Feature Story by: Jared Neumeier
RMFL - There are certainly more than one right way to go about getting a team started in your local area, but anyone that has tried could tell you there are several key factors and several absolutes. Not properly covering the bases on any of these, or not prioritizing properly could lead your new team to ultimate failure; no more than a passing blip on the semi-pro football radar screen.
In 1997, when the RMFL first came into existence and I was tasked with starting up the new Idaho Falls team (that became the Mustangs), those of us that were attempting to motivate our players had an additional burden that today's budding general managers do not have to contend with: Would there actually be other teams to play? That's right. Players from the early Mustangs and the other few teams from the Pocatello area wondered if after spending some $200+ on equipment and another $30-$40 on game jersey/pants IF they would be wasting their money and the other teams would simply fold even before the season started! Having to sell the league was 1/2 the battle of us early GM's.
Fortunately, this is not a problem that today's GM has to contend with. There IS a league. There will be teams to play, players' WILL be rewarded for their expenses and sacrifice by having real football to play and real teams to compete with.
So, exactly what are the key factors in putting a team together?? What steps should be taken? What are the common pitfalls?? What would be the recommended steps for starting up a team? In the article to follow, you will get my insight into that. This will simply be what I believe is the highest percentage approach to guarantee success and why I believe it is. Use it for information only. A truly motivated, organized, responsible, respectable, football-knowledgeable individual could probably pull it off in a number of ways, and as the league grows throughout the Rockies, those of us that have been in the league for years will look very carefully at new teams to determine if the leadership group, resources and organization are sufficient to keep that team successful and competitive in an ever-improving Rocky Mountain Football League.
In today's RMFL, this is an ABSOLUTE asset. You can certainly play in the league without a legal home field. After you have gathered a core of players, secure a home field. This will require that you utilize the most professional and competent person or persons in your leadership structure to approach someone for the local school district to get a "partnership" in bringing semi-pro football to your area. Franchises that have had a connection through their players or coaches have gotten fields for free, others have had to pay varying amounts per game. Some have worked "Share the gate" deals. Contact a team in your nearest area to find out what kind of agreement they are under. Whatever you do, remember, "first impressions" mean a lot in negotiating for a field. Put your best foot forward.
I have actually seen postings which would lead you to believe that this is the "most important asset", however, it may be critical, but not "most important". Without money, you cannot pay league fees, of course you could go independent, but league fees are not your biggest expense (at least, not in the RMFL). Independent teams also struggle to get committed opponents and run the greatest risk of having games simply cancelled.
Officiating costs, field costs, footballs for practices, and other "team expenses" will be much more than the approximate $800 RMFL league fees. Some teams operate on a "Shoe-string" budget. Others operate quite lavishly. It all depends on where you expect to get your money and how much you think you can raise that may allow you to operate your team on a "tight budget". In 1997, we ran the Mustangs on a $1000 budget for the season. There are many teams today, that plan on expenses of $5000 or more. I will give an example of a "Streamlined budget" (minimum) and a more extravagant budget (not necessarily the maximum).
As you can see the range of expenses can vary dramatically depending upon how you want to approach the "how to run the team" issue. This budget assumes that officials charge $50 or $60 per game and 5 officials are required. Therefore, the minimum $250/game in the minimum example and $300/game in the maximum example. There is always the potential of a discussion which would lead to requiring more, but for now, the regular season games require 5.
How to raise the money now becomes the other issue. Obviously, if you are independently wealthy, need a tax shelter and/or expect to get a big gate attendance, then you could just fund the whole enterprise on your own. This is pretty rare, however, and most budding GM's are going to have to look at the more traditional options:
Certainly there are about as many miscellaneous budget needs that I have not covered here as there are potential ways of raising the money. I have simply touched on a few for discussion and planning purposes. When you get your team together, assess the resources the players have at their disposal and select the options which best works for what your team has.
