Playing sports as an adult is an extremely rewarding activity. Not only does it provide great exercise, it’s a way to connect and spend time with friends. Starting your own adult sports league seems to be the logical next step. All you need are some players, some jerseys, and a location, right? Yes, but there are several more steps involved in getting started. While playing your sport is fun, organizing a recreational sports league will take time and effort. We love the game as much as you do, and we want to help you succeed. We created this how-to guide so you’ll know everything involved and the steps necessary to make your league a fun and successful endeavor. Let’s get started!
Step 1: Gather Players and Determine Interest
Before a league can go anywhere, you’ll need enough players to create teams. A good starting amount is 6 teams, but you may be able to get away with 4 if players are scarce (of course, more is better). Ask around to determine people’s interest. You can even post some announcements online or on bulletin boards. It may be hard to find players at first, but as your league gets up and running it will generate more buzz. In this “research phase,” you need to determine good days and times for games (when people are most available) and how much your members are willing to pay. You can even establish a discount for signing up early to encourage more people to join.
Step 2: Determine Your Budget
There are a lot of costs involved in having a successful league. Before crunching the numbers, think about your why you want to do this. Are you playing for fun or for profit? When you’re starting a league just for fun, you only need to generate enough money to break even. This is usually accomplished through player membership fees. If you’re playing for profit, though, you need a profit margin of at least 25% in order to be sustainable. These are costs to budget for: ● Venue ● Referees ● Apparel/Jerseys ● Equipment ● Advertising ● End of league prizes (optional) Do your research to determine your costs. Then add 25% if your league is for-profit. Your final number can be divided by the amount of teams/players you have to help determine membership fees. You can also look for sponsors to offset costs.
Step 3: Find a Venue
You have several options when it comes to finding a facility for your games, but you should always book early. Many leagues get put on hold simply because they waited too long to get their venue. Your location should be secured several weeks before the season starts. Here are some great venue options: ● Public schools ● Public parks ● Private schools ● Community centers ● Sports complexes ● Churches When determining your facility, remember to factor in distance. No one wants to drive for an hour every week to play a short game. Find a location that’s 15-30 minutes away from your players.
Step 4: Hire Refs and Other Assistants
Good referees will keep your players safe and help them have a great time. They will also be assertive and consistent with their calls. If you’re lucky enough to know some refs who want to donate their time, all the better. If not, you’re looking at $10-20 an hour. Just don’t overlook this step. Refs are important to help maintain order in your league and they will make your players view each game as more important and professional. You may also need additional help like coaches and people to maintain equipment and fields. This will depend on your type of league and location, so plan accordingly.
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How to Organize a Recreational Sports League
At Playpass, we are a team of athletic geeks and recreational league fanatics who love anything and everything sports. Together, we've organized sports for 10 years for over 24,000 players and managed 340 recreational leagues.
Why Did We Write This Guide?
We've played, managed, and coached a lot of sports. And throughout the years, we've noticed something: while playing is fun, organizing recreational sports takes time and effort.
We wanted to fix that. So we did.
We've put our sports knowledge together and created this guide. In it, we explain everything you need to know about starting a recreational sports league.
Here's What You'll Learn:
How to Plan Your Sports League
Why Great League Rules and Policies Matter
How to Manage Your Sports League Like a Pro
Three sections. That's it. Let's go.
The good news: you don't have to spend a fortune to start a sports league. The bad news: if it's your first time organizing a league, there are costs you may overlook.
The Four Costs You Need to Know
Facility
Equipment
Referees
Marketing
Cost breakdown of a typical league with a 25% profit margin:
Facility costs will likely make up about half of your overall expenses
Organizing a sports league for fun? Great! You just need to break even (and hopefully have enough cash to throw a party at the end of the season). However, if you want to start a sustainable sports business, you need a profit margin of 20-40% per league.
Find a Facility
If you own a facility, skip this section. You're lucky. Everyone is jealous.
For everyone else, find and book a facility before the season. It will save you a lot of time and stress. Trust us. Finding and booking a facility is both the most important and hardest part of organizing a sports league.
Here's a not-so-hypothetical story that explains:
Once, there was a sports organizer. Let's call him Josh. Josh was great. He was super passionate about building his soccer league and willing to do the all the organizing work. Go Josh! He worked hard to schedule his league, did some great marketing, and even collected payments from players.
