It’s warm inside San Antonio’s Alamodome an hour before kickoff for the XFL Championship Game on May 13 when a commotion draws fans out of their seats and towards the field. The sparse crowd, which by game time will grow to a bordering-on-respectable 22,754, has their phones out, ready to record the moment. They’ve spotted the XFL’s 6-foot-5-inch weapon against its main competition, rival spring league USFL, and its best shot at profitability — Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The world’s biggest movie star is waving and pointing into the stands as he walks toward the sideline with Dany Garcia, long-business partner and ex-wife, who first asked him, in the pandemic summer of 2020, whether he was interested in her “crazy idea” of buying and running the XFL.
“You don’t call Dwayne Johnson and say, ‘I have a decent idea,’” Garcia told Forbes. “It’s got to be big, important and meaningful for him.”
With fellow investors Disney and RedBird Capital Partners, Garcia and Johnson paid $23.5 million to take control of the bankrupt XFL through a joint venture holding company, Alpha Acquico. The payment includes $8.5 million to settle previous XFL debt. The league wouldn’t disclose what percentages the individual stakeholders control.
Johnson, 51, who was a defensive lineman at the University of Miami before his professional wrestling career and Hollywood, considers it “a league of opportunity” for guys, like him, who played college ball but never made it to the NFL. At Miami, Johnson lost his starting job to Warren Sapp — a future NFL Hall of Famer — but he thought his name might still be called in the 1995 NFL draft. It wasn’t. “Football was my dream,” Johnson told Forbes. “The NFL was my thing. I was going to buy my parents their first house.” Already, the NFL has signed 26 XFL players. “Football didn’t end on my terms,” Johnson said. “I wish I’d had the XFL when I was coming out.” “It completes that circle,” Garcia said.
Dany Garcia at an XFL game in March. (Photo by Joe Petro/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The XFL lost an estimated $60 million in 2023, according to industry sources, and cut some jobs. Next season, the league projects $100 million in revenue, said people familiar with its finances. About a quarter of its income comes from ESPN, which pays the league $20 million per season.
That there will be a second season at all puts it ahead of more than a couple past attempts at professional spring football leagues. Ownership told Forbes the XFL has capital commitments in place for years one through four, and the league has signed sponsorships with national brands such as Progressive PGR +0.2%and Under Armor.
“We’re extremely well-capitalized for the long-term,” said Garcia, the XFL’s chair. “This is our new WWE. The next massive live property.”
If spring leagues had a graveyard, the XFL would have two tombstones. The 2001 maiden voyage by NBC and World Wrestling Entertainment impresario Vince McMahon, which fans will forever remember as the “He Hate Me” season, resulted in the TV network losing $50 million and a shuttering after one season. Years later, McMahon spent over $200 million to relaunch the league, reportedly committing another $500 million to fund it, and added Fox FOXA +0.9% and ESPN as partners. But the pandemic had other ideas, and the shortened 2021 season would be XFL 2.0’s one and only.