Do not just assume that this will be easy, even if it turns out to be so. The game officials completes the last critical requirement you would have to hold home games. Without game officials, good or not so good, you don't have a game. Find out who the local contact for high school game officials is and start there. The RMFL plays NCAA rules, so it helps if you are in a college city, however, it is certainly no requirement (nor will it ever be). Get yourself a single point contact that you contact to schedule your crews through. Get his name, number and e-mail address. The RMFL head of officials can then deal directly with him on rules issues and game incidentals. YOU WILL, HOWEVER, BE REQUIRED TO SCHEDULE AND PAY FOR THE REQUIRED AMOUNT OF (YOUR STATE) CERTIFIED OFFICIALS FOR EACH NON-PLAYOFF HOME GAME. If officials get a mis-communication and don't show, YOUR TEAM will be held accountable. Make sure EVERYTHING is clearly communicated well in advance with your officials. Make sure they are ready, willing and able to do your games. You are certainly free to negotiate fees with them, but know they will know what is being paid elsewhere around the league.
Do NOT underestimate the value of this asset. From good, positive media attention comes ease in raising Assets #1 thru #4. You might even start by contacting the media when you really starting your team and are setting up an organizational meeting or a team tryout. Some radio stations would consider it an honor to cover home games and do the "play by play" for the team.
If you know the media is going to come to a meeting or practice, however, DO EVERYTHING IN YOUR POWER TO MAKE SURE IT IS VERY WELL ATTENDED. A lot of getting the support you want is about "image". You need to project an image of excitement, growth and winning. If you think an event won't be well supported by the players, it would be best in some circumstances to re-schedule the media for a future event or practice. As a an example, the Idaho Falls Mustangs got as much media attention as any semi-pro football team ever got in the region in 2000. It culminated in perhaps the heaviest attended football game in the region; the 2000 playoff game with the Great Falls Rangers. Estimates of well over 1000 spectators might be conservative. The next season, the Mustangs got more players out than they had ever seen before, raised more money and truly jumped up to the "next level" as an organization. Getting the media to support and be excited about your team is a very, very valuable asset.
Finally, don't forget the local newspaper, either. Almost everyone I have dealt with has been more than happy to print something about your game. Talk to the Sports Editor (face-to-face). Set up a meeting. Ask him or her what works for them as far as reporting the game results. Usually, you can just call in after the game. Have stats ready, they love that stuff!
You will save your team and yourself a number of headaches by doing a little research and finding a good, reliable, equipment and game uniform supplier. Not to mention, you could be saving your players a ton of money... which in the long run, allows you to recruit more players. I am sure that every established team reading this has had some headache, disappointment or total let-down from one equipment supplier or another. There may be no real guarantee that who you find will be, however, if you try to use tried and true suppliers with a solid reputation, you will be a step ahead of the game when you are wanting your whole team to be practicing in pads. I have seen equipment suppliers right out lie to team officials about when orders were placed or when they will be delivered. The fix?? Start well in advance. If they are telling you that it will take 4 weeks to get stuff in after you order and you plan on practicing in pads on March 15th, don't wait until February 15th to place the order. Place it in early January. Same goes for uniforms. If possible, add at least a month's lead time to what you are told. Of course this means collecting more players money in advance; and you will most likely have to submit a second order (for later arriving players). If you think you will have a lot of later arrivals, it would be best to go with a local company. Someone you can go see directly or are willing to drive to pick up stuff. Bottom line: don't push the deadlines, build in delays... in fact, expect them. Tell the supplier to expect a phone call from you every day after they say they expect it to arrive... and do it.
Obviously, shopping for value is a priority as well. You should do it. But allow yourself the flexibility of schedule to go through a perhaps cheaper, mail-order supplier and leaving yourself plenty of time in the event that supplier does not come through as promised.
This is a great focal point for the everyone else in the league, or the region to learn about your team. It as a great forum for you to get information out about your team, who to contact and present yourself as an organized, professional organization. Anyone can go into www.eteamz.com and set up a free web site for their team. Teams that are interested in joining the RMFL will get their web sites linked to in the off-season. Even though you would not be formally accepted until the January meeting, having a good web site will be one method other teams' GM's may evaluate your organization. This would be a good place to state your organization's goals and "mission". You could list the names of all of those who will be "leading" the team. You will want more than one point of contact. As information becomes available, as the team practices, as games are played, you can add more information, post pictures, etc. to make your web site exciting for your players. You can also opt for a paid for, more "tailored" web site. The cost for that is usually $35 a year for a domain name (i.e. "rockymountainfootball.com" and then $20/month for web hosting fees (i.e. the internet file storage computer where you put all of your files on). This would be effective if you 1) have the budget and 2) have a strong web page/html person as one of your resources. Regardless, this is simply one more of those places where you want to place some attention and effort to begin to "sell" your team to players, the community and media. When I called in information to the local paper regarding the Mustangs, I usually had them also publish our web site address "for further information".
