By Steve Pastis
San Joaquin
Valley - The Central Valley Football League is off to a good start in
its second season. Six new teams have joined the league this year, including
the South Valley Falcons (Hanford), Kern Valley Aztecs (Tulare/Earlimart),
Orosi Stars, Stanislaus Spartans, Merced Mustangs and Pacifica Islanders (Bay
Area). The league now has 14 teams, playing in two divisions.
“This year, we had games everywhere,” said Jeff King, owner and founder of the CVFL. “I was a little bit nervous, but everywhere was good. We had some real close games and we had a couple of blowouts.”
King estimated that in its opening day, there were 700 people at the Fresno game and 300 people at the game in Orosi.
Last year, its inaugural season, the CVFL included eight teams – the Bakersfield Bulldogs, Central Valley Outlaws (Visalia), Reedley Renegades, the Selma Ravens, Clovis Wolves, Central-Cal Crusaders (Fresno/Clovis), Fresno Pirates and Delano Knights (formerly the Demons). Seven CVFL players earned All-American honors and the CVFL was recognized for three national awards – “Best New League,” “Comeback Team of the Year” for the Clovis Wolves, and King was named “Commissioner of the Year.”
The CVFL is a non-profit, minor league football organization. Players range in age from 18 to over 40, many of them former Valley high school and college football players. The league plays most of its games at Sunnyside High School Stadium in Fresno, Orosi High School Stadium and Liberty Elementary School on South Mooney Blvd.
King was a defensive lineman at Clovis High School, Fresno College and the University of New Mexico. Injuries cut short his NFL career, so he ended up in professional football in Europe for 14 years. As he played and/or coached for eight teams in four countries (Germany, Spain, Austria and Sweden), he learned the league system, including how team sponsorships work. He also studied football league operations when he was a player in another Valley football league.
“I was lucky because I was the West director for the Minor League Football Association,” he said. “I put together players for the West and tried to get our representatives to the championship.”
As a former player, King believed that the quality of football was declining in the Valley. Among the problems he cited was the lack of national exposure for local teams and players.
“I was seeing the level of minor league football drop so I decided when I came home (from Europe), I would make a difference,” he said. “I wanted to raise the level of play around here. I took ideas that I thought were good for players and prior ideas I'd been thinking about.”
He used his contacts and reputation in the Central Valley to get sponsors. He then built a web site, secured venues for the games, hired “a good referee association” and started the search for owners – a combination of former minor league football team owners and new owners. Then he got the players and coaches.
“You have to work backwards,” he explained. “Normally, you should build the teams first, but you have to get the venues six months in advance and the referees three to four months in advance. The easy part is getting the players and coaches who are interested.
“We only had three teams in the beginning,” he said. “In six weeks, we built a team and then we had four other teams join us.”
King believes that the CVFL is good for gang prevention. “It gets them off the streets,” he said. “They have an avenue to stay out of trouble.”
Some CVFL teams play for fun, while others play to win a championship, according to King. Some people play “to show their kids they can do what they did 20 years ago,” he added.
Some, however, say that welcoming players with different motivations dilutes the level of talent in the league.
“I refuse to condense all the teams down and eliminate the opportunity for some guys to play,” King said. “Our goal is to have as many players in the Central Valley as possible.”
To accommodate players of different income levels, the CVFL tries to make the league as affordable as possible to join. Most other leagues charge players between $250-$350 to play, a cost that includes a uniform, according to King.
“We made a rule in our league that owners aren't allowed to charge players more than $150 for the league fee,” he said, adding that with each team collecting the money and using it to pay its $3,500 league fee, “you don't even have to charge every player on your team to play in the league.”
Attending a game is also reasonably priced. Admission to a Central Valley Football League game costs $5 for adults, $3 for teens and $2 for children. Teams also make money from selling merchandise with their team logos online and at games.
As sponsorships, player participation and attendance grow, the main challenge for the CVFL is to secure more locations for its games. The league plan is to have games at high schools on Saturdays and use a local staff for the snack bar and the gate, giving them the revenues. Some school districts are reluctant to allow the CVFL to use their fields, however. King believes that the problem many be the bad reputation minor league football had in the past – something that this league addresses.
“We have a code of ethics and every player and coach has to sign it before every game,” he said. He added that there is a $2 million field liability insurance policy for all 14 teams. “Everything is really insured,” he said.
So where does the CVFL go from here?
“I believe the future of the league is 22 teams in four divisions,” King said. “We would then pretty much be at our maximum for the area.”
King said that he is considering placing Turlock, Stanislaus and Pacifica into a northern California league, leaving the CVFL with teams from Merced to Bakersfield. There may be a new team in Los Banos in 2009, joining the Porterville Prowlers and Yosemite Bears, which will also start play next season.
“We need to go to a real format with teams playing four home games and four away – and bringing in 1,000 fans,” King said. “We need attendance to grow in the future.”
For more information about the CVFL, including a complete schedule, visit www.cvfl.org.
The above story is the property of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit permission in writing from the publisher.