Tuesday, September 14, 2010

When Sports Action and your office hockey pool just aren't enough!



For those that have wider ambitions than just winning their hockey pool or scoring big on Sports Action comes word of your chance to pony up some seed money to buy your very own Junior A hockey franchise.

Alan Kasperski, the man behind the idea of an internet based project to attract on line investors into a ownership pool for a junior hockey team is getting ready to roll out his plans, his version of an internet based investment pool that is based  on a similar creation in England.

That project called MyFootballclub.co.uk saw some 27,000 investors pony up 35 pounds each to purchase a lower tier football club Ebbsfleet United. The website in England features a wide range of items of note for investors and lurking voyeurs, including a blog, an adopt a player feature and an explanation of how it all works.

For their investment, investors will be able to weigh in on a number of team issues, such as trades, player selection and ticket prices to name a few.

The proposed investment fee for the Canadian version is anticipated to be around 50 dollars, with the giant pool of money then allocated towards the quest of a Junior A team, one rung below the CHL's partners of the OHL, WHL and QMJHL.

Kasperski apparently hopes to bring the CBC on board with his plans perhaps with a launch tied into the networks annual Hockey Day in Canada, though one imagines that network pooh bahs might be more inclined to steer him towards the Dragon's Den for his ambitious venture.

The idea has caught the attention of more than a few in the media, The Puck Daddy blog had an interesting look at the proposed plans to bring hockey ownership to the masses.

Prime Time Sports host Bob McCown chatted with Kasperski last week to try and discover more about his idea and how he envisions it playing out over the course of the season.

And Dave Perkins of the Toronto Star fleshed out some of the details on the project, including the background of Kasperski and what is motivating him to try and transplant the British model to Canada.

If nothing else when Ksperski has finalized his plans and compiled his list of investors it could prove to be a valuable document.

After all, considering the never ending woes of the Phoenix Coyotes, Gary Bettman might be inclined to pay a princely sum for a valuable list of would be hockey investors!

1 comment:

alec said...

What an interesting topic. I think that the hockey world could use a fresh new idea like this. An individual investor pool allowing the average joe the opportunity to own a small portion of a hockey team. Since the model worked in the UK with soccer I don't see why it wouldn't work with hockey in Canada. What I found most interesting about the concept was that each individual investor can weigh in on a variety of team issues. How much power would each investor have? How would this structure play out over the course of a season? Hopefully we get to see this idea/plan in action.