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cincodemayo1

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Isn't this what was just done for MyFootballClub? We (I own one share) just purchased Ebsfleet United FC. Great idea, wondered why it wasn't done before.

MyFootballClub

Hey Hawk36,

Yeah, we learned about them while doing our research. It's a bit different in that you pay more upfront for MyFootballClub and then you become an annual owner (tell me if I'm wrong), but fees renew yearly and cost is about £35 (more or less $70). Instead, we want to offer a small vote price of $5 for a lifetime vote (until the team dies or is sold).

Personally, I like the UK model, but we think our cheaper model will get more people involved.

How is your experience with MyFootballClub? I'd love to hear more about how you like it, how and if it works, etc.

Lot's of fun so far. Only problem is getting Ebsfleet gear. Have had scarfs on back order now for the past month. Now that they're owned by thousands, seems they will need to increase the production of their merchandise quantities to meet the demand of new owners who want to sport the team gear.

Glad to hear it's good...sucks about the backorder merch, though. How's the UI and voting work?

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This is actually a pretty clever idea.

I suggest you approach the Northern League about a pro baseball franchise. They've already let the players decide the outcome of a league game via XBox (yes, it counted in the standings), so I can't see why they'd say no to an idea like this one.

Welcome to DrunjFlix

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Glad to hear it's good...sucks about the backorder merch, though. How's the UI and voting work?

Not to have a crummy attitude, but if you are really serious about this, you and your friends should pony up the $70 or so it costs to by a share of Ebbsfleet for the sake of research. That way you would truly understand how its working for them, as this is one of the most serious attempts at this concept.

On a side note, English Football has to be the best for this idea to work. For those not familiar, in England (and other major football/soccer leagues) teams are promoted and demoted based on the previous year's standings. For example, if the Indianapolis Indians (AAA) won their league, they would go to the majors and assuming the Kansas City Royals were the last place finisher of the Majors, they would go to AAA.

The reason I say this is the best is that the fans have a larger goal. For example, if I own a ABA, the best result would be my team winning the league and not having a logo drawn by a child. However, with English Soccer, if we won our league we would move up a level and try against better teams. So you could buy a cheap team in the 3rd or 4th division and over time work your way up to the top division.

Just my thoughts...

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This is actually a pretty clever idea.

I suggest you approach the Northern League about a pro baseball franchise. They've already let the players decide the outcome of a league game via XBox (yes, it counted in the standings), so I can't see why they'd say no to an idea like this one.

Great idea! Thanks for the suggestion...we'll check it out!

Sign up at projectfranchise.org to be posted on our progress and to find out what league we ultimately decide on!

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Isn't this what was just done for MyFootballClub? We (I own one share) just purchased Ebsfleet United FC. Great idea, wondered why it wasn't done before.

MyFootballClub

Me too!

And as for the annual membership, yes, it is annual, but with 50k folks ponying up 35 quid apiece, that's about $3.5 million (1.75 million Pounds Sterling) a year going into the club's coffers off the top, which is quite a handy kitty where most clubs of similar size are lucky to have that in terms of gross income in a year. IMO a yearly membership fee would be a slam dunk way to keep your franchise well-funded.

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Glad to hear it's good...sucks about the backorder merch, though. How's the UI and voting work?

Not to have a crummy attitude, but if you are really serious about this, you and your friends should pony up the $70 or so it costs to by a share of Ebbsfleet for the sake of research. That way you would truly understand how its working for them, as this is one of the most serious attempts at this concept.

On a side note, English Football has to be the best for this idea to work. For those not familiar, in England (and other major football/soccer leagues) teams are promoted and demoted based on the previous year's standings. For example, if the Indianapolis Indians (AAA) won their league, they would go to the majors and assuming the Kansas City Royals were the last place finisher of the Majors, they would go to AAA.

The reason I say this is the best is that the fans have a larger goal. For example, if I own a ABA, the best result would be my team winning the league and not having a logo drawn by a child. However, with English Soccer, if we won our league we would move up a level and try against better teams. So you could buy a cheap team in the 3rd or 4th division and over time work your way up to the top division.

Just my thoughts...

Awesome breakdown...yeah, joining MyFootballClub is something I might do, I just didn't want to be influenced by their idea as we're trying to differentiate ourselves, but it's worth checking out.

Thanks again for the comments and I hope you guys sign up to projectfranchise.org - I definitely want fans who know what they're talking about!

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I have to concur with most of the people that have said, you really need a rotating membership fee, even if it's small... (say, $20 to initially buy the (non-voting) stock, but then if you paid $10 a year you'd have voting rights, or something along those lines).

Also, you really want to look at the independent leagues, something like the USL or an independent baseball league. If you look at affiliated teams, your potential owners will have their hands tied by the parent club, which would get away from the experience you have wanted to provide.

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This sounds like an interesting idea, but I would like to strongly dissuade you from pursuing minor league basketball. At this point, the ABA has done so much damage to the sport that it won't be fixed for a couple of decades.

Similarly-indoor football would not be a wise investment.

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Also, you really want to look at the independent leagues, something like the USL or an independent baseball league. If you look at affiliated teams, your potential owners will have their hands tied by the parent club, which would get away from the experience you have wanted to provide.

I have to agree with this - but baseball's the best option for running a club independently nowadays.

You're going to run into an issue with respect to controlling the club - most U.S. sports leagues require an owner with at least 51% control over the club's voting interests. This is easily achieved however: the club is purchased by Entity A, which is in turn a wholly-owned subsidiary of Entity B. Entity B is what you're selling membership interests in. Entity B in turn has two classes of membership - a Class A member, which holds the required 51%, and Class B members, who collectively hold the remainder. You then place in your governing instruments a proviso that the Class A membership is obligated to be voted along with the majority vote of the Class B membership interests.

Sounds more complicated than it is, but odds are it'll be necessary to achieve what you're trying to do.

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I have to concur with most of the people that have said, you really need a rotating membership fee, even if it's small... (say, $20 to initially buy the (non-voting) stock, but then if you paid $10 a year you'd have voting rights, or something along those lines).

Also, you really want to look at the independent leagues, something like the USL or an independent baseball league. If you look at affiliated teams, your potential owners will have their hands tied by the parent club, which would get away from the experience you have wanted to provide.

Thanks for all the posts guys. Sorry I've been away from the boards for a few days...we're trying to hammer down site design so we can launch in the next week or two. The full site will have our voting page, news, a blog, forums, etc.

But I wanted to let you know we're tweaking out buy in and voting system. For $10/vote annually, you'll now be able to play GM and vote towards as many decisions as we can possibly let you. We'll also offer a free membership where once registered, you'll have your very own GM profile, you can comment on blogs, share ideas in the forums, rants, etc. Again, we're working out butts of trying to launch ASAP.

The idea have been really well received thus far. We were picked up by a ton of blogs and a very famous newspaper might print us up soon...more on that later.

But it's honestly guys like you who have such strong opinions who are going to make this project work. If you haven't already, please sign up to www.projectfranchise.org - and we'll keep you posted on when we launch and what we're up to. I've took everyone's opinions on here and we're looking at a ton of indy baseball leagues and a couple of other sports leagues as well. Stay tuned to see which one we go with!

Thanks guys.

Adam

www.projectfranchise.org

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