But just before the season, Josh ran into a problem. He couldn't find a facility. Anywhere. Josh scrambled around calling every place and person he knew. No dice.
After all that work, his league was caputs.
Don't be like Josh. Plan ahead, and you'll be ok.
Before you do anything else, find and book a facility
Here's a list of facilities you can rent:
Public parks
Public schools
Private schools
Sports complexes
Community centers
Churches
The price of each facility will be different - some are nicer than others, more in-demand, or have restrictions. However, once you find a facility within your budget, make sure it's close. No one wants to travel 60 minutes to play a 60-minute flag football game. Pick a facility within 20-30 minutes of most players.
Hire Referees/Umpires
Solid refs will make your league great. They keep players safe, happy and having fun. However, they don't have to be perfect. The best refs are assertive and consistent in their calls. That's what matters. Give yourself the support you need, hire confident refs.
The job of a referee is to:
Arrive 10 -15 minutes before games start.
Know all league rules and regulations.
Enforce these rules.
Resolve any conflicts.
Referees/Umpires are paid $10-20 an hour.
Choose Quality Equipment
Buy good equipment. It'll cost you more upfront, but it's worth it. Players will have a better experience. Plus, you won't have to replace worn or broken equipment during the season.
Know the equipment you're responsible for. A good facility will provide all fixed equipment, including goalposts, basketball hoops, volleyball nets, and line markings. All other equipment is your responsibility. This can include balls, pumps, flags, bats, cones, whistles, and pinnies.
Ask your facility to store your equipment. Avoid bringing equipment to games. You don't want to forget anything. There's nothing worse than having players but no ball.
Cost of Uniforms
Rec league -uniforms" are usually cotton t-shirts and generally cheap. However, if you want to cut costs, wait for a sponsor. They'll help pay for uniforms. Until then, there are more reasonable alternatives.
In sports where players can easily mistake teams (i.e., basketball, flag football, soccer), buy pinnies to make teams clear. For sports where teams are clear (i.e. volleyball, badminton, baseball) don't even buy uniforms. Let players wear what they want.
Take Team Photos. Quick!
Make sure to take team photos (with your best camera) the day you hand out uniforms. People forget to bring them after that. Take one serious and one goofy photo. Then post the pictures on social media (more on that soon) asking players to tag and share the photos of themselves.
Run a great sports league from day one, and your league will grow on its own. Word of mouth travels fast. Start by marketing your league to friends and family. Ask them to join your league, if they know of anyone who'd be interested, or if they'll help spread the word. Even if they don't become members, friends are free promoters (they'll work out in your league's t-shirt!) and great recruiters, too.
Make a Facebook Page
Use the online platform that is right for your league. Too many to choose from? Pick the one that your target demographic uses the most. Then stick to it.
That being said, Facebook is the most popular social platform, and it's likely your players are using it. A lot. So creating a Facebook page is smart. The goal of your Facebook page is to engage your sport's community and create content members will like and share.
3 Tips to create excellent shareable content on Facebook:
Stay active
Post at least 2-7x a week on your league's page with photos, updates, and sports related news that is interesting to your target audience.
Show the small things
Just booked the field? Post a picture. Purchased new basketballs? Post a picture. When members see that you're excited about your league, they'll get excited, too.
Ask questions
Post sports related questions or ask your audience to comment on a funny sports picture. Playful interactions show that your league has personality. At the very start, a Facebook page, or whichever platform you choose, is your primary online presence. Once membership grows, think about creating a website and expanding onto other social platforms.
Create rules
Create and modify rules based on the atmosphere of your league. If you're running a social, less competitive league, think about modifying rules. This helps new, less skilled players have more fun. Additionally, you may have to adjust rules due to time or facility constraints. Whatever the case, make sure teams are aware of all rules and regulations before the season starts. For more competitive leagues, have a pre-season meeting with captains.
Your job is to have rules in place that are clearly stated and consistently applied.
Adults usually play by the rules you set. But there are times when a team tries to add an all-star in the playoffs, gets in a heated argument, or aggressively disagrees with a call. For moments like these, have rules of conduct in place. Clearly define what behaviors result in league suspension or termination.
