Vince McMahon's XFL Already Butting Heads With AAF In Orlando?, WWE Official Reaches Out About Team
The Orlando Sentinel reports that officials from Vince McMahon's XFL have reached out to to the city of Orlando about possibly bringing one of the XFL football teams to Camping World Stadium.
The potential Orlando XFL team is causing some drama as the Alliance of American Football (AAF) announced last month that they will be putting one of their new teams in the University of Central Florida's Spectrum Stadium. Legendary coach Steve Spurrier of the Florida Gators will be coaching the AAF Orlando team. To get an idea of the drama in the headlines, the Sentinel asked if we might see "Vince McMahon vs. Steve Spurrier in a Loser-Leave-Town match for Orlando's Heavyweight Championship of Professional Football" soon.
As we've noted, McMahon is looking at bringing the XFL back in January 2020 while the AAF plans to launch in February 2019.
It was believed that XFL and WWE would run separate for the most part but Allen Johnson, Executive Director of Orlando's venues, confirmed to the Sentinel that John Saboor, WWE's Senior Vice President of Special Events, was the one that recently reached out about an XFL team in Orlando.
"We were told that there is preliminary, high-level interest in Orlando and they would get back to us at a later date," Johnson said. "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."
Johnson noted that the city has often received phone calls about pro football teams possibly coming to Orlando over the years but they are excited about the reincarnation of Vince's XFL because usually the discussions don't get past the early conversations. Orlando officials know Vince has the cash flow to make a league happen, plus they recognize the success he has had with various local events, including two major WrestleMania shows.
"We're always excited about events that we can add to the great variety of events that we already have at Camping World Stadium," Johnson said about Vince possibly bringing a team to the home of WrestleMania 24 and WrestleMania 33. "The XFL would be a welcome addition."