By Jason Powell, Prowrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Vince McMahon’s XFL is interested in having Orlando host a team. The Orlando Sentinel reports that WWE senior vice president John Saboor reached out to Allen Johnson, director of Orlando venues, regarding the possibility.
“We were told that there is preliminary, high-level interest in Orlando and they would get back to us at a later date,” Johnson told the Sentinel. “They did mention in the call that they were aware of the other league (the Alliance) and felt that the Orlando market could support two teams.” Read more at OrlandoSentinel.com.
Powell’s POV: This is the first peep regarding the XFL that I’ve heard in months. The story notes that rival start-up league the Alliance of American Football will have a team in Orlando coached by Florida Gators coaching legend Steve Spurrier. WWE obviously has strong ties with the city and my guess is that they can work out a deal to have the city host a team. The question remains why Vince is moving forward with this league when he was beaten to the punch by Charlie Ebersol’s AAF, which will begin play in 2019 and already has its television deal and infrastructure in place. Is it simply Vince’s stubborn and competitive nature or is there some legitimate reason to believe that he can make this league work despite the similarities in their approaches and the AAF’s one year head start? By the way, it’s hard not to laugh at Vince stating that his project would be separate from WWE when a company executive is making the calls on his behalf and his initial press conference appeared to be a WWE production.
If they pinch dollars it could work.