The Rock now owns the XFL.
The pending deal closed Friday to acquire the once bankrupt pro football league with Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia and RedBird Capital Partners chief executive Gerry Cardinale as owners, the league announced.
The group led by Johnson, the star of television and film, bought the failing league for $15 million from Vince McMahon’s Alpha Entertainment, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April.
That move came shortly after all professional and collegiate sports ceased play because of the coronavirus spreading across North America. The XFL didn’t complete its inaugural season.
According to Sportico, the new group has also agreed to assume debt, including the payment of cure amounts up to $9.2 million for designated contracts.
The sale was complicated by the fact that thousands of creditors claimed they were owed money by Alpha. A committee representing unsecured creditors filed an objection to the pending sale, arguing that it failed to maximize the sale price and unwittingly transferred assets to the buyer without accompanying compensation.
That has now all been resolved, placing the league squarely in the hands of the new group, which now must sign a new television contract and consider a schedule when it’s appropriate to return to play. The XFL is a spring league and is not in competition with the NFL, which now has teams in training camps and is set to open Sept. 10.
“We want to thank those who helped make this possible behind the scenes, including: Grant Tani Barash & Altman; PJT Partners; Sidley Austin LLP; Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP; Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, LLP; and Houlihan Lokey,” the XFL said in a statement.
