Interview with Project FANchise’s Co-Founder and CEO Sohrob Farudi
I had the chance to sit down with Sohrob Farudi, the Co-founder and CEO of Project FANchise, a startup at the intersection of sports and technology that could revolutionize the sports industry by giving more powers to sports fans.
Since the launch of the project, the first fan-run sports franchise in history is building up. How would you describe the support and the involvement received so far from the fans ?
“I would say the support and the involvement has gone above and beyond our initial expectations. The most interesting thing for me and the rest of the founders was when we were awarded the new franchise in the IFL in October of last year and we really started getting active on social media in January. The league had not yet announced this at the time.
We didn’t have a logo, we didn’t have a name, we were just a bunch of guys with an idea. Even then, we had tens of thousands of people that were registering to participate.
We did an AMA (ask-me-anything) on Reddit. Generally, in those types of environments you tend to get a lot of trolls and people speaking negatively, however, the turnout was 99% positive, supportive of the concept and the idea. Along the way over the last nine months or so, what we’ve really seen is that every step of the way people, fans, media have been positive and supportive of the idea. To me, that says that this is an idea that has been waiting in the wings to be brought to the forefront. I think fans have been waiting for this opportunity. The fact that it is a professional league and that some players have come out from this league to play in the NFL gives it some legitimacy. It speaks volumes to the idea itself that fans are really eager and excited to be involved with the team at this level. It’s been overwhelming in a positive way with amount of support and involvement that we have had so far.”
You have fans from all over the world, right ?
“We do, we have 21 countries represented. The 3 most active countries are the UK, France and Australia. We have some fans in Germany, Mexico… That’s also been really great to see that not only we have support locally in the US, but also internationally. We thought this would be an international concept, it is really great to see the early involvement from international fans to be supportive and have their voice heard.”
Fans are currently voting for the hiring of the Head Coach. Live streaming the interview was probably a first in the history too! How did the candidates react to the concept of fans calling the plays?
“Great question. Our biggest concern going into this was finding a head coach that would be okay with giving up a lot of their control over play-calling and personnel to the fans. And again, this was another positive surprise for us. We have five very very qualified coaches, a couple of them have won titles and have been coaches of the year. To me, it says that this is a sport that the coaches understand needs change and innovation. There really hasn’t been a lot of innovation in this game. Indoor and Arena Football has been around close to 30 years now and it is for the most part the same game that was invented 30 years ago.
It is easy to do a little research and see that there is a large number of teams that come and go in these leagues. Teams don’t necessarily last a long time, it is a tough business to operate. The coaches understand that. They have families, they want stability and don’t want to move around every year or two because the team they are coaching for the next year isn’t going to play in the league anymore. The response we received showed us that by getting fans more involved and giving them a say, the coaches would feel that it is a way to create more stability in the team itself. This would provide the coaches the opportunity to build something special over a longer period of time than they would typically receive with a team in this league.”
From a business point of view, how are the Screaming Eagles different from another franchise ?
“I think it is a couple of different things. We have a lot of theories as we’re just starting this. We will know more answers in February when we will kick off this first game.
The initial response to the crowdfunding campaign that we held on Indiegogo amounted to over 60,000$. The smaller teams in theses leagues have just over a million dollars in total revenue.
To do 60,000$ before the team had a name or a logo or a mascot or players or coaches I think says something about what we are on to. Our thought is that we are going to double or potentially triple the normal revenue streams of a team via ticket sales, sponsorship sales and merchandise sales.
We think that with the added elements that we are creating with fan involvement and participation with the mobile app, and all the different touch-points that we have on the digital side, we are really going to be able to get fans excited about the team, participate and attend the games.
That’s number one.
Number two: the bigger piece is creating a brand new revenue stream on the digital side with the app, and the interesting things that we can do with fan engagement and involvement in app purchases, in advertising, sponsorship opportunities available with the mobile app as a lot of advertisers are willing to move mobile.
All of the teams in this league and most of the teams in Indoor Arena Football just don’t have a presence on mobile. There is nothing for fans to get involved with in a mobile app for these teams. I think this is a really great opportunity for us as a concept group to show that if you give fans this type of access and control of a team that they will be active participants in your mobile app and that will create value for the team moving forward to again be able to have a sustainable business model.”
What are the next steps for the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles ?
“We are getting into the real work now. Obviously we’re getting our coach hired here in Salt Lake. Very quickly after that, we are going to move into the player tryouts and let fans start getting involved with players personnel and decide which player we invite to our camp. And we just hired our President, Thom Carter, who is running the front office in Salt Lake City for the Screaming Eagles.
We are going to be doing a lot of stuff on the ground with ticket sales, sponsorship sales, advertising, getting close with the local media, local schools, charity organizations, and really building our presence locally. Again, this was tough to do when we didn’t have a name or a logo - two crucial elements of a team.
Once we have the head coach in place to work alongside the President, I think we really have the building blocks of a traditional football organization which has always been the goal. We never meant to change the traditional football organization. Front office is going to be there, the coaching staff is going to be there, along with all the support for the players and for the community. Everything will be the same.
The difference for us is that we are just letting fans make a lot of these decisions, which will hopefully lead to a community that is much more involved and much more interested in supporting and participating with the team.
Over the next six or seven months, we hope to see a really big increase in the number of people that are joining and purchasing season tickets.”
I truly want to thank Sohrob for making time in his schedule for this interview. It was amazing to learn from your insights. We wish you a lot of success!
For those who want to get more involved in the project by becoming an official scout, assistant coach or assistant GM, you can head to the brand-new website of the Salt Lake City Screaming Eagles below:
About the author:
Hugo, living in Paris (France), is a sport business enthusiast, an International ambassador for CSBN and a Msc International Strategy & Influence candidate @Skema Business School.
Join the CSBN newsletter to get the latest updates and stories from the Canadian sport business industry.
