Pifl

The National Indoor Football League (NIFL) forum
outside source
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Post by outside source » Fri Jun 02, 2006 8:06 pm

OK, my partner is probably going to kill me for all of this, but I do have the controlling interest. The PIFL is not designed to be a "not for profit" concern. It is very much profit oiented and motivated. If it works out, yes I will benefit financially, but at the same time our teams will benefit greatly financially as well as we will be a full profit sharing enity.

I believe a league is just like its teams, needs to generate income to insure its own survival. The better we can generate, the more we can give back to the teams financially and in the way of league support.

We have dues set up, but I'd love to be able to say in the second year, forget the dues, we don't need them.

This is where my partner kills me, we have promised a very large dollar amount in national name brand sponsor money, sponsors 99% of everybody will know. I say promised as its not in the bank and contingent on us actually proving were for real. Promises were also made to be broken I've learned.

My partner has worked tirelessly on the sponsor thing for several months and continues to work it now just as hard.

Unlike some other leagues we do believe in franchise fees, high but not excessive ones. I personally believe the more an owner has invested, the harder he or she will work to insure their investment. Unlike some other leagues, we're not going to promise to share the wealth on expansion fees. Yes, some of that will go to qualified or vested member teams, but part will also go into funds designed to help teams in trouble and to further the league in other areas.

Yes, we have a very ambitious plan for success, not short term, but long term. It may be too ambitious to ever work, but as I've said before, no sense doing it if you're not going to do it right.

Also keep in mind that we are currently working in dark back rooms under a cloak of secrecy. There's only so much I can share, but if I could open up 100% right now, people would be amazed at what is on the table waiting for us to prove we are for real.

The bottom line is we believe we can offer allot of what the af2 says they offer and still allow our teams to have more or less full control at a budget much like the NIFL, AIFL, UIF or any of the indoor leagues currently going.

Disclaimer: All plans subject to change without notice :)

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preeths
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Post by preeths » Fri Jun 02, 2006 8:32 pm

CoS, all that's well and good, but if your league hinges on rich people throwing away their money and not caring because they're rich, that's not really a plan. There isn't any kind of celebrity status in being an indoor football owner, not outside the local market anyway.

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Post by yellowpages » Fri Jun 02, 2006 9:31 pm

Indoor football is one of the fastest growing sports out there. Not counting AFL/AF2, there are 50+ indoor teams across 5 leagues. No outdoor spring league has every made it period. Heck, NFL Europe is struggling.

I think the timing is right for a solid indoor league. Whether it comes to pass is yet to be seen. I hope the PIFL can deliver. It's right to focus on the midsize markets and not try to go into the bigger markets. River City Rage have proven that it's tough. Expenses are much higher as well as rental of the venues.

The AFL has its niche. If successful, I think the PIFL can find its niche between the AFL and the AF2 and become a true "AAA" level league.

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Post by BananaCat » Fri Jun 02, 2006 9:48 pm

I think Champ has some good points. However, I don't think a league like he suggests would work without backing from either ESPN or NFL. I would think ESPN might get involved if the right proposol was given to them. I think the NFL will eventually get involved one day if a strong indoor league doesn't emerge over time, if only to use it as a developmental league.
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TalonFan7
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Post by TalonFan7 » Fri Jun 02, 2006 9:56 pm

why are the league headquarters in vegas, and do you actually have an office set up and working towards the 2007 kickoff?

if huge interest sparks and teams are wanting to join left and right....where do you roughly plan on capping the 2007 franchise amount?

any talk on how to recruit officials for the games?

you might not be able to talk about this question much, but out of the cities and owners that have shown interest are they mostly markets that current other indoor league/arena teams operate in or are they markets without current indoor/arena franchises that have wanted teams for quite some time but havent found an appropriate league until now? more than likely a blend?

thanks jerry, love your columns and even though im a die hard af2 fan i keep up with the indoor world and wish you luck on your venture.

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Post by GoAces » Fri Jun 02, 2006 10:15 pm

Why not start a women's indoor football league? Some of the teams from the NIFL could compete real well.

But being serious I would like to see a league where the owners are checked and venues are put into place before the season starts. Oh wait, if that happened in the NIFL my city wouldn't have a team, never mind..

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preeths
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Post by preeths » Fri Jun 02, 2006 10:22 pm

Can't answer for Jerry, but the original PIFL was also headquartered in Vegas. Cheap airfare was one driving reason. Plus, you don't have to beg too many owners to show up for meetings.

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Post by goguard88 » Fri Jun 02, 2006 10:45 pm

GoAces wrote:Why not start a women's indoor football league? Some of the teams from the NIFL could compete real well.
Ouch. Talk about a low blow. I wouldn't even be that cold. ;)

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Post by DestroyersFan » Fri Jun 02, 2006 11:20 pm

ChampionOfSteel wrote:Again, it won't be Jerry H's money at work here. The financial committment between a 50 man football squad versus a 25 man squad is huge. The Dr. Ted Dietrich's fly to owners meetings at a whim. We are not looking at the semi pro owners. We are dealing with filthy rich folks.
Who? Most business plans that hinge on "we'll just find some filthy rich folks" aren't very pragmatic.

While the biggest problem with the NIFL and AIFL have been owners that lack funds, you can't plan on finding a bunch of owners who are willing to just lose money just because they have money to lose.
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Post by outside source » Fri Jun 02, 2006 11:55 pm

We believe the league should exist only for the support of the teams, not the teams exist to support the league as in some leagues, at least in my opinion that's what it looks like to me.

I've seen one budget of a competing league and some of the costs don't make since, all they do is bleed money from the teams that could be used better.

Paul is about 100% correct on Vegas. It seemed like a logical choice. We had also discussed Salt Lake City and DEnver, but desert won out over snow. Plan is for me to go there soon to set up shop, but it's just not time yet.

Go Aces has a point on women, but seems fans just don't want to turn out in the needed numbers to look at that as being successful. Not being sexist, just realistic.

On officials, I admit we're not that far along, but we have thought about contacting the NFL or the NCAA to see if they had any recomendations for a head official.

I'm going to add this, even though not really asked. It's been rumored for over a year that the NFL might be interested in using indoor as a development league. I heard Jerry Jones myself say it look like indoor football, not Arena could be the way to put football in the Oympics and he even said there are those working towards that goal.

I think the NFL gave indoor football a chance with the NIFL/NFL officiating deal and because of problems scrapped it after one year. I think the possibility of the NFL getting involved again is there, but somebody, some league, has to prove that it lives up to their professional standards. Nobody seemed to like the officiating deal, so I'm not sure we'd be interested if we were approached, but there again I don't know if it was the NFL system that broke down or the NIFLs. I know the NFL put up some pretty good money to give it a try.

We're trying to be cautiously optimistic, but we are probably further along than we think we are. We think we are seriously behind, but we are not always the most patient either.

Even if our plan doesn't take off, maybe some of our ideas will stick and be picked up by other leagues. That wouldn't be such a bad thing in my opinion. Not as good as doing it ourselves, but better than nothing.

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