Hicks Partners’ Vice President John Ertmann Featured in Business First Article

Proposed football leagues keeping Columbus under watch for teams

by Jeff Bell Business First

The acronyms of failed professional football leagues come quickly to mind for John Ertmann, a long-time sports industry executive who heads the sports and entertainment practice at Columbus-based Hicks Partners LLC. XFL … WLAF … USFL … WFL. So it’s understandable Ertmann seems a little skeptical when he hears two new professional football leagues that are planning to tee it up next year may include Columbus in their game plans. The United Football League has identified Columbus as one of 12 cities it’s considering for an inaugural season scheduled to begin August 2008. The All American Football League apparently is interested in locating a team here in the future, although Columbus is not among the six cities the league plans to debut next April. “The landscape is littered with failed football leagues,” said Ertmann, whose career has included stops in the front offices of the New York Yankees, NBC Sports and Major League Soccer. “(Columbus) is a football-crazed market but it is also a football-savvy market.” That means any pro team hoping to make it here would have to field top-caliber players - and cover the overhead of paying them - to win favor with fans and corporate sponsors already loyal to the Ohio State University Buckeyes and the Columbus Destroyers of the Arena Football League. But the bigger question, Ertmann said, is if the new leagues have business models that will help them succeed where others failed. He said the leagues will need a structure that will help them control players’ costs, promote competition and be realistic about the number of fans they can attract. “Playing in an enormous venue and expecting crowds of 40,000 to 50,000 seems like folly to me,” Ertmann said.

Targeting hungry fans

But that seems to be the approach of the All American Football League. According to SportsBusiness Journal, a sister publication of Business First, AAFL executives are projecting attendance of 40,000 to 50,000 a game on Saturdays in the spring. League officials did not return calls seeking comment. Ohio State Athletics Director Gene Smith said AAFL officials have asked to tour Ohio Stadium but have not done so yet. OSU will listen to the league’s ideas, he said. The AAFL’s Web site said the league will debut in April in six college football hotbeds - the universities of Florida, Tennessee, Michigan, Alabama, Arkansas and Texas. The AAFL wants to give college football fans a chance to watch their favorite schools’ alumni continue to play after graduation. One league requirement is that all players be college graduates. AAFL founder and CEO Marcus Katz, a San Diego entrepreneur in the private student loan business, has committed $75 million to launch the league, SportsBusiness Journal reported. The UFL is looking for stadiums with seating of 30,000 to 35,000 but could play in smaller venues, said UFL Commissioner Michael Huyghue. In Columbus, the league would favor 22,555-seat Crew Stadium over 102,329-seat Ohio Stadium. “We’d rather fill up Crew Stadium every week and grow into the ‘Shoe,” Huyghue said. It’s part of a business model that UFL founders believe will succeed where other startup football leagues have failed, said Huyghue, a former sports agent and executive with National Football League teams in Detroit and Jacksonville, Fla. The strategy includes a salary cap to control operating costs, deep-pocketed team owners with staying power, and targeting NFL players who are either underpaid, in the twilight of their careers or recent college players looking to play pro. Huyghue said a prime example of that sort of player is Troy Smith, who at Ohio State won the Heisman Trophy but who is the third-string quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens in his first season. “How will he get better holding a clipboard instead of playing for a UFL team for two years and then returning to the NFL?” Huyghue said.

Taking the leap

UFL officials have targeted 12 cities as candidates for the eight franchises it plans to have when play begins in August. All 12 are large cities that lack NFL teams, including Los Angeles. Columbus is the only Midwest city on the list. “Columbus has a strong, rich (football) tradition and a younger population base,” Huyghue said. “There is no place more passionate about football.” Part of the UFL site selection process includes the response from fans to a recently launched online campaign, at ticketreserve.com, in which they can buy reservations for seats. The eight cities with the most reservations will be the leading markets to land a franchise. Stadium deals and interest from potential franchise owners will also carry weight in the process, Huyghue said. Greater Columbus Sports Commission Executive Director Linda Logan said she has talked with Huyghue but is waiting for more information from UFL officials before arranging meetings with community leaders. Logan said she is aware of the challenges facing a startup sports league. She’s worked for failed women’s pro leagues. “I always want them to succeed,” Logan said, “but also to do their homework before they take the financial leap.”

614-220-5456 | jabell@bizjournals.com

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