You'd be surprised: just reminding players of proper sportsmanship makes your league better. Setting behavior expectations reduces conflict, keeps games moving, and helps refs.
Sportsmanship guidelines can include:
Shake hands before and after every match.
Respect the referee, even when they're wrong.
Respect opponents and teammates. Don't insult them, do help them up.
Have integrity. Don't whine, cheat or fake an injury.
Cheer positively. Don't tolerate bad behavior from others.
Payment Policies
Ideally, you want to collect player fees upfront. It's the best way to ensure payment. Despite their promises, people don't actually "bring it next week," especially friends.
If you need to, set up a payment location where people can come and pay you. Even better is to get a Paypal, Venmo, or Square account so members can pay you without cash. Like most credit card providers, expect to pay 2.9% per payment.
When you're ready, find a league management software that supports online payments (wait…we have that). Until then, try hard to collect fees before the season or at the first game.
Player Refunds
Use common sense with refunds. In general, be clear and fair.
Provide refunds for:
Injury (Use your best judgment if players are injured).
Unexpected life circumstance (i.e. job relocation where a player wants to pull out of the entire league, not just certain games).
Misjudgment of play (i.e. in week 1 a player has a terrible time and level play is too competitive for their enjoyment)
Do not give refunds more than 3 weeks into a 10-week league or if a player is terminated due to a behavior violation.
Be The Face of Your League
Make sure you get out there. Go to games. Talk to players. Tell people why you created a sports league and why it's great. When you develop relationships with people (which they will appreciate), you will quickly learn what's working in your league and what's not. Don't worry, they'll make sure to tell you.
Have a presence off the field, too. Send weekly emails to players with league reminders and updates. They'll appreciate the communication.
Stay Organized
Choose a software and tools that are an efficient use of your time. Starting out, Google spreadsheets are great for tracking payments, storing player registration, liability waivers, and creating your league's schedule.
Once your league grows, you can create a website or use online registration software (that's us!) to make your life easier.
Organizing a sports league can be a real headache. But just like the game, hard work can be fun. You'll meet some great people all while organizing the sports you love. It's the truth.
With this guide, you have the foundation to start your league. If you're ready to take the next step, we can help! Our league management software is easy to use and best of all free!
FAQ
Question: Do I need to register a company and buy insurance? Answer: Our only formal advice is this: you need to follow all local laws and regulations. We can't help there. We have seen organizers start small without lots of setup work and then done things more officially later on. That sounds like a smart way to do it, but you should check your local laws first.
Next Steps
Ready to start putting something together? We can help! Playpass makes software for online registration, waivers, scheduling and a free website builder.
You can create your free league website on Playpass in minutes. It's easy to start accepting online payments, collect signed liability waiver forms, share schedules with teams, and more. For starters, here's our guide to getting started with online registration.
Any questions? We're here to help. Shoot us a message at [email protected]
Is it possible to create a league of super clubs and not kill the national championships? - I Feel Devotion - Blogs
On the example of the Euroleague.
How European basketball works
The main difference between football and basketball is not that football players can only dream of a league of super clubs, while basketball players realize everything. The main difference is that the football system in its current form more or less works for everyone, while in basketball they cannot come to at least a non-ideal model and, without particularly risking anything, they have the opportunity to go even to extreme experiments (which, unfortunately, not happening).
There are many reasons for this, but in a nutshell:
• Major league basketball is not in Europe and sucks in talent from all over the world;
• In most European countries, basketball is very much less popular than football and does not pay off at all;
• Because of this, even the most successful, most popular, most well-managed clubs go into the red and exist thanks to municipalities or sponsors;
The most typical story for European basketball is the Italian Siena. Five years ago, it was one of the monsters of the Euroleague, not losing in the home championship. The other day, "Siena" was unable to go to an away match in the second division of the Italian league.
Basketball is popular mainly in the south of Europe, in the countries with the weakest economies. And he is extremely vulnerable to any shocks: Greek giants Oli and Pao have regular problems, Fenerbahce felt discomfort as soon as Dogus left basketball, Alisher Usmanov saved Khimki a few years ago ... Even superclubs cannot be sure in tomorrow.
