Thinking about starting a new Minor League Football Team in Chicago

[WayneCasey67]

I've just moved to Chicago from Syracuse, NY. Thinking about starting a Minor League Football Team, but there's so many leagues. Not sure which league to look into. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm also going to get involved in Minor League Basketball as well and have narrowed that down to the PBL, IBA and ABA.

Thanks,

WC

[robster2001]

The best answer I can give you is "don't".

Honestly, unless you've got really deep pockets and a willingness to beat your head into a wall, Chicago is not necessarily a market where you want to start another franchise.

Minor league football doesn't really exist (except on a semi-pro level), and Chicago already has multiple indoor franchises, so I'm not sure where you'd find a niche.

The ABA has failed multiple times in multiple locations in greater Chicago, so that's a brand you might want to avoid -- not to mention that you get no help from the "league" at all. See the... oh... thousands of posts here and elsewhere about the failure rate of the ABA.

The PBL is already in Chicagoland -- the Muscle play out of Harper College (a fact which, I gather, not a lot of people there were aware of). I'm sure you'd have no problem finding a gym -- the question is, are there any paying customers?

All kidding aside, I'll end with a more-serious joke - the one that goes "How do you make a small fortune in sports ownership? Start with a large fortune." Unless you are prepared to lose a lot of money early on, with no hope of recouping it, don't even open the doors. You'll save yourself a lot of grief.

On the other hand, if you ARE prepared, with sufficient cash reserves... and you realize this is going to be a very expensive hobby... well, good luck!

[Tommy T]

As for Basketball. the IBA has several teams located in Northern Indiana- Michigan and Eastern Illinois. They are very well organized and have decent officials...at least I like to think so. South Bend, Indiana has the need for something like an IBA team. The Elkhart Express of the defunct IBL did very well at North Side Gym. Very powerful team and a very larg following, even on the road....poor management led to their demise. When you get money hungry and spend more than you make you have a tendency to get into trouble. A little advertising and it would go a long way.
This could also be said for arena or indoor football. Several franchises in the CIFL are doing quite well because of good managment and the possibilities of expansion are very good.
As for minor league or semi pro football, the Mid States Football League does very well as far as being organized. Like any of the minor league sports, the ownerships forget the two thing that bring in the fans....ADVERTISING...if they don't know you are playing...you can't expect them to show up
The second item is entertainment between quarters and during timeouts. These can also be used to fuel more revenue. Without thse two items you will bleed money out your nose.

[newiflfan]

Originally Posted by Tommy T

This could also be said for arena or indoor football. Several franchises in the CIFL are doing quite well because of good managment and the possibilities of expansion are very good.

Quite well?! Several franchises?! What are you on?

Port Huron slashed player pay resulting in a mass exedous of players. Owner then canned his coaching staff, bringing in some local semi-pro coaches, while making himself head coach. Attendance has been regularly below the 1000/game mark.

Indy recently had less than 1/3 of their roster travel to a game in Port Huron, forcing them to scramble to slap together a squad of local semi-pro players, and two guys from the Port Huron roster.

Chicago changed ownership and team name midway through the season. They haven't played a home game yet, as their handful of home dates have either been switched to road games or outright cancelled.

Saginaw is the only team that I would consider to be doing well. Evansville might be doing ok. Dayton's winning games, but they've also had ownership bail, so I can't say things are all fine and dandy in Silverbacksland.