Landry. Walsh. Belichick …
You?
In order to give Monday morning quarterbacks, Madden players and anyone who’s ever thought “I could do better than that” a shot at actually doing it, a Santa Monica-based startup just bought an Indoor Football League expansion team is has no intention of running.
The backers of Project FANchise — among whom you’ll find tech entrepreneurs, retired NFL players and the former COO of the San Francisco 49ers — plan to let fans choose the franchise’s team name, colors, logo, uniforms, mascot, brand of arena beer and yes, even the cheerleaders. They also plan to let backers hire the general manager and coaching staff, scout and evaluate players, make roster decisions and even call plays on gameday in real-time.
In order to determine who gets to call games and make decisions, the company will test the aptitude of team supporters using a technology called FanIQ. “We’ll allow fans that are more engaged and that have more knowledge and experience to move up the rankings and have more influence than just casual fans,” says company CEO Sohrob Farudi.
The team will call Salt Lake City home and compete against 11 other teams when the IFL season kicks off in February.
This is what project FANchise is all about 1:43
A contest that will earn a diehard fan a spot on FANchise’s advisory board is running till April 30th.
Time to get your Lombardi on.
Image via Project FANchise
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