Courtesy: sportsday.dallasnews.com

Why are soccer giants FC Barcelona, Benfica, Atletico Madrid and Boca Juniors starting a U.S. league with Mark Cuban?

By Brad Townsend

Early in the Professional Futsal League's inaugural meetings the last two days in Dallas, Donnie Nelson looked around the conference room table and marveled at the melding of minds and sports.

There was Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Lakers owner Jim Buss. There were delegations from FC Barcelona and other world-power soccer organizations.

During two days of meetings at Dallas' Omni Hotel and American Airlines Center, they discussed rules, league structure, marketing initiatives and more for the 16-team league, which begins play in 2017.

Futsal is five-a-side indoor soccer that is played in 198 of the 207 FIFA member associations around the world but has never had a North American league.

"This is really uncharted territory," Nelson said. "You are really creating the Magna Carta of a brand-new league. You find yourself sitting there looking around the room thinking, 'Wow, this is really historical-type stuff.'"

Nelson, Cuban and sports entrepreneur Brian Dick are the PFL's principal owners. Buss' family will own the league's Los Angeles franchise.

On Tuesday, The Dallas Morning News reported that cities that would have Professional Futsal League teams included Dallas, New York [which will have two teams], Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Boston and Miami.

On Wednesday, a source told The News that San Francisco, Portland, Anaheim, Phoenix and Orlando also will have teams. Nelson would not confirm those cities or divulge any others, but did say every PFL market has an NFL and/or NBA team.

The News previously reported that FC Barcelona will own one of the New York teams and that Atletico Madrid, Boca Juniors of Argentina and Corinthians of Brazil will have full or partial stakes.

On Wednesday, The News learned that Portugal power Benfica has been part of discussions to be affiliated with one of the PFL teams, as have at least two powerhouse European clubs that have yet to be made public.

Soccer clubs from around the world will be affiliated with each of the 16 PFL franchises, either through partnership or as outright owner.

Several of the West Coast teams, the source said, have received significant interest from investors in China and Japan, including a yet-to-be-publicly named Chinese billionaire who will own the San Francisco franchise.

China's president, Xi Jinping, is a lifelong soccer fan who since assuming office in Nov. 2012 has bemoaned his country's lack of global soccer stature.

In recent months, China has devoted considerable planning and resources to improving its national soccer program and grass-roots training.

The increased emphasis _ and Jinping's expectations _ apparently extends to futsal, which is the only indoor form of soccer that is FIBA-approved, and is used by elite soccer programs around the world as a training level for up-and-coming players.

Nelson, the Mavericks' president of basketball operations, said there already are discussions about playing PFL exhibition games next summer in China and Japan; as well as Mexico City and Monterrey, Mexico. He also predicted the league will have significant TV and digital platforms in China.

"These are top global brands that see an opportunity to kind of create their own D-League in the United States with this product," said Nelson, who owns the NBA D-League Texas Legends, based in Frisco.
Nelson paid about $1 million when he purchased the Legends six years ago. Estimates today are that the franchise is worth about $12 million.

PFL owners, paying franchise fees of $1 million to $1.5 million, project similar increases in value, especially with investors around the globe yearning to tap into the United States market. Clubs like FC Barcelona, Chelsea and Bayern Munich have established offices in New York, or are in the process of doing so.

In an effort to appeal to American fans, and establish the PFL as the world's most elite futsal league, owners the past two days unanimously agreed to key rule modifications:

--Many futsal games around the world are played on 20-meter-wide, 40-meter-long courts, but in some futsal leagues use smaller courts, depending on venue options. Nelson said PFL owners voted to play on standardized 20-by-40 courts, the maximum-allowed size in futsal.
"That's because we will have, even in our first year, the best futsal players on the planet," Nelson said. "So we have to give them the maximum space to operate."

--Futsal games around the world are generally played in two 20-minute halves. PFL owners voted to become the first futsal league to use four 12-minute quarters.

Futsal games played in halves generally take 90 to 100 minutes to play. American audiences, PFL owners determined, expect closer to two hours of entertainment.

"We'll be the only league in the world with that (four-quarter) format," Nelson said. "Again, that's part of the NBA injection here."
Futsal is often described as a hybrid of soccer and basketball, so this marriage of elite soccer and NBA ownerships makes sense from a synergy standpoint.

"They (soccer officials) are looking to us to provide guidance on the entertainment component and how to present the sport to the U.S. market," Nelson said. "We're looking to them to use the most successful components of this high-octane sport."

--Owners also voted to add TV timeouts and decreed that in cases of tie games, the first overtime will be played 4-on-4 and for five minutes.

If the game is still tied after overtime, each team will select three players to participate in a shootout format. Each player would get a running start from midcourt and have five seconds in which "to score the ball in motion."

Obviously, many more details remain to be worked out before league play begins in 2017, with the starting month probably to be determined by TV networks.

Nelson said the PFL's next league meetings are scheduled for Aug. 3-4 at Orlando's ESPN Wide World of Sports.




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