Lions owners work hard towards March 10 opener
January 24, 2007 - World Indoor Football League 2 (WIFL 2)
Columbus Lions News Release
COLUMBUS, GA, January 24 -- Thoughts of enjoying games from a hospitality suite with feet up and drinks in hand are furthermost from the minds of Columbus Lions owners as ten investors are living, breathing and toiling in the business of professional football like some perhaps never envisioned.
"The hardest-working ownership group in sports" wouldn't be inaccurate to describe six Columbus businessmen, one businesswoman and three majority partners in Daytona Beach, furiously using their talents and connections to help a small front-office staff make the new World Indoor Football League franchise succeed, where two others before it this decade came and went.
Zack McDonald, his brother Kevin McDonald and Antone Smothers already own and operate the Daytona Beach Thunder, one of the Lions' opponents. Dissatisfied with the operation of the league he was in last year, McDonald gathered several like-minded owners and broke away to form the WIFL, a league predicated on high standards of professionalism, financial and ethical conduct.
Zack McDonald's workload includes league issues such as arena leases, scheduling and future expansion, in addition to running TUI Business Machines, the Thunder and building the Lions' local owners group. Kevin handles the accounting side and certain marketing functions, while Smothers contributes sales expertise. The three spend most of their time in Daytona Beach, but having already run a successful season there, offer a strong model for the Lions to emulate, using many ideas and methods that have worked well for the Thunder. When time allows, they travel to Columbus to help here.
As McDonald learned his way around Columbus, he met and was introduced to a series of community-minded folks who were passionate about football and felt that highly motivated and involved local ownership could make the difference in creating a long-term viable franchise at the Civic Center.
Gradually, McDonald sold shares of the Lions to seven local individuals -- and he may not be done yet.
They include Angela and Joe Wagenti, owners of Vroooom Technology, a full-service web development/hosting company with a great local success story as a small start-up firm that's grown tremendously in the past eight years. Angela has a long history of dance team choreography dating back to years with the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and the Columbus Wardolls. But she's doing much more than reprising her role managing the Columbus Lions dance team, having taken on the Lions' sales management responsibilities, using the networking skills gained from years of being a major player with the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce.
Angela juggles a hectic schedule as wife, mother, business partner, dance coach and master motivator. Joe Wagenti, meanwhile, lives an equally busy life, as the couple bought two hosting companies in 2006 and opened a new office in Atlanta with a partner. Joe manages the operations of all their businesses, yet they are a close team within every venture, especially the Lions.
Shep Mullin, owner of Premier Realtors of Columbus, has always been a big football fan and supporter of Columbus' football teams. He's stepped up his involvement, providing encouragement and sales leads to the staff and enjoying his increased time spent around the team.
You'd think Kike Seda had earned the right to relax a bit after building A-1 Postage Meters and Shipping Systems from a start-up to a very prominent regional business over the past seventeen years. He's actually increased his civic involvement and sports sponsorships, and was delighted to join the ownership, mainly to help stabilize its future and watch the Lions thrive in the community. Son and company president Skip Seda, an equally fervent football fan, came on board shortly afterward. He's a talented website coordinator for the Lions, while Kike is a master door-opener who commands respect and earns friendship from all who get to know him.
It's also not a bad idea to have a former football coach in the owners group. That would be Keith Norred, an Auburn graduate who later coached the Hardaway High Hawks and at several other schools before starting Global Personnel Services in 1997. In addition to helping bring a number of his clients into the Lions' family of sponsors, Keith has been invaluable to Head Coach Jason Gibson on scouting and recruiting trips around Georgia and Alabama.
The most recent addition to the Lions ownership is John Hargrove, a former Johnson and Johnson executive with considerable marketing, management and strategic planning experience. John has been instrumental in securing youth-oriented speakers like Coach Carter and "Rudy" Ruettiger in the past couple of years for the Columbus Sports Council. He has immediately become involved with youth and community-oriented opportunities for the Lions' upcoming season which promises to reinforce the mission of a family-oriented and youth-focused experience at the Lions games.
That's ten hard-working owners, teaming up with fulltime sales, operations and coaching staff to make the Lions' first season so good, it leads to many more. And then, but only then, might they consider kicking back on the balcony and hoisting a beverage while toasting the fruits of their hard labor!
Visit www.columbuslions.net and click on "Front Office" for a photo of the local owners group.
World Indoor Football League 2 Stories from January 24, 2007
- Lions owners work hard towards March 10 opener - Columbus Lions
- Lions 2007 schedule, ticket prices official - Columbus Lions
- Thunder training camp report day two: QB battle - Daytona Beach Thunder
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