• The nature of basketball is that it's class that decides, so the richer clubs almost always win, the sensations are something unique and totally unrepeatable at a distance;
• This is why almost all European championships live in a state of entrenched hierarchy. For decades, the same teams have been fighting for medals, the same teams have been jostling in mid-table traffic.
• Accordingly, this leads to stagnation. Without internal intrigue, without new names, without stars, but with a clear hierarchy, national championships cannot develop qualitatively. Each of them has its own superclubs, but they themselves are closely inside the leagues, which they regularly iron, but without any pleasure.
• No one seems to be to blame for such a device. So it happened historically, something like the allocation of the rich in the peasant communities - the natural process of the formation of giant clubs took place in almost all decent European leagues.
An important feature to understand is that basketball superclubs can't compete globally with football superclubs, of course, but they're just as competitive within their sport. Only the naive believe that the main team of the country is the Russian team. The main team of the country is CSKA. If we take the basketball audience (and not people who are ready to cheer for a cockroach race participant if only under the tricolor), then the majority here supports the army team.
• At the same time, all European leagues are united into a common system through European competitions, and therefore they cannot change anything at their level (introduce new rules, set a salary cap, and so on).
Accordingly, only two alternatives are seen as a logical solution . Both of them are imperfect, but you can only choose from them.
The first is the arrival of an external force that would establish control over all leagues at once and introduce basketball communism . Relatively speaking, FIBA acting through national federations could become such a pan-European dictator. General rules for everyone, a pan-European salary limit taking into account tax systems, clear control through government agencies, the creation of pan-European cups with the same and understandable conditions for everyone, some kind of fun format in the style of “March Madness” ... It’s not a fact that such an idea would be interesting to the audience - once again, the European audience respects brands, not the rise of nonames. It is not a fact that the resistance of influential superclubs could be overcome. And it is absolutely certain that this would generate an unprecedented level of corruption even for FIBA bunglers. But it's really the only conceivable way to create any kind of transparent structure in basketball leagues, where there would be equal opportunities, intrigue, underdog breakthroughs and new names.
However, communism, even basketball communism, is the same illusion.
The second alternative is the bestial grin of capitalism in the form of the creation of a league of superclubs . Everything is very tough and harsh here: the giants not only continue to dominate the national championships, but also get more opportunities to earn money; getting into an elite club is extremely difficult; no one is interested in the sports principle, here they think only about marketing, creating a quality product and ways to make a profit.
Such a system is cruel to small teams and even to insignificant championships (and in insignificant until next year, for example, even the French championship is listed) - they are generally not allowed anywhere. But, at least, it gives hope that European basketball will someday start making money, even if only its elite part. Superclubs in this version should become a locomotive that will drag everything else along with it by increasing the attractiveness of European basketball as a whole.
The second model, of course, is called the Euroleague – it combines a tournament of superclubs called the Euroleague and a tournament of teams that would like to become superclubs called the Eurocup, which it oversees.
Euroleague and ruthless capitalism
It is already clear that the league of super clubs - in the basketball version - is not an ideal, but a necessity.
Euroleague was created in 2000 to make money on the most attractive asset of European basketball - club brands.
The tournament system is constantly changing, but its basis is the so-called licenses. Category "A" licenses for regular participants (they do not lose their place even if they fail in the national championships). Category "B" licenses for teams that have earned the right to participate through a successful performance in the home league. And all sorts of "wild cards" for those in whom the leadership of the Euroleague and the founding superclubs see potential: for example, Bayern and Willerbahn received Tony Parker's permanent license for several years.
Such a device allows you to squeeze the maximum out of European basketball - to sell giants' matches and bring superclubs to where there is money. For example, the Euroleague has long dreamed of getting into England.
The exhaust is still funny, even by basketball standards. The Euroleague earned €58.8m last season: an average of €3.7m per club. Given that the minimum budget is 6 million, and on average clubs operate with budgets of 15-20 million euros.
Euroleague's main hope is for the future and continuous development. Far from being a perfect organization, it is at least the only league in Europe that is growing and changing in any way.
The Euroleague has introduced a new format of the regular season, where now there are 30 matches, and there will be even more.
Euroleague increases the average attendance (+13% in the 2016/17 season and +4.3 in the 17/18 season) – and several times the total attendance due to more matches.
