Report: XFL Creditors Think WWE's Vince McMahon Is Trying To Buy Back The League

Back on April 13, the XFL filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The new American football league ran for five weeks before the coronavirus pandemic forced them to cancel games and the league folded soon after.

Vince McMahon may be looking to revive the league for a third time, however. Daniel Kaplan at The Athletic revealed XFL creditors believe McMahon is trying to buy his league out of Delaware bankruptcy court and think it only folded because he didn't want to pay its operating costs during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

In a series of court filings, a committee of creditors objected to Alpha Entertainment's proposal to pay $3.5 million in season ticket refunds. They wrote: "This is an unnecessary expenditure designed to buttress the Debtor's argument that an abbreviated sales process is required and is being sought to further the efforts of the debtor's controlling equity holder/secured lender, Vincent McMahon ("McMahon"), to acquire the debtor at a fire-sale price… The debtor cannot possibly know at this time whether issuing refunds to season ticket holders will preserve the value of the debtor estate's or benefit any creditor, other than possibly McMahon."

They believe Vince has proposed refunding season tickets to maintain goodwill with fans should the league be revived down the line. Kaplan also reported that XFL President Jeffrey Pollack has reached out to St. Louis and Seattle about reinstating the league's lease agreements on The Dome at America's Center and CenturyLink Field.

The creditors also pointed to the fact that XFL headquarters is still open and executives like Jeffrey Pollack are still being paid. They penned: "Any cash constraints on the debtor are solely the result of unnecessary and unwarranted expenditures by the debtor designed to placate the desires of McMahon, such as the payment... in ticket refunds to unsecured creditors by an estate that allegedly may become administratively insolvent; retention of the debtor’s headquarters in Stamford, Conn, which is across the street from the (headquarters) of McMahon's principal asset, World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. ("WWE"); employees in that locale drawing excessive compensation rates who are not needed for an enterprise that has shut down; and a bloated cost-sharing arrangement with the WWE that has yet to be explained for unspecified finance and accounting services. The... bid procedures are designed to ensure that McMahon can acquire the debtor at a fire-sale price with third parties having little or no meaningful opportunity to do the diligence required to ensure a fair process."