PHILADELPHIA Rock and Soul: Bon Jovi has stake in AFL expansion
Former Youngstown State player Ron Jaworski is the Soul's president.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Jon Bon Jovi is bringing arena rock to arena football. Just don't expect him to perform during games.
Bon Jovi was announced Monday as co-owner of the Philadelphia Soul, an expansion Arena League Football franchise that will begin play next season in the Wachovia Center and Wachovia Spectrum.
His partner is real estate mogul Craig A. Spencer, whose properties include the five-star Ritz-Carlton in Philadelphia, where Bon Jovi spoke Monday about his lifelong love of football and his plans for the Soul.
"I'm a football fanatic. I love football, always have," said the New Jersey native. "It's the only sport I really live and breathe."
Making an impression
Bon Jovi's band may have sold upwards of 100 million albums worldwide, but he still had to overcome skepticism among league executives when he first approached them earlier this year about owning an AFL franchise.
The veteran rocker quickly impressed with his business acumen, work ethic and knowledge of the game, said Arena League commissioner David Baker.
"We're driving on our way to a concert and he's asking me about the emergency quarterback rule. Nobody ever asks me about the emergency quarterback rule," said Baker, also in town for a rally that will feature Bon Jovi, his guitarist Richie Sambora and Sambora's wife, Heather Locklear. Sambora has a fractional stake in the team.
The Soul becomes the 18th team in the Arena Football League and the second expansion team announced this year, following the New Orleans VooDoo in May. A 19th team, in Austin, Texas, is also expected to enter the league next season.
Improved product
This is a heady time for arena football, a fast-paced version of the outdoor game that sent quarterbacks Kurt Warner and Tommy Maddox to the NFL, where they became stars. The 17-year-old AFL debuted last season on NBC, drawing a total of 65 million viewers, and attendance increased 15 percent to an average of more than 11,000 per game.
Those numbers have boosted the value of a typical AFL team from $400,000 six years ago to about $16 million now, according to Baker, who declined to put a price tag on the Soul.
Philadelphia already has a glut of professional sports teams, but Bon Jovi and Spencer said they're not worried about putting fans in the seats. They've hired an experienced front office, head coach Mike Trigg won an ArenaBowl championship with the Grand Rapids Rampage and team president Ron Jaworski, the former Youngstown State player, is a local legend, having quarterbacked the Philadelphia Eagles to the Super Bowl.
"This is a very sports-minded town. You know what they think of their sports teams: They love them, they love to hate them. But they'll love you if you try, if you give everything you have, if you go above and beyond," said Bon Jovi, 41.
He said he'll make the team fan-friendly and community-oriented by requiring players to sign autographs, visit elementary schools and generally behave themselves.