Great question! Our roster size allowed by league rules is 30 players. We can dress a maximum of 20 per game, though there is no limit on the number of players that can travel to a weekend.
We are required by the league to carry a minimum of 25% of the roster from North America. That's 8 players. (Well, 7.5, but half a person is just a useless mess, not to mention a felony.) That means that every team in the league has a guaranteed 8 spots for players based here.
We haven't seen the league signup rolls yet. We want the best players! We plan to hold an open tryout in Fort Worth for US players that want to play. In a perfect world, we'll have a preliminary workout that everyone can video and submit so we see your skills prior to coming to Texas.
When will the tryout be? At the earliest I'd say around New Year's. We want our coaching staff in place before we start looking at players. We want to give the pandemic a little more time to settle down, and not interfere with school. The minimum age to play is 16 years old as of 6/1/21. While we hope to offer a few development spots, it will depend entirely on the player pool that signs up.
The bottom line - if you want to be considered for a team, you need to go to the league site at nafloorball.com and register your interest!
We expect to get the team together 1-2 weeks before the season to work together and get prepared as a unit. During that time we will spend 3-4 days per week in practice and team meetings for 2-4 hours per day.
The season begins with the weekend of June 19-20 and runs through July 17-18. The first four weekends are the regular season, and the last weekend is the playoffs. We WILL play July 4th weekend.
Each weekend consists of two games on Saturday and one on Sunday. We will travel for four of the five weekends, to one of the other venues. This means that we will travel on Friday morning until Sunday afternoon. If you are working you should expect to take off of work that Friday at a minimum.
During the week, we hope to have one or two practices from Monday to Thursday in the evenings, probably from 7-9pm. This will keep us sharp and let us work on fundamentals and coordination.
Beyond the team commitment, we remind you that this is a professional league and you are expected to work out and condition on your own time. Our mission is to bring the highest level of floorball available to new fans of our game, and that means our athletes should be in tip-top shape! Our expectation is that you share our dedication to the sport and you will do your part to fulfill it.
This is the big question. It really will depend on each team's finances, travel arrangements, and sponsorships. We can only speak to our goals.
Our hope is that we will be able to provide basic food/drink on our away weekends. We will arrange a team hotel with breakfast, and a group rate. We will stay double occupancy (you will have a roommate). As far as meals while we're there, we will determine what the best group meals would be, but think simple. (Pizza, burgers, hot dogs, bbq) Our goal will be to feed everyone and make sure we get from hotel to venue and back without cost to the players.
The next step up would be to cover travel, first with hotel (player pays for travel) or possibly hotel and travel (road trip). We candidly do not see a possibility at this time of covering a team air trip. Given the size of North America, it would make sense that we will have to fly at least once, possibly twice. That means the players should be prepared to cover 1-2 airfares in the best case scenario.
Long term, the sky's the limit! Our goal is ultimately to travel with the team and cover everything with sponsorships and merch sales. It's a professional team - we are looking to become self-sufficient as soon as possible. However, it's also a startup league and finances early are always tight.
We sure want to! This is the highest level of floorball in North America and because of that we want players to share in the benefit of the league. Because it's a startup league, there are some initial expenses while we build a fan base for the short term. The ability to pay cash for 30 players in any form is still in question at this time.
However, there are benefits to playing. First, your team kit is yours to keep. We will personalize the final 30 players' kits and they will be yours. It will include an "Inaugural Season" shield and will have your name on the shirt. Besides the kit, we hope to have other team swag such as warm-ups, stick bags, and water bottles.
In addition to gear, we will be providing supplemental medical injury insurance for the team. This means that while you're playing or practicing at official team events you have additional injury coverage over your standard coverage. And if you don't have standard coverage, we believe this will still cover your injury up to $100,000. We are still determining whether that $100k is per person or per team for the season.
Finally, if we win prize money from the league, we will definitely bonus the players SOMETHING from the prize! While it still won't be much (first is $5000...that doesn't go far with 30 players plus coaches) it will be something.
Merch! It's the lifeblood of a one-month a year league. So, it has to be cool, functional, affordable, and easy to obtain. Let's cover all four of those.
Obviously the first reason any sports fan buys merch is to rep their team. That means it has to look awesome! We're really proud of our logo and look, so we think that's covered. The second part of the coolness factor is "my team doesn't suck"...you're going to have to trust us - we aren't going to suck!
Functionality is also important. Does it do something (if it should) and does it work? Water bottles shouldn't leak. COVID masks should be comfortable. Hoodies should keep you warm. We prototype and test every product before it goes on the store site - we want you to be happy!
Cost becomes the consequence of functionality and coolness. If it's cheaply made, it won't work or breaks/tears quickly. Now THAT sucks! We source from multiple suppliers to find the best deal for our fans that still provides the revenue we need for our operations. When you purchase Panther swag, you're directly helping us grow floorball in North America by funding the team. By the way, listening or watching our livestream is equally important, since it shows sponsors that our audience participates and cares about the game! That helps us build sponsor revenue.
Finally we went all out and added eCommerce to our website right out of the gate. Test designs like we did with our uber-cool COVID mask were well received, and we added them to the store. Want a piece of Jaguars gear that you can't find? Just ask us! We have a number of suppliers that will do custom work for even as low as 1 or 2 pieces.
No way! Floorball is an exciting, fast-paced sport that can be played by all. The NAFL does not limit player participation based on gender. However, neither does the league mandate a certain number of players be women. It is open to all, and the rules make no accommodation for gender. The game will be called equally and the skill and physical ability of the players will decide the games!
It will be a blast! We're still looking for a venue that will allow us to elevate the game and showcase our players. Music, food, drink, crowd entertainment, rink announcers...everything we as floorball fans have always wanted to see at our matches is on our wish list to bring into the Jaguars' Den.
We are hoping for a full-on European-style experience with fan-created chants! Think flags waving, horns blaring, drums banging, and chanting fans encouraging the Jaguars on. This is what we're looking for - the biggest home advantage in the league. We're confident we're going to get it! Fort Worth is a great city, with a diverse and sports-loving population. We're proud to call Fort Worth home and can't wait to have our fans fill the Den!
Possibly, but we can’t promise it. While some sponsors may offer free gear to the team, many players don’t want to give up their favorite stick. Certainly the uniforms will be provided to the players, and possibly other team-branded gear, but at this point it is simply too early to say.
Yes! It’s a professional team and we will practice and train like one. Our estimate is that we will practice as a team for two weeks prior to the beginning of the season - training camp! Training camp will open approximately June 7, 2021. We will practice 3-4 times per week the first two weeks, for about 2-4 hours per day. Practice will consist of part classroom and part rink.
During the season, we expect to work once or twice per week between our games, for approximately 2 hours per night. During the day players will be free to explore North Texas and may delay their return to Fort Worth from the previous weekend to spend a little more time in the away city (at the discretion of the head coach).
The practice location will be determined closer to the start of training camp, but will definitely be in the DFW Metroplex.
If you’re interested, you should have already indicated your interest!
We expect to select at least half the team prior to the New Year from a mix of known US players and high-quality European players. Around New Year’s we will host an open tryout for players not yet selected for a team, possibly in conjunction with other owners.
Our intention is to have the entire roster selected by March 15 so players on the roster may begin to make travel and lodging plans.
