Report: Vince Rejected Merger With AAF In December of 2018

The Alliance of American Football approached Vince McMahon about an AAF/XFL merger in December of 2018 before their inaugural season started according to a report from Sports Business Daily. The AAF abruptly ended their season with only two weeks remaining of a ten game season. The XFL is set to kick off play in February of 2020.

Sports Business Daily notes the AAF had already run out of funds before they even kicked off their first game in February of this year. That is why the Alliance of American Football approached Vince about a possible merger. Reggie Fowler, a former USFL player, and the AAF’s primary investor did not deliver on a $28 million payment to the league at the end of 2018. Without proper capital, this led to a scramble for funds and a reach out to the XFL. Vince rejected the idea which led to NFL Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon stepping up as the principal investor and saving the league for the time being. Dundon committed $250 million to the AAF, but with losses at $10 million per week, the decision was made to scrap the league entirely.

McMahon is funding the XFL with his own money from WWE stock sales. The inaugural teams representing the XFL are the cities of St. Louis, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle, Tampa Bay, Dallas, and Washington D.C. These are major market areas. The AAF teams were in secondary markets, plus with money problems to start. The league was of no interest to Vince and the XFL.