The end of the XFL? League suspends all operations, lays off all employees
Published:
The coronavirus may have just killed the XFL.
During a Friday teleconference, the XFL announced that all league operations have been suspended and all league employees have been laid off following the coronavirus pandemic. There reportedly are no firm plans in place to carry the league moving forward to 2021.
The first season of the rebooted XFL had to be canceled in the middle of the season due to the coronavirus a few weeks ago.
Multiple reports indicate the status of the league is unclear at this time.
Employees are being paid through Sunday. After that, could be curtains. There was no discussion of when operations could restart, source says. https://t.co/nfaRuVPngC
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) April 10, 2020
https://twitter.com/KonnorFulk_XFL/status/1248644516434845696
Now word comes from two sources that the XFL has suspended operations.
— Ben Fischer (@BenFischerSBJ) April 10, 2020
375 people on the conference call spreading the bad news about XFL, so obviously not much effort to keep things a secret. Not much to spin here.
— Ben Fischer (@BenFischerSBJ) April 10, 2020
If this is it for the XFL, the league would have failed to get off the ground in both of its attempts to do so as the league first debuted back in 2001 and did not make it to a second season.
The latest edition of the XFL followed the AAF, which debuted during the spring of 2019 but did not even manage to make the end of its first season due to financial issues that torpedoed that league.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
