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Fan Controlled Football

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Fan Controlled Football
SportIndoor football
Founded2017
FounderFANchise, LLC
First season2021
CEOSohrob Farudi
CommissionerRay Austin
No. of teams4
CountryUnited States
TV partner(s)Twitch
Related
competitions		Indoor Football League
Official websiteFCF.io

Fan Controlled Football (FCF) is a professional indoor football league created in 2017 as the first sports league controlled by fans.[1][2] All games are played at the Infinite Energy Arena in Duluth, Georgia and broadcast on Twitch and VENN.

It was created by Project Fanchise, who established the first fan-controlled professional sports franchise, the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles, and operated the Colorado Crush to play in the Indoor Football League in 2017 before Fanchise pulled both teams out of the league.[3]

History

The idea, then known as Project Franchise, was covered by The New York Times with the business concept of a fan-controlled baseball team in 2008, but was written as satirical piece by comedian Steve Hofstetter.[4] At the time, the project was just a website created by Grant Cohen with investors consisting of lawyers such as Joe Scura. In 2010, a GOOD Magazine article described the group's business plan, including asking fans to invest in creating or purchasing a minor league baseball team to become publicly owned and operated.[5] The project ultimately failed when purchasing an existing team proved to carry too much debt.[6] In June 2015, an Arena Football League team minority owner, Sohrob Farudi, read about the dead project and contacted Cohen about restarting the concept as Project Fanchise.[6]

In April 2016, Project Fanchise purchased an expansion team in the Indoor Football League for the 2017 season. The group created a mobile app for subscribed fans to vote on naming the team, chose its colors, and hire a coach before the season started. The team became the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles, and when the team began to play, the fans chose plays for the team to run.[7] The experience successfully proved the concept of fans controlling the team, but it did not equate to success on the field finishing with a 5–11 record. Fanchise had also acquired the Colorado Crush just prior to the start of the season but did not implement the system at that time. On April 20, 2017, The Wall Street Journal reported that Project Fanchise was planning on launching a new league called the "Interactive Football League".[8] Project Fanchise CEO Sohrob Farudi confirmed that the Screaming Eagles and Crush would finish the 2017 season.[9] Project Fanchise folded both teams after the season and began the process to create the new league.

After a few months of being known as the Interactive Football League, it rebanded as the Electronic Football League (eFL),[10] before settling on Fan Controlled Football League (FCFL) in November 2017.[9] The league planned to play all of its games in only one city with eight new teams. All games would be played in one location, Las Vegas, with fans calling plays while watching on-line via Twitch.[9] The initial start date was for the 2018 season but was postponed. It has since garnered the backing of professional athletes including former and current NFL players Chad Johnson, Marshawn Lynch, and Richard Sherman.[11] The league then gained backing by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Verizon Ventures, Correlation Ventures, Basecamp 2, Next10 Ventures, Bleacher Report co-founder Dave Finnocchio and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian[12] and additional team owners including Mike Tyson, Miro, Trevor May, Quavo,[13] Greg Miller, Deestroying, and Bob Menery.[citation needed] In 2020, the league had rebranded once again as Fan Controlled Football (FCF).

John Jenkins and Shawn Liotta serve as coaching consultants for the league, with Jenkins having a prominent on-air role during FCF telecasts.[14]

Rules

Source:[15]

  • Games are two halves of 20 minutes each. The league aims to complete each game in approximately one hour of real time. The clock runs continuously except in the final 30 seconds of each half, when the clock stops after each play.
  • Rock, paper, scissors replaces the coin toss.
  • Seven men play on each side of the ball, with three men on the offensive line.
  • Each team has one time out. The teams have access to three "power-ups:" a fifth down (giving an offensive team an extra play to avoid a turnover on downs), Flip the Field (moving the ball back to the offensive team's 10 yard line) or Coach's Choice (which allows the coach to override the fans on a play call).
  • There is no kicking or punting. All offensive possessions that do not result from turnovers begin on the 10 yard line.
  • The FCF uses the inside conversion option introduced in the Alliance of American Football. A team may attempt one play to gain ten yards from their own 10 yard line to retain possession. Through most of the season, teams could use the rule after any touchdown; after a team attempted to abuse the rule in a week 4 contest, it was revised so that only a trailing team could use the inside conversion.
  • The two-point conversion is played one on one between a wide receiver and a defensive back from the five yard line, with the quarterback having four seconds to throw the football.
  • Team rosters are reset and dispersed every week in a draft, with the exception of two franchise players who are protected and remain on a team's roster throughout the season.
  • Fans vote on all offensive plays in real time and also decide the outcomes of instant replay reviews.