No matter how funny the numbers are, the Euroleague increased profitability by 96% from season-15/16.
In the coming years, the Euroleague is set for further expansion, penetration into France and England, additional opportunities for Eurocup clubs, and more concentrated marketing efforts (for example, CSKA almost doubled attendance in four years and reached numbers that Russian basketball has not seen before).
And also to solve three main problems:
1. Imperfection of the system
There are not enough superclubs in basketball, and therefore every season new teams appear in the Euroleague that have succeeded in the national championships or the Eurocup.
The format with a super-long marathon of the regular season turns out to be painful for such insecure applicants for elitism. They lack the depth of the squad, as a result of which they fail either in the Euroleague, where they aspired to, or in the national championship (and lose their chances for the Euroleague next year), or both.
Equality is a dream. But for almost twenty years of existence, the Euroleague has not been able to get rid of the clubs that do not look great compared to the rest and only annoy everyone.
2. Imbalance in finances within the Euroleague itself
The Euroleague has a fairplay system, but it boils down to ensuring that contracts are guaranteed and no one is cheating on anyone.
The Euroleague cannot impose a salary cap or any other restrictions due to too large differences between different countries in the field of taxation.
As a result, teams with a budget of 6 million and a budget of 42 million take part in the tournament.
Largely because of this, the winner of the tournament is determined in the Final Four. It is the most effective tool for destroying the distinction between the rich and the obscenely rich.
3. Settlement of hostilities against FIBA
FIBA thought that everything in European basketball was so cool that it was necessary to insert also windows for international matches.
The Euroleague, which suffered direct losses from this, in response refused to let players go to national teams.
Following the results of the first qualifying tournament, after which it turned out that the European champion will not play in the World Cup, the FIBA bosses look even worse than they usually look. But self-affirmation at the expense of such geniuses does not relieve headaches - somehow this problem will need to be solved.
***
In general, the Euroleague has been in approximately the same state for the last 20 years: it is growing, changing, doing something, although not as fast as we would like, and gives hope for a more cheerful future.
Does the superclub league kill national championships
In any case, the numbers do not show this t .
The trends that are visible come down to banal truths: that blonde in the third row plays well interesting leagues like the Spanish DIA are constantly developing and showing relatively stable numbers, degrading leagues like the Italian Serie A are losing their audience and sponsors, but also not radically. In the VTB League, the decline and rise correlate exclusively with the presence of specific teams, in particular Parma, Zenit and Lokomotiv (as well as the legendary UNICS manipulating attendance statistics).
The existence of the Euroleague seems to have a priori destructive component: it allows the rich to get richer and gets in the way of the poor, who are trying to reach a new level through sports success.
This is the main claim against the Euroleague, which is fenced by FIBA.
But the figures that are available do not confirm the same in practice.
Italy was dominated by Siena for a very long time. But interest in the tournament has continued to decline in recent years, when Milan (the holder of the “A” license) wins with great difficulty or does not win at all (three titles in five years).
Attendance in the VTB League is in no way related to the presence in the Euroleague. Both CSKA, and even more so Khimki, to put it mildly, do not confirm their status by filling the stands in the national championship. More interest in other teams.
Germany didn't have a permanent license for any club, it was just that Bamberg dominated there for many years – and the league dived. In Israel, the A-licence is held by Maccabi, the champion is determined in the Final Four, where Tel Aviv has won only twice in the last seven years - but there is an increase. Lithuania has a dominant A-licensed club – the league is still growing slowly but steadily.
Yes, and it is difficult to find clubs in Europe that would fall into the category of offended: they could boast of a solid financial base, sports success and consistently high attendance for at least a couple of seasons, but were not allowed by the Euroleague. There are such teams only in Spain, but four teams from the Spanish league already play in the main European tournament.
The second negative aspect has appeared only recently.
As the Euroleague is gaining momentum, superclubs all over Europe have begun throwing tantrums and blackmailing local leagues, threatening to leave the national leagues . Over the past month, all the losers in the national cups have freaked out: Real Madrid, Efes, Red Star and Olympiacos. Real Madrid and Olympiakos (and then Panathinaikos just in case) began to talk that they could refuse everything except the Euroleague if their demands (specifically, punishments for referees or the appointment of foreign derby / vice versa non-foreign judges) will not be met. Euroleague President Jordi Bertomeu has already spoken in the sense that he sees nothing wrong with the fact that the conditional Real Madrid will not play in the DIA league.
