ArenaFan's Adam Markowitz:  ArenaFan’s coverage of the 2015 – 2016 offseason for the Arena Football League is continuing today and we are thrilled to have on the line with us the Commissioner of the league, Scott Butera. Commissioner, thanks for taking some time out for us this afternoon.

AFL Commissioner Scott Butera: Anytime Adam. It is a pleasure to talk to you. And again, we appreciate your great coverage of our league.

AM:  Thank you. We will start over in San Jose. Last week the news came out about the Fry family leaving the Arena Football League and the last we heard out of the league office was that there was still an effort ongoing to be able to place an owner with the team. To the best of your abilities, what are you able to tell us about the San Jose situation, if anything else, at this point?

SB: Sure. One, obviously it was a little bit of a surprise for us that San Jose would not be continuing. They have been a tremendous franchise for this league. Obviously they set a record last year for wins and were ArenaBowl champions. The Fry’s have been a great contributor and partner of the AFL for the time that they have been involved. So it was a bit surprising. I did spend a fair amount of time with the organization. It is pretty clear that I think it was a decision that they had made based on certain parameters that they had for their business and the things that they were investing in going forward. I don’t think it was really their desire or willingness or lack of enthusiasm for Arena Football. I think it is just what was right for them at this point in time with their other businesses. So it is unfortunate, but these things happen.  That having been said, they are very committed to working with the league trying to see if we can keep the team going with another owner. We are in discussions with a couple of parties and the Fry’s have been very accommodating in that regard. So obviously if we can continue in San Jose with the SaberCats, that would be great for the league. But if we can’t, we are no less enthusiastic about where we are going. We still have a very good group of teams and always said we wanted to be about quality and not quantity. We have a number of exciting opportunities for expansion starting this year, but really for play in 2017, both domestic and internationally. We are doing a lot on the broadcasting side and sponsorship side that we have never done before. So sometimes in business and in leagues there is an evolution and that is not to say that certain groups, people, and players are right for certain periods of time. And sometimes that changes. This is a function of that more than anything else. Unfortunate, but it is not something that will derail us in any way.

AM: Is there a specific timeline for when an owner needs to be place for San Jose before the league decides to go forward with an eight team league for next year?

SB: I would say that clearly that time has come. So whatever decision we make with regards to San Jose is going to have to be done very quickly. So a timeline is a little bit irrelevant because usually we like to have all of this sorted out by the end of our season which would have been our ArenaBowl. So this is something that kind of came up after the fact. We have a brief period of time where we can sort of work on it and make a decision. So I would expect some news from us on that front very quickly.

AM: You’ve been on the job now as the Commissioner of this league for right around a year. Take us back through the first year and sort of assess where the AFL has gone under your direction in this first year of your time in charge.

SB: Well I’m not sure a year is the right timeframe because I think that when you work on these things there are phases and I think that the first year was really a function of….. well one, I am really happy that we had excellent football for the first year and a very competitive environment and great playoffs. So in terms of the fan experience and the football and the quality of play, I was very excited about that and we showed a great product. In terms of the league and the league’s businesses, it was a year of sort of repositioning and reorganizing. Obviously we had to do a lot with regard to cleaning up some old liabilities and getting ourselves a solid platform for growth and there were some teams and partners that decided that they didn’t want to continue under some of the new format. So really there was the introduction of a new strategic direction kind of repositioning the league and creating a platform for growth; cleaning up a lot of things that needed to be cleaned up; old liabilities, everything from the front of the house to the back of the house. So there was a lot of work done giving the league a solid foundation. And now that we have that, we have gotten good partners to join us on a number of fronts and we are starting to work on the growth side.  The first year was really a lot of (inaudible phrase), do right by our fans, but to get our act together and I think we accomplished that.

AM:  When we talk about growth, and I don’t think that I am breaking any news here when I’m saying that the league is trying to go more in a direction of having owners who have ties in their cities already, whether it be to NHL teams or NBA teams, or some other professional organization. Why is the AFL trying to go that route now?

SB: Well for a lot of reasons. One, economically it makes a lot of sense. If you look at the business model for a team, obviously if you don’t have to pay rent, which in some cities can be as high as $40,000 - $50,000 a game, that makes a big difference. Also, typically when you are renting an arena, you are not getting access to food sales, beverage sales, merchandise sales, so whereas if you control that arena you are. So from a team economic standpoint, it makes a lot of sense. Even beyond that, you know the NHL owners and the NBA owners in particular have a business model that is very similar to what we are doing. They are tried and true operations at a high level. They have (inaudible phrase) people and many times you can plug into their system as opposed to someone that is a little more entrepreneur and has to develop all of that. There is an existing database. Obviously they have been in their community for a number of years. They have access to the sports fans within that community and the sports community itself; the sports writers, the local broadcast network, the newsprint. So you are inheriting an infrastructure that is very hard and very expensive to duplicate. So that is why we believe that these owners make a lot of sense for us. And from their perspective, if they do control the arenas, obviously the arena is kind of useless without content. So hopefully we can provide additional content for those arenas so that they can keep their building occupied more so throughout the year.

AM: We touched a lot on why it makes a lot of sense for NBA and NHL owners to be a part of the AFL, but six of the eight existing teams with owners as of right now aren’t a part of that model. Does the model need to tweaked in any way to make it so the existing six owners who don’t have ties to those NBA/NHL franchises are able to continue to function on an annual basis?

