The new minor league football team the CT Ravens has landed in Danbury with the owners promising a five-year plan for establishing and growing a following in Fairfield County.
Managing partner of Harvest Wealth Partners in Ridgefield, Lloyd Dotson, along with Fairfield County residents Roland Whitley, Raymond Manka and Todd Kennedy, joined together to provide seed money for the team.
The players will don the black and purple of the NFL Baltimore Ravens starting this June, and play an eight game regular season in the New England Football League, a 50-team league with four divisions.
“We will be bringing a competitive product to a league that is equally as competitive,” Dotson said. “This is far from a beer league.”
Last year, Kennedy approached Dotson, who played football at Brown University and a number of minor league teams, with the concept of creating a minor league team in Fairfield County that can grow.
“The question with minor league sports is, can you make it bigger and better than what it is,” Dotson said. “That has a lot more to do with the business backing than any of what happens on the field. There are a lot of minor league teams out there that are great and can play, but to actually make it into a sustaining and thriving business is another thing.”
Dotson said the team has plans of securing a national retailer as a major team sponsor.
The team owners have yet to announce where the home field will be located. Dotson said, though he could not mention where, Danbury real estate owners have approached the team board with offers of location opportunities.
“The board will be making a decision in the next month,” Dotson said. “We will be trying to make it a location that”™s easily accessible.”
In the initial years, he said, players will not receive salaries, though coaches will.
“It takes a commitment beyond four quarters,” Dotson said. “Minor league athletes range anywhere from 18 to 45 years old, most work full time and head straight from the job site to catch a few hours of practice before going home to their families.”
According to 2010 data from Texas-based Plunkett Research, a company that specializes in sports related statistics, professional minor league sporting events in the Northeast have had an average 15 percent increase year over year in attendance for the past four years. Plunkett attributes the increase to relatively inexpensive prices, as major league sporting events prices continue to rise.
Dotson said it is common for minor league teams to start and fold in a matter of a few years because of financial obligations.
“We just have to make sure they are managed at the level this league deserves,” Dotson said. “We plan to make a presence in not only the community, but also with the businesses and the corporate connections throughout the county. This is going to be a program that”™s talked about 20 years from now that”™s been done right.”
The team has plans to work with the youth programs in Ridgefield and Danbury through camps and teaching clinics, in addition to other community outreach programs. Dotson plans to reach out to area colleges as well, to attract graduating players who might not have other prospects to continue playing football.
The team is also talking to area businesses about sponsorship and advertising opportunities.
“Making and keeping a strong connection with area businesses is vital to this team”™s survival,” Dotson said. “If you have a team with a strong regional presence, advertising can be worth the dollar for large and small businesses.”
The owners have hired Bernie Armstrong as general manager, who has made a name in the minor league system for being able to develop teams. Most recently he took the AA Connecticut Bearcats in Wallingford to the top 10 national level of minor league football, and found sponsorships with the sporting goods retailer Modell”™s. He is also the owner of Armstrong Sports Management L.L.C. in West Haven. Over the last year Armstrong was being scouted as a general manager by multiple teams throughout New England.
“One thing about Connecticut is we do not have that pro team in a major sport,” Armstrong said. “In Connecticut, you can see fans of pro teams from all around the country, there”™s really not much to grab hold to in terms of loyalty. We hope to fill that void for the many football fans in this area; they really are hungry for it.”
The team is holding open tryouts in multiple locations throughout the county in a four-week combine-style scouting session.
Armstrong expects 200 players will show up for the tryouts, with intention of keeping 50.
“You have a lot of ex-athletes and players in this area who still have it in them,” Dotson said. “There are a lot of guys like myself who went into their professional fields after playing college, but still have the ability to play some pretty impressive ball.”
Dotson said this is not a pathway to the NFL, though a college player could use a minor league team to stay in playing shape and active.
“What this is, is great, inexpensive, community-based entertainment, which is what a local sports team is supposed to be in the first place,” Dotson said. “Our ticket prices aren”™t going to set anybody back. It will be about half the price of going to a movie.”
Dotson said the team has a five-year program to move the team from single A football to triple A. “If we can do it faster than that wonderful, but our focus is to do it professionally,” he said. “This first year we are focused on building our foundations with a solid team and community ties. In the second year we plan on being extremely competitive.”
