Friday, Aug. 21, 2009

MacGregor: Still hope for new Fever ownership

By Ben Reynolds, Herald staff writer

The deadline to sell the Tri-Cities Fever is less than 10 days away.

And with the latest plan to offer shares of the team to the public falling through, the future of the franchise has gotten increasingly grim.

Or has it?

Owner Doug MacGregor said this week he is optimistic something still could happen. A big reason that MacGregor is hopeful that new ownership will present itself is because of changes the arenafootball2 league will undergo next season.

MacGregor and other owners are meeting this weekend in Las Vegas to discuss those changes, ones that MacGregor said will make the league stronger and more affordable for potential buyers.

It is expected that the league dues for an af2 franchise will go down now that the Arena Football League is no longer around. With that, there appears to be some restructuring throughout the league with some possible AFL teams wanting to play in the af2 next season.

MacGregor would not say how all this is going to pan out, but said some announcements from the league should be forthcoming in the near future.

MacGregor, who said he wants to find local ownership of the Fever by the end of the month or he will fold the franchise, said he would still be a minority owner in the team.

He has said recently that he might stay as a majority owner if an agreement can be reached with some local investors.