SB:  Again, I am not saying that it is not a good opportunity for somebody who is not an NHL or NBA owner. I was just highlighting some of the advantages. So I think that the model, I think that you can survive and prosper and do well even if you don’t have that as long as you have a good relationship with your arena owner. So I think that a lot of times if they do have a relationship with those arena owners, they can do some of the things that an NBA owner could do. So they can work with that groups’ marketing staff and sales staff. There are ways in which people are opening up their platform for other users other than just their own teams. So similar to what MLB is doing with their website where they are allowing other leagues like the NHL to use their website and structure, so I think that that also exists. We are always trying to tweak our model. So if we can find ways to enhance revenue or obviously any nationally shared revenue amongst all the teams which would help all of the owners equally. If we ever went to a more equitable economic format for our playoff games, I think that is something that we will probably do next year so that those owners can benefit from that. You know maybe work our way toward a little bit of a revenue share so that everybody has the best interests of the league at heart. So those are the type of things that are kind of being evaluated. But I don’t mean to say that it is not a good opportunity if you are not an NBA owner or an NHL owner, it certainly is. I’m just explaining how the economics are different. The economics are different and for other reasons too. It depends on what market you are in. Is it a big market with a lot of competition? Is it a smaller market with less competition? All of these things factor in and at the end of the day it is all about selling tickets. So we are centralizing a lot of that. We have had a lot of good group discussions amongst all of the ownership and their staffs as to how we can share ideas on marketing and sales and growing our fan base. The league is obviously going to take on a number of PR initiatives and social media initiatives to do that.  All of our owners will benefit equally in that.  Again, I think that that there is an opportunity for both NBA owners and NHL owners along with non NBA and NHL owners to do well.

AM: Now this isn’t the first time that the AFL has kind of gone up the road of trying to get NBA and NHL type owners involved. It has happened in Phoenix with the Colangelos. It has happened in Detroit as well as some other markets in the past. Why is it different this time and what is the pitch that you are making to an NBA or NHL owner when it comes to; why bring an AFL team into their arena right now at this point in 2017 or 2018 going forward?

SB:  Well, I think that the AFL has always had a good product. I just think that it was never marketed correctly. So I think that the pitch is somewhat similar and just had never been delivered in the right way. And I think that there is a lot of good reason for those entities to join and I really cannot account for what might have been asked in the past or done in the past, but I think that what you have to have is a platform where people are willing to become a part of. So that is part of the reason why we had to do what we did to clean the league up. In a way it is kind of like a country club. You know people join country clubs because of the quality of the golf course or because of the quality of the membership. A lot of times it is the membership. So for us we have to make sure that the right group that was attractive enough for those types to want to join and we now have that where as in the past I think it was a little more haphazard.

AM:  We’ve seen market after market from 2010 all the way to 2015 now that had AFL teams that no longer do and obviously there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of fans who have lost their teams. Because of it, and understandably, there has got to be a natural degree of pessimism on the average fan, no matter where that fan is, just to see this league be basically cut in half over the last five years. But I know that you’ve got a much different take on the future and where we are going. If you could sort of sum up what the future is for Arena Football and why the fans that are out there regardless of whether they currently have a market, or used to have a market will have a market again in the future irregardless of where they are across the country, why they should be optimistic going forward as well.

SB: Arena Football is a quality product. It is high quality football. It is a very convenient venue for it. It’s a great value compared to other sports. (inaudible).

We think in the past it was more about just who could pay us any franchise fee and isn’t that great and will help us pay the next bill and there is not a lot of strategy behind that versus now we are saying where do we need to be? What are the markets that we need to be in? What are the markets that will enhance our broadcast? What are the markets that will enhance our sponsorship?  And that is what we are targeting. I think for a fan, getting in on a league that has great product and is experiencing some significant growth, you can be a part of that. It is no different than folks who say, “You know, I was a season ticket holder of the New England Patriots from 1977 and for about thirty years it was horrible.” Then when they started winning, you see these fans going “I remember when I was sitting on metal benches and we were 0-14 and now we won the Super Bowl.” There is sort of like a fan pride to that. I think the same thing in the AFL. I think as people see the AFL grow and blossom, they will know that they were a part of creating that. That initial core group of fans, that without them wouldn’t allow for the future to exist. So I think that is kind of a cool thing. It is great that we do a lot for our fans and their families. There is a lot of interaction and we share a lot of information. It’s a great learning experience and there will be a lot of programs going forward that will help fans and provide other ways of getting value to fans. A lot of our sponsors are going to be doing things. So, it will be fun and people will get a lot out of it. They can be a part of what I think is an exciting growth story.

AM:  We are about to wrap up 2015 and before we know it, they will be kicking off and the ball will be bouncing off of the net here in just about four months. Commissioner, I appreciate the time as always and we look forward to speaking to you again in the future and best of luck as we continue toward the 2016 season.

SB: I really appreciate it Adam. Again thank you so much for everything that you do for the league and your fanbase. We really appreciate your coverage. I always think that you provide good, fair, unbiased coverage of this league and your analysis is usually on point. It is a pleasure to work with someone that has good knowledge of our league and understands what we are going for. Thank you.

AM:  Thank you so much.

Adam Markowitz is an accountant living in Orlando. Adam is an old school AFLer, having followed the AFL since 1991. He attended or covered well over 200 games, including 17 ArenaBowls. Adam worked for the Arena Football League for two years as a columnist and historian before retiring in 2017 when the 50-yard indoor war left the Sunshine State. Adam still muses about the AFL on ArenaFan from time to time, and you can follow him on Twitter @adammarkowitzea.