Ok, I'll weigh in...
I'm just going to talk from the standpoint of what it would take to make a pro league work though, not X-Ball in particular, as I don't want anyone confusing this mental excercise with anything that has anything to do with actual events - because frankly I have no clue what's going on anywhere other than the college league, and that I ain't gonna tell ya.
There are probably few people who have sat down and taken as much time to think about what would make a real pro league work as I have - it's a necessary corallary to what would make a real (i.e. free) college league work.
Primarily, one has to realize that professional sports leagues are a business. Nobody cares about who plays, the number one concern is return on investment. NPPL/PSP, primarily, is a contest to see who is the best. No one is making, comparitively, a whole lot of money on NPPL/PSP. Conversely, the Pro league will be a contest to build team equity.
Teams are going to have to have home towns and home fields. Home locations are essential to relating to the audience, and an X-Ball field done right is just one hell of a lot cheaper if you have 8 permanent ones than one you move around all the time - or at least a field that you regularly set up in the same location, kinda like how the United Center doubles for basketball and hockey.
Home locations requite a significant investment. Spectators are not going to take a professional sport seriously that is played at the country fairgrounds. On top of that, you have to pay for the team's paint, practice and travel - and if this is truly a pro league, their salaries. Remember that this is all to create a product - a broadcastable sport - that can be sold. You're not going to get much money for a product that doesn't exist yet that may or may not work, so that means real people are going to have to put lots of money on the line.
Which means you're going to sell legue franchises, and you're going to sell them at the highest price you can that you can find 8 people to pay. That gives you the most investment capital for the league, and you're going to need it - or if not, keep it.
In return for providing the capital, those people get the right to run their own teams, profit from their team, and a share of league profits.
That means the people who end up with teams are going to be those willing to put up the money, and that's going to be virtually the only concern. Whoever is "Selling" the league isn't going to care who his buddy is, if someone he doesn't like is willing to put in another $200k for a piece of the league, they're going to take the 200k. If he doesn't, someone will come along and offer his buddy $200k more than he paid for his share and he'll pocket the $200k and leave.
And these people, again, are going to want one thing: To get their freaking money back. That means they're going to find the best players they can. They're not going to care where they come from, who they play for, or any of that crap - they're going to want the players that will give their team the best shot at getting their money back.
All the conspiracy makes for good gossip, but in the end, rest assured that everyone involved is going to be greedy. Only instead of the short-term-greedy the industry is used to, I suspect we'll see a lot more of the intelligent, long-term type greed come into play. This is not going to work if the people doing it are petty. (coughstevedavidsoncoughusplfailedmiserablycough)
That is all.
- Chris
