Major League Football: What to Expect from Kickoff


 

SARASOTA, FLORIDA, March 2nd, 2016 – The rescheduled start of the spring season of the Major League Football (MLFB) at Premier Sports Campus sometime this April indicate some positive fallout for Sarasota and Bradenton homes for sale.

The MLFB spring training was supposed to start at the campus in the late half of February 2016 but was postponed for a few weeks following withdrawal of a $20 million investor commitment in startup funds. However, another major investor, Asian Global Capital, immediately committed funding for the league which emphasized that it remains a go for its 2016 maiden season. Its free-agent signing for 80 players proceeded as scheduled mid-Februaryfrom a pool of 2,000 hopefuls. 

Coping with Housing Needs

Major League Football: What to Expect from Kickoff

With the slight delay in spring training though the league would have to tap additional hotels and break up team lodging based on room availability during the tourism and baseball seasons. Some of MLFB’s partner hotels in the Lakewood Ranch area will no longer be able to provide accommodations because of conflicts with rowing events booked in April and May 2016. Other local hotels are reportedly facing similar problems.

Local housing for the league indeed poses some challenges especially during the peak season. For the month-long training camp, MLFB is bringing in 800 players, in addition to about 100 coaches and support staff for the league’s eight teams. A regular 10-week season will kick off in April following the training camp, winding up with a four-team playoff sometime in early July.

Possible 2017 Team Expansion

Lakewood Ranch, along with Sarasota and Manatee counties, is providing tremendous support to the professional spring football league, given the potential business and market exposure that the MLFB stands to generate. For TV coverage alone, the league has sealed a two-year contract with American Sports Network for broadcasting all regular season and post-season games in 2016 and 2017.

In the MLFB’s 2016 debut with eight teams, there will be 40 regular season games. TV coverage could expand in 2017 as the league plans to expand to 12 franchise teams. The home cities that league’s original eight teams will represent are yet to be named. The MLFB, however, has been negotiating stadium leases for quite some time in such markets as Birmingham, Alabama; Little Rock, Arkansas; Akron, Ohio; Eugene, Oregon; and Orlando, Florida.

Windows of Opportunities

There are several residential communities around the Premier Sports Campus which can share in the attention that the MLFB is getting currently as well as the promise of some rental possibilities with its planned expansion. One potential opportunity area is the relatively new development of Creekwood just off SR-70 and a short distance west of the Lakewood Ranch sports campus. Amongst Bradenton and Sarasota homes for sale, this community features new constructions competitively priced in the $200s and designed with three bedrooms within floor plans of between 1,844 and 2,045 square feet.

The seasonal spike of potential renters around the MLFB headquarters likewise bodes well for condos for sale at Fairway Gardens in the Tara Golf and Country Club south of SR-70 opposite of Creekwood. Designed as two-story townhouses, Fairway Gardens typically offer condos for sale featuring two bedrooms and two baths within floor plans ranging from 1,140 to 1,346 square feet. Attractively priced around the $100s, most of these properties convey with either social or full golf membership at Tara which is a private course with a clubhouse, a fitness center and restaurant. The typical lease length of Fairway Gardens condos for sale is one month for a maximum of 12 times a year.