Rich and
looking for a tax write-off? Buy the Indiana Firebirds
By Ross
Leslie, THG Sports
September 12, 2004
The Arena Football
League’s (AFL) Indiana Firebirds are up for sale. Owner Dave Lageschulte has
shut down the team after running it into the ground after only two years.
The franchise had
celebrated 13 years of financial success under other owners in Albany, New York and Indianapolis.
Lageschulte is looking to
sell the Firebirds to the highest bidder in hopes of cutting some of his
losses. He estimates the team has lost several million dollars under his
ownership.
Think you can do a better
job than Lageschulte? You can purchase the team for a bargain-basement price if
you meet the league’s criteria. Normally it costs around $16 million to buy an
AFL team. As of this writing, the highest bid Lageschulte has received on
Ebay.com is just over $2.7 million. Bidding ends on Thursday at 3:55 pm.
AFL rules state an owner
must have $60 million in net worth and be approved by 75 percent of the board of
directors. You must also have $6 million dollars available at your disposal to
run team.
Come on rich guys (and
gals); what do you have to lose? Even if you are as inept as Lageschulte at
running the team, the worst that can happen is you lose a few million bucks.
This would be a drop in a bucket if you meet the league’s ownership criteria.
At least you would have a shot of being a poor man’s Jim Irsay.