Teams

Team[16][17] Colors Joined Owners
Beasts     2020 Marshawn Lynch, Mike Tyson, Miro and Renee Montgomery
Glacier Boyz     Richard Sherman, Quavo and Deestroying
Wild Aces     Greg Miller, Austin Ekeler, Jack Settleman, Rachel Lindsay and Barbara Dunkelman
Zappers     Trevor May, Dalvin Cook, Bob Menery, Ronnie Singh and Stephen Deleonardis

2021 season

2021 FCF season
LeagueFan Controlled Football
SportIndoor football
DurationFebruary 13 – March 27

In December 2020, the league signed quarterbacks Johnny Manziel and Deondre Francois.[18] In January 2021, the league announced the first season will be played at the Infinite Energy Arena in the Atlanta suburb of Duluth, Georgia. The arena is to be turned into a film stage with screens and lights to enhance viewer experience, similar to that of the 2020 NBA Bubble. No fans will be allowed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.[19]

The league's inaugural season began on February 13, 2021, and will last six weeks (four regular-season weeks, one playoff week, and a championship week) and broadcast on Twitch.[20][21][22]

Standings

2021 Fan Controlled Football standings
Team W L Pct. PF PA PD
y – Beasts 3 0 1.000 106 94 12
Wild Aces 2 2 .500 144 138 6
Zappers 1 2 .333 106 108 -2
Glacier Boyz 1 3 .250 126 142 -16
y – Clinched regular season championship

Schedule

All times Eastern.[23]

Week Date Time Matchup Report
Week 1 February 13 8:00 p.m. Glacier Boyz 22 30 Wild Aces [24]
9:00 p.m. Beasts 48 44 Zappers [24]
Week 2 February 20 8:00 p.m. Beasts 30 28 Wild Aces [25]
9:00 p.m. Zappers 28 30 Glacier Boyz [25]
Week 3 February 27 8:00 p.m. Zappers 34 30 Wild Aces
9:30 p.m. Beasts 28 22 Glacier Boyz
Week 4 March 6 8:00 p.m. Glacier Boyz 52 56 Wild Aces
9:30 p.m. Beasts 26 32 Zappers

Notable players

Source[26]

References

  1. ^ "Rule Book". Attach.io. Retrieved November 15, 2017.
  2. ^ "eFL Official Website". eFL. Retrieved November 15, 2017.
  3. ^ "Andy Dolich; The time is now for fan-controlled sport".
  4. ^ Hofstetter, Steve (March 16, 2008). "The Ultimate Fan Fantasy: Owning a Piece of the Rock". The New York Times.
  5. ^ Swaminathan, Nikhil (2008-08-07). "Go Team - Issue 012 - GOOD". Good.is. Archived from the original on November 26, 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-02.
  6. ^ a b "A tech startup plans a revolution with the first fan-run sports franchise". CBSSports.com. Retrieved 2017-01-02.
  7. ^ Flynn, Erin (June 6, 2016). "Project FANchise: Behind the fan-run football team". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  8. ^ "How Can Football Video Games Get More Realistic? Real Humans". The Wall Street Journal. April 17, 2017. Archived from the original on April 21, 2017.
  9. ^ a b c "Are You Ready for Some (Fan-Controlled) Football?". The Washington Post. October 16, 2019. Archived from the original on October 16, 2019.
  10. ^ "Hello World – Introducing the eFL and the FAN Token". Electronic Football League. October 11, 2017.
  11. ^ Rob Goldberg (March 6, 2019). "Chad Johnson Joins Marshawn Lynch, Richard Sherman in FCFL as a Team Owner". Bleacher Report.
  12. ^ "Los Angeles Chargers running back Austin Ekeler is now a team owner in the Fan Controlled Football League".
  13. ^ "Quavo Announced as Newest Investor of Fan Controlled Football".
  14. ^ https://www.yourerie.com/digital-first/digital-exclusive/digital-exclusive-fan-controlled-football/
  15. ^ https://www.fcf.io/how-it-works
  16. ^ "Fan Controlled Football League Chooses Team Names, Solicits Logo Submissions".
  17. ^ "Fan Controlled Football League Announces Fan-Chosen Team Names".
  18. ^ "Johnny Manziel agrees to join Fan Controlled Football startup league". ESPN. December 30, 2020.
  19. ^ Hammock, Will. "Infinite Energy Arena to host unique Fan Controlled Football, featuring Johnny Manziel". Gwinnett Daily Post. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
  20. ^ "Twitch Combines Live Sports and Video Games in Fan-Controlled Football Partnership".
  21. ^ "Fan Controlled Football to Stream on Twitch in 2021". SportTechie. September 23, 2020.
  22. ^ "Fan Controlled Football drafts in Twitch for enhanced viewer interaction". Sports Pro Media. October 26, 2020.
  23. ^ "Fan Controlled Football". FCF. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  24. ^ a b "FAN CONTROLLED FOOTBALL (FCF) SEASON V1.0 WEEK ONE: GAMEDAY SUMMARY". FCF.io. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
  25. ^ a b "FCF SEASON V1.0: WEEK TWO GAME SUMMARY". FCF.io. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
  26. ^ "All Players". FCF.
  27. ^ Morona, Joey (March 1, 2021). "Ex-Browns Josh Gordon and Johnny Manziel to reunite in Fan Control Football League". Cleveland.com. Retrieved March 1, 2021.
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