We have not yet seen a precedent for the release itself, so it's hard to take it all seriously. So far, this all seems to be not too virtuoso methods of pressure.
In general, basketball example shows that it is possible to create a league of superclubs and it will not even destroy the national championships. Although in theory - it may well be .
Marciulionis tried to create his own league. What was it? - Personal foul - Blogs
In America, the first season of a new league called the American Football Alliance (AAF) started last week. This league seems to be hoping in the future to become a relative of the great and mighty NFL, to become for it a development league, such as the NHL and the NBA have. But so far it is perceived as a completely independent event.
In general, in America there is a very rich choice in terms of sports leagues. (Hereinafter, "America" refers to North America in the form of the United States and Canada. Forgive me, the Mexicans).
In North American sports, in this sense, the atmosphere of a supermarket reigns. If you love American football, you have the NFL, college teams, and now the AAF. The USFL and WFL have been in the past, and the XFL has had a short but vibrant life that is set to be revived again in 2020. Plus, there is still (albeit dying) the AFL, the arena football league. The AFL even had its own "daughter" AF2 for a while. In short, there is something to see - sports do not exist in one league.
In Europe, for example, this is more difficult. Football - national championships, plus the Champions League and the Europa League. All. The UEFA Super Cup can't even be counted as it's one match.
Yes, within the countries there is the main championship, and a whole hierarchy of leagues, and the Cup, and the Super Cup, and small nice tournaments such as the FNL Cup, the Club World Cup and the like. It seems that they are going to revive the Intertoto Cup, introduce some kind of Super Leagues and so on.
Basketball used to have Korac Cup (1971-2002), the Central European League (2007-2010), the Baltic League (2004-2018), the Adriatic and Balkan Leagues are still functioning. This is all in addition to the four main leagues in Europe - Euroleague, Eurocup, FIBA Eurocup and FIBA Champions League.
There seems to be something to see. But there is one problem. It is typical for both football and basketball, and in general almost all team sports.
If you cut off North America, it turns out that football/hockey/basketball is everywhere identical .
Is this a problem? I think most sports fans don't even think about it. The universality of the rules in this case is even an advantage. Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Serie A, RPL - the style of play and its quality vary, but ultimately football is football. In basketball? The championship of Spain, the Russian Superleague, any of the international leagues - basketball, as they say, it is basketball in Africa too.
But you can't say the same about America.
In Europe, sport is run by overweight and serious organizations - FIFA, FIBA, IIHF (or IFHL, whatever you like). In America, everything is subordinated to the commercial interests of individual leagues. The NHL may disobey the IIHF, and the NBA may turn FIBA in one place. MLS is subordinate to the US Football Federation, and therefore FIFA. But at the same time, it still manages to introduce purely American “chips” atypical for European football - a closed league structure, division into conferences, an All-Star Game, playoffs, a salary cap and stuff like that. It turns out that in America they play their own hockey, their own basketball and treat football in their own way.
And it's not just those "chips", but the rules of the game and the conditions for the existence of leagues. Everyone knows that in the NHL the court is narrower, which means that the game is faster and more aggressive. In the NBA, it's the opposite - the court is longer and wider, and the three-point arc is farther. Such seemingly banal differences have a huge imprint on the nature of the game, its geometry, requirements for players and much more. In America, even domestic basketball is significantly different - collegiate basketball differs from NBA basketball in much the same way that regular football differs from beach or mini-football. The NCAA has a different layout, different rules, a different season format, and different winner definitions.
And every new league created in America is always trying to put pressure on its uniqueness. Rules change, are rewritten and evolve. In Europe, this is much more difficult. But there was also an interesting experiment in European basketball that deserves attention.
How the NEBL was created and why
The famous Soviet and Lithuanian basketball player Sarunas Marciulionis in 1998 took the initiative to create the NEBL - the North European Basketball League (from the North European Basketball League, NEBL).
In 1999, the NEBL promotional tournament of eight teams took place. It was a kind of demo version of the future project. Three teams from Lithuania, two from Latvia, plus a club from Estonia, Finland and Sweden.
