Tuesday evening, KSDK Channel 5 reported that the XFL will bring a team to St. Louis as part of its revival in 2020. It will be one of eight cities around the nation that will receive teams. The other seven are expected to be announced sometime next week.

KSDK Channel 5 has confirmed the new St. Louis XFL team will play 10 games in its inaugural 2020 season. Five of those will be played at the Dome at America’s Center.

With the Rams arguably the best team in the NFL just two years removed from having ‘St. Louis’ in front of their name, the hurt in the hearts of football fans in eastern Missouri has presumably traveled even deeper. This may help ease some of the pain.

The Rams’ last game at the then-Edward Jones Dome was a 31-23 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Dec. 17, 2015.

Vince McMahon’s announcement that the XFL will be back in 2020 piqued the curiosity of many people. It came at a perfect time because there was fresh interest in the subject matter thanks to ESPN’s 30 For 30 documentary on the shelved football league. Although the XFL only lasted a season and drew worse ratings each week some people held a fondness for the nostalgia.

Revisiting an idea like the XFL is an expensive venture to pursue which is why Vince McMahon sold $100 million worth of WWE stock in December 2017 to fund the league. This might have been a good start but ESPN reports Vince McMahon informed insiders he actually expects to spend close to a $500 million price tag in the first three years on the revamped football league.

Oliver Luck was announced as the XFL’s CEO and he will officially move into his offices across from WWE’s Titan Towers on Monday. The league still hasn’t picked any cities to play in but they’re already selling merchandise from the XFL online store. This kind of early exposure could help immensely and determine interest, but there is a lot more work to do and money to be spent.

“People were focused on the $100 million, but the truth is that doesn’t even get us to the 20-yard line,” Oliver Luck said while making a football analogy to compare the funds required to restart the XFL.

Oliver Luck revealed player salaries would average around $75,000. Players who are in more demand stand to make more than the average, but players’ and coaches’ salaries stand to be the biggest cost for the league. The $75,000 average is well above the last incarnation of the XFL where players normally made around $45,000, but it’s still far from NFL paydays.

The official Twitter account for the reboot of the XFL football league financed by WWE chairman Vince McMahon asked for fan feedback on Thursday about what eight cities should have team and why for the inaugural season of the league that is tentatively scheduled to take place in 2020.

Despite competition from another upstart football league, a WWE executive has reached out to officials in Orlando hoping to put an XFL team in their city.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, WWE’s senior vice president of special events John Saboor contacted Orlando’s executive director of venues about the prospect of putting a team in Camping World Stadium.

It’s worth noting that Vince McMahon initially claimed WWE and XFL would be separate entities, but clearly that’s not the case if WWE employees are working on the new league.

The article also mentions that the XFL’s attempt might be difficult to pull off though, because Charlie Ebersol’s Alliance of American football — which kicks off one year before the XFL does — has already announced that they will have a team in Orlando.

WWE is confident, however, that both league’s can co-exist there.

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet