Vince McMahon to Announce Return of XFL

Vince McMahon and his new enterprise Alpha Entertainment are set to announce the return of the XFL Thursday afternoon.

At 3 p.m. ET, Alpha Entertainment will host a live stream with the expectations of renewing Vince McMahon's old professional football project, the XFL. WWE.com made the preliminary announcement.

WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon will make a major sports announcement today at 3 p.m. ET, streaming live from the digital platforms of his new enterprise, Alpha Entertainment.

The live stream will be available via Alpha Entertainment's Twitter (@AlphaEntLLC), Facebook (facebook.com/AlphaEntLLC) and YouTube (youtube.com/alphaentertainment) pages, as well as AlphaEntLLC.com.

BREAKING: @VinceMcMahon will announce later today that his investment company @alphaentllc will start a pro football league. Announcement will be made at 3pm ET on company’s social media pages.

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) January 25, 2018

PWInsider reports that even though McMahon is expected to make the revival official, the XFL will not come back to life until 2020. The two-year cushion is to make sure the league can build proper infrastructure and garner players and coaches. Given that the XFL launched so quickly in 2001 only to burn out after one season, it appears that Vince McMahon is taking a more methodical approach for the reboot.

In December the WWE boss sold 3.34 millions shares of WWE stock, earning him a cool $105 million. The purpose of the cash out is said to help fund "Alpha Entertainment," a company McMahon started independently of WWE.

While that sounds like a ton of money (and it is) Vince's recent transaction only accounts for less than 5% of WWE's shares. However, it may be the perfect kickstarter for the second chapter of the XFL.

Outside of being on the butt end of some snarky jokes, the defunct football league has been off of the radar since it closed its doors. However, the tale of Vince McMahon's failed football league got a jolt of life when ESPN released a highly acclaimed 30 for 30 documentary on the subject in early 2017.