Actually, the purpose of creating the tournament can be understood already by the countries participating in the very first promotional tournament - you will not find teams from Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Sweden among today's participants in the Eurocup and Euroleague. Marciulionis believed that NEBL was able to master the basketball market in Northern Europe and argued that "Lithuanians are able to teach the Scandinavians how to play basketball normally."
“I see the goal of this project as helping clubs from our region - the Baltics, Scandinavia, Russia, Ukraine - to stand on a par with the southern teams that set the tone in Europe. Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey are now dictating fashion there. But in the northern countries, basketball traditions are no less!” Marciulionis said.
In addition to the unusual geography, Marciulionis pursued the goal of making the European NBA in terms of values. This was expressed not only in the fact that colleagues from the United States worked in the NEBL office. Marciulionis has stressed in every interview that he doesn't like the semi-amateur status of European basketball, where teams pay to play in tournaments. He wanted to build an exclusively Americanized structure, where the clubs would, in his own words, "pay only for the road to the airport. " NEBL was actively looking for sponsors and business partners, paid all the expenses for refereeing, transport and accommodation for the teams, paid non-acid prize money (100 thousand dollars for four participants in the Final Four in the first year), earned money on TV contracts. The latter was almost a key rule for the young league - one of the conditions for joining the NBL was the team's contract for broadcasting matches on one of the national TV channels.
“Our ideas differ significantly from the way the FIBA European Federation interprets the development of basketball. In Europe, they know how to play basketball, but they don't know how to pack it in a catchy wrapper, serve it on a silver platter. Dilettantism in the organization of the case nullifies the professionalism of the players,” Marciulionis stressed.
In terms of rules, the NEBL was somewhat ahead of the rest of European basketball - from the very first draw in the tournament matches, teams were given 24 seconds for possession, and the game was divided into quarters of 10 minutes each. FIBA has approved these innovations only since 2001. In addition, NEBL decided to follow the American Basketball Association of the 70s (ABA), which, among other things, was recognizable thanks to the colorful game balls. The design of balls in the NEBL was almost the same as in the ABA.
Unfortunately, the fate of the NEBL as a league turned out to be even more tragic.
How it all ended
NEBL grew by leaps and bounds. In 2000, CSKA won the first full-fledged league competition, in which 14 teams from 9 countries took part. A year later, the number of teams grew to 16, and coverage - up to 12 countries. In the 2001/02 season, the league reached some gigantic proportions - 31 teams from 19 countries. That season, Ural Great Perm played in the final and lost to Lietuvos Rytas (74:79).
The final match is even on YouTube. This is almost the only video evidence that NEBL really existed. You can look at Sergei Panov and Vasily Karasev in the juice itself.
“The more competition, the better. We do not oppose our league to existing tournaments, but we try to establish ourselves as a viable and commercially profitable competition, ”Marciulionis saw the goal of his tournament as such. Alas, this dream was not destined to be realized.
By 2001-2002, the Euroleague acquired its modern form, but at the same time, the ULEB Cup (this is today's Eurocup) and a little later - the Challenge Cup (Eurochallenge) were created. The graters of FIBA and the Euroleague began, which do not stop to this day. As a result, NEBL was buried in all this heap of reforms of European basketball. In addition, Zalgiris and CSKA gradually merged from NEBL.
One source claims that NEBL was kept afloat by a contract with Modern Times Group, a media company that had a number of TV channels in Scandinavia. The agreement was for four years, four league seasons and lasted.
What it's like
In 1996, women's basketball in the United States experienced a wild rise in popularity for two reasons: (a) the US women's team skating the rink at the home of the Atlanta Olympics and (b) the University of Connecticut team finished the season without defeat, won 35 victories in a row and became the team of the year in the eyes of many journalists.
The American Basketball League (ABL) became the first independent professional league for women in US history and began in the fall of 1996 years old Just six months later, the WNBA spun off from the NBA.
The ABL decided that whoever got up first got the slippers, so the League's managers, not for the sake of long-term prospects, decided to force the first season. They managed to sign most of the US team from the 1996 Olympics, which allowed the league not to crap out in the first season from fear at the sight of a marketing armada from the NBA, led by its then commissioner David Stern.
