The Cub Reporter has an interview with Dave Kaval, who is starting up an independent league in California. The model for this league will be a bit different, where the league owns all the teams.

TCR: You mentioned single-entity ownership. Does that mean that, rather than each team having owners, the league will have investors who have a piece of each team?
DK: No, there’ll be owners, it’s just that they’ll own the whole league. Rather than owning the team in, say, Long Beach, they own a piece of all the teams. For them, it’s a little bit of a portfolio strategy — they have multiple franchises, so if they do all right in three places, and not so well in three others, overall they’re still doing pretty decently.
TCR: So it’s minimizing risk, in many ways.
DK: Yes. And, I think the control aspect is very, very important. We can manage the product in all the different locations and make sure the experience for the fan is the best that it can be in all locations. In a franchise-oriented league, the individual owners are going to put the kind of product out there that they want. Hopefully it’s great in all locations, but more often than not — in a lot of these leagues you have up to 25% of the ownership groups that are undercapitalized, aren’t really running it like a business. In those cases, it’s not a good fan experience, and that hurts the whole league. And then those teams start moving around, playing musical chairs, and that hurts the cities. It creates a lot of turbulence and ill will. We feel that starting anew, starting with single-entity ownership, having a little more control — in the early years especially — is going to prevent a lot of that.
TCR: Do you see single-entity ownership as a long-term business model, or is it simply a way to provide stability at the inception of the league, and will you be looking to eventually sell the teams to individual owners?
DK: We see single-entity as a long term business model. We have no plans to sell off individual franchises. However, we would consider selling the league as a whole. We feel that the benefits of single entity — stability, enhanced revenue opportunities, aligned incentives, other entertainment options — make such a framework superior to the traditional franchise set up especially for municipalities and fans.

It’s an interesting idea. It makes one wonder however, if the league will move the better players to the better markets, as happened when multiple major league teams were owned by one person in the 1890’s. I do hope it works out, however. The independent league games I’ve attended have been a lot of fun. It will be a great addition to the California baseball landscape.