.
“Were it not for the pandemic, we would have had a phenomenal first season and I would say probably the best launch of a new sports league in the last 30 years, if not ever,” Pollack said.
In the Bloomberg interview, Pollack went on to talk about how the XFL got to where it is today.
“We launched on February 8 this past year. Everything was starting to work and click in a really good way, and unfortunately like so many other sports and entertainment properties and so many other businesses the pandemic really put a hard stop on everything that we were doing and we subsequently filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and that’s the process we’re working through right now.”
“The decision to stop the season, the decision to file bankruptcy, both decisions were heartbreaking and frankly unimaginable,” Pollack said. “Our shutdown and our bankruptcy filing had nothing to do with anything other than the pandemic. Our business was working, our proof of concept was successful, and we were on our way to a phenomenal first season.”
How the @xfl2020 went from launching a promising new sports league to bankruptcy in just 2 months due to #Covid19.
From Mike Mitchell, and a well-placed source, the XFL was on track to make $46M in revenue for the 2020 season, but only made $20M for the partial season they played.
Today, in a wide ranging article about bankruptcies in the USA, Bloomberg reported, “Vince McMahon, lost tens of millions of dollars in revenue when it canceled the remainder of the XFL season and fired about 500 football players. As it prepared to file bankruptcy, McMahon lent the company $9 million with its assets as collateral, but he withdrew his bid to buy it out of bankruptcy in time for the 2021 season after other creditors complained. Now the company hopes to sell itself to another buyer in an auction next month.”
2 thoughts on “XFL President Jeffrey Pollack: Hopefully we’ll be headed to a relaunch at the right time”
Hopefully the XFL comes back I loved everything about the league . Go guardians.
The XFL saw a steady decline in TV viewership every week. ESPN averaged 2.9 million viewers per game for their first two games, and 800,000 viewers per game for their final two games in week five. It makes sense to believe the XFL would have been pulling in WNBA TV ratings by the end of the season. That’s not horrendous, but it’s not great. Good luck in selling the rights.
Hopefully the XFL comes back I loved everything about the league . Go guardians.
The XFL saw a steady decline in TV viewership every week. ESPN averaged 2.9 million viewers per game for their first two games, and 800,000 viewers per game for their final two games in week five. It makes sense to believe the XFL would have been pulling in WNBA TV ratings by the end of the season. That’s not horrendous, but it’s not great. Good luck in selling the rights.