After two years of rivalry with the WNBA, the ABL realized that it smelled of kerosene and proposed a merger of the leagues, or at least cooperation in the form of joint All-Star Games. Stern flatly refused.
As a result, the ABL lasted only two full seasons: 1996/97 and 1997/98. The third ABL season began with two teams (the Atlanta Glory and the Long Beach Stingrays) going out of business, only to be replaced by two new ones (the Chicago Condors and the Nashville Noises). On December 22, 1998, the ABL filed for bankruptcy right in the middle of the season, when the league's teams had 12 to 15 games played.
It got to the point that in 1999, so many people crowded into the party on the occasion of the finals of the student championship, which was arranged by the leadership of the women's NBA, that many who came, even by invitation, could not get into the premises where the celebration was held. And all because a wild number of players, coaches and other representatives of the ABL came running to this meeting in search of a new job.
Then add 25% if your league is for-profit. Your final
They will also be
Together, we've organized sports for 10 years for over 24,000 players and managed 340 recreational leagues. 
However, if you want to start a sustainable sports business, you need a profit margin of 20-40% per league.
They'll help pay for uniforms. Until then, there are more reasonable alternatives.
Playful interactions show that your league has personality. At the very start, a Facebook page, or whichever platform you choose, is your primary online presence. Once membership grows, think about creating a website and expanding onto other social platforms.
For moments like these, have rules of conduct in place. Clearly define what behaviors result in league suspension or termination.
Like most credit card providers, expect to pay 2.9% per payment.
When you develop relationships with people (which they will appreciate), you will quickly learn what's working in your league and what's not. Don't worry, they'll make sure to tell you.
We can't help there. We have seen organizers start small without lots of setup work and then done things more officially later on. That sounds like a smart way to do it, but you should check your local laws first. 
The main difference is that the football system in its current form more or less works for everyone, while in basketball they cannot come to at least a non-ideal model and, without particularly risking anything, they have the opportunity to go even to extreme experiments (which, unfortunately, not happening). 
Both of them are imperfect, but you can only choose from them. 
In the VTB League, the decline and rise correlate exclusively with the presence of specific teams, in particular Parma, Zenit and Lokomotiv (as well as the legendary UNICS manipulating attendance statistics). 
More interest in other teams. 
Over the past month, all the losers in the national cups have freaked out: Real Madrid, Efes, Red Star and Olympiacos. Real Madrid and Olympiakos (and then Panathinaikos just in case) began to talk that they could refuse everything except the Euroleague if their demands (specifically, punishments for referees or the appointment of foreign derby / vice versa non-foreign judges) will not be met. Euroleague President Jordi Bertomeu has already spoken in the sense that he sees nothing wrong with the fact that the conditional Real Madrid will not play in the DIA league. 
4), Claudio Grassi/Lapresse, Nicholas Muller/SOPA Images 
Plus, there is still (albeit dying) the AFL, the arena football league. The AFL even had its own "daughter" AF2 for a while. In short, there is something to see - sports do not exist in one league. 
The NHL may disobey the IIHF, and the NBA may turn FIBA in one place. MLS is subordinate to the US Football Federation, and therefore FIFA. But at the same time, it still manages to introduce purely American “chips” atypical for European football - a closed league structure, division into conferences, an All-Star Game, playoffs, a salary cap and stuff like that. It turns out that in America they play their own hockey, their own basketball and treat football in their own way. 
The NCAA has a different layout, different rules, a different season format, and different winner definitions. 
Marciulionis believed that NEBL was able to master the basketball market in Northern Europe and argued that "Lithuanians are able to teach the Scandinavians how to play basketball normally." 
" NEBL was actively looking for sponsors and business partners, paid all the expenses for refereeing, transport and accommodation for the teams, paid non-acid prize money (100 thousand dollars for four participants in the Final Four in the first year), earned money on TV contracts. The latter was almost a key rule for the young league - one of the conditions for joining the NBL was the team's contract for broadcasting matches on one of the national TV channels. 
FIBA has approved these innovations only since 2001. In addition, NEBL decided to follow the American Basketball Association of the 70s (ABA), which, among other things, was recognizable thanks to the colorful game balls. The design of balls in the NEBL was almost the same as in the ABA. 
