XFL Suspends Operations, Lays Off All Employees
Photo Credit: Alpha Entertainment
For the second time in the brand’s history, the XFL is no more. League COO Jeffery Pollock reportedly informed XFL employees of all stripes that they were out of a job, as the football league was suspending operations due to the global coronavirus pandemic. While this doesn’t fold the company entirely, it does make things extremely difficult for an organization that was just finding its legs as the crisis struck.
NEWS: on a call today with COO Jeffery Pollock, XFL employees were just informed that the league is suspending operations and all employees have been laid off. Another sport impacted further by the current COVID-19 crisis.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) April 10, 2020
Vince McMahon announced the reformation of the XFL in May of 2018. He formed a new company, Alpha Entertainment, to oversee the alternative football league, operating in the same window after the NFL’s regular season that the original incarnation took advantage of in the early 2000s. Unlike that league, 2020’s XFL didn’t rely on theatrics or other pro wrestling trickery and looked to possibly fit into a niche that several other smaller sports leagues have occupied in the past.
The future for the league is up in the air, as are many things in the sporting world. What is known is that Vince did what he promised to do, and not even a McMahon could predict the world-shifting changes we’re all going through. Here’s to a third revival somewhere down the road.
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