Matt Hammer and I traveled from Zurich to the beautiful city of Vienna, Austria. Unfortunately, when we arrived there we never left the airport – so never got to see any of it. After a short lay-over we jump on another jet to 
fly to Klagenfurt where the ELF championship was being played.
I asked Matt why the European League of Football (ELF) Championship was being held in a city that had no franchise. If there was to be a game in Austria – why not Innsbruck or Vienna? It didn’t make sense to me. Think of the NFL having a championship game in Lubbock, Texas instead of Dallas?
Nothing wrong with Lubbock at all, but the city has no NFL franchise and it is a little out of the way for NFL fans.
Matt explained to me that the Wörthersee Stadion (now known as 28 Black Arena) was controlled by one of the partners and the ELF would reap the rewards of that partnership. Therefore, the proceeds for the game would go directly to the league office.
Now I know that European sports operate a little different than they 
do in the states. I am not saying that anything was underhanded (but I always reflect back on Sepp Blatter and corruption of FIFA funds as well as the controversial awarding of the 2022 Soccer World Cup to Qatar).
There were a lot of rumors about ELF money and where it was directed …. But then there are rumors and there are false promises. So, we will let it go at that.
Prior to the game Matt and I attended the ELF management banquet. It was interesting .. the food was good and listening to the speakers was fun … there was a lot of back slapping and congratulations as well.
There certainly was a lot to be proud of.
Matt and I were invited to attend the General Managers meeting the 
next day by the GM’s at the banquet. It was nice of them to do it … but they were all very open with us during the evening and felt it would be helpful to the Guards to have someone from the club there to listen in.
That meeting was interesting. As the forum moved along … it became apparent that there were several issues for the franchises. Many of them had to do directly with the league office.
For instance, the profit sharing hadn’t been paid… travel that was supposed to be underwritten didn’t shake out the way it was supposed to, uniforms and merchandising (controlled by the ELF) was not on time.
Not only was merchandising late but much of it was also incorrect. For instance, your team might be the Wroclaw Panthers or the Barcelona Dragons … but your merchandise might have misspellings like Baclorna Dragons or your team might suddenly become the Wroclaw Surge.
Weird, but these things really happened. Then, when the clubs sent the gear back to the manufacturer (owned by an ELF sponsor) they refused to replace merchandise or reimburse the money.
This happened a lot from what I gathered. Now, one might ask … how can this be? But .. this started to make me think the league itself might be a little shaky. When we later inquired if anyone had a business plan from the ELF. Hmmm – no solid answer on that.
Well, just a little strange to me.
The next day we attended the game at the stadium. A very nice production although the weather did not cooperate early in the day.
Matt and I were treated very well and we were able to attend the game in the press box and sit in the outdoor seats in front of the box. Everyone there was very accommodating. It was a great game and the crowd was excited.
Vienna won the game over the Sea Devils.
It was a nice trip to be on with Matt and I learned a lot about our organization and also how the league operated from many of the franchise key players. I was very impressed by how open they were with us – they truly wanted to help us start on the right foot.
I have to say my impression of the Guards was dampened when I found out that Mukka (primary owner of the team) didn’t allow the club to cover our expenses to the game. So, Matt covered all the expenses without telling me until later.
Now, that made me worried about our own leadership and the finances they had.