This is not to take anything away from the array of great player-coaches we have and have had in the past in the league. However, it is eminently easier, and you will be a better coach, if you are not having to play, as well. As a player coach, it is difficult to critique the performance of a team and/or player if you are not playing well, yourself. As a non-player coach, you are above that. It is your job to coach, not play and players understand that. It is easier for players to "run the team" than it is for them to coach. Running the team, most things can be taken care of before the pre-game preparations begin (i.e. lining up officials, statistician, scoreboard operator, chain crew, publishing programs, setting up ticket sales and/or concessions sales, etc.) An hour or so before the game begins, players need to become players and coaches need to become coaches. It can be done with player coaches (and has been proven to be successful), but to put your team in the best possible position, finding a strong, football-knowledgeable coach is a great asset. I have always suggested to those that ask me where to find a good head, that they approach high school assistant coaches with some experience. Being the head coach of a semi-pro team might just be the "resume-boost" they could use to get themselves to the next coaching level.
Much of the value of this position is similar to the argument for the value of a non-player, head coach. In fact, having several non-player, management positions is optimum. If you look at ASSETT #3, Budget and look at the many fund-raising options, many require "coordination, planning, follow-thru", etc. You need people on your management team that ARE CAPABLE OF THESE QUALITIES. Procrastination is not an option. There is so much that has to be done in running a team, so much that has to be taken care of on game day, that to try to be a player, prepare to play as a player and get all of the peripheral stuff accomplished can take a lot out of a player and affect his performance. Not to mention, when you are worried about playing... and everything else, the likelihood of a "ball getting dropped" significantly increases. I have been to more games than I care to mention whereby the home team was scrambling for a chain crew right at game time. A good non-player GM, could make sure this got set up in advance. A non-player GM can check that everything that was set up to be happening IS happening as the players prepare for the game. It is better for a non-player GM to call in the results of the game to the local media. I remember when I ran the Mustangs, I would call in game results to the local newspaper. Of course they always wanted whatever stats I had and any comments. Now what I usually told the media and what they printed were often entirely different stories. In one of my worst games as a quarterback, the headline the next day said, "Neumeier leads Mustangs to Victory". You can never appreciate the animosity I took over that one... and the many other instances where teammates that I singled out were not mentioned. A non-playing GM would take a lot less of the player abuse for what the media chooses to print. It is just a better, objective position to be in to report for your team.
Obviously, if you have the other assets above and don't have this one, you still can have quite a quality football program. The Pocatello Silverbacks (and just about any Pocatello team for that matter) have always struggled in selling their team to the community and have never gotten great fan support, however, they have always had a quality franchise. However... a good football team without fans is like going to a birthday party with cake... but no ice cream. It's good, but a little dry. Certainly fans can help generate many of the above assets and this league was not founded as "entertaining fans" as its primary objective, but it has always been a chief goal to get our communities behind our teams, excited about our teams and ready to support our teams against our rival cities. A team with a great PR person could probably devise gimmicks to really get fans out early and often. For most franchises, however, fan support will only come with time... and media attention.
If I had a suggestion to assist in some way to mobilize fan support, word of mouth and excitement for your team it would be to "Get the local community involved". Get local singing groups or local singing talent or a band to perform the national anthem before the game. Get a local boy scout troop to "present the colors". Get a local marching band, girls dance company to do a half time show. Get a good personality to do your play by play. My wife and I were very, very impressed this past season with the game presentation at Boise and Helena. Both had great programs, great anthem singers and a welcome atmosphere. Helena had a great group of cheerleaders, a good concession stand, many fans and... we absolutely loved their play-by-play man. The cost of the game in Helena was $5 a person. The most we had paid anywhere we had been. The value of that game... Priceless. You can charge more of your fans if you give more. It was a FUN event. If we lived there, we wouldn't want to miss a game. Get the community involved! You will be glad you did.
Finally to coin a phrase from Kevin Costner's Field of Dreams:
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