By Jon Johnson
The time has arrived for Dothan United supporters interested in owning a share of the local United Soccer League Two franchise.
First unveiled in early July, an initiative to involve community ownership within the framework of the club is now active for potential investors with the end of August as a deadline.
The general public is invited to a town hall meeting at Bob Woodall Air Care Systems at 412 North Foster St., in Dothan on Wednesday, Aug. 19, beginning at 7 p.m. for anyone wanting to learn more about the investment opportunity.
Dothan United has partnered with Vicinity Ventures, an investment platform based in Greenville, S.C., that connects potential investors with local businesses, to facilitate the project. Those wanting to own a piece of the soccer franchise can sign up through the website www.vicinityventures.co and also view detailed information of what an investment entails.
“As of this week, it is live accepting investments,” Vicinity Ventures representative Josh Rollins said. “This is an opportunity to buy into true ownership of Dothan United. This is an equity offering so you can own a small piece of the team.
“For the first phase, the goal is to collect as many investment commitments before the end of the month. We’re hoping that anyone that is interested will be able to take a look at it and hop in during this phase.”
Dothan United recently completed its third season of operation and has attracted a strong fan base to watch games at Rip Hewes Stadium. The Dragons finished this past season with a 9-2-2 record, earned the South Central Division title in the Southern Conference for the first time in franchise history and hosted a first-round playoff game.
The minimum investment to become a Dothan United shareholder is $1,000, which includes many investor perks that are listed on the Vicinity Ventures website.
“The minimum investment is locked in at $1,000, so we cannot accept investments smaller than that,” Rollins explained. “That’s just an SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission) filing requirement. So basically, from a regulatory standpoint, we notify them (SEC) on here’s the structure of the raise and one of those points is the $1,000 minimum and up.”
There is potential for return on the investment.
“The goal here is it’s actually an investment … it’s not like a stock where you can buy in and out of it whenever you want,” Rollins said. “The goal is five to seven years or so with most investments like this, but the hope is the team grows in value and there is an opportunity for investors to make a positive and strong return.”
Once an investment is made, there are no future obligations.
“They put in their investment and they will not be required or asked to do anything else,” Rollins said.
The process to sign up is fairly simple. Investors can go to www.vicinityventures.co and click on the offerings link at the top of the home page, followed by clicking on the Dothan United logo to proceed.
“If they go on that page and click the invest button, it will walk them through creating their account, making their investment commitment on how much they want to invest,” Rollins said.
“If they choose to move forward and make their commitment, they’ll be sent funding instructions as well as the actual investor agreement to sign that would be their document that states how many shares they own. They can go through that whole process in about five minutes.”
Of course, plenty of information will be available at the community meeting on Wednesday in which Rollins and Dothan United officials will be present.
“One of the main things that we know with anything like this is a lot of times, especially before somebody is putting money into something, they want to talk to somebody, so we fully expect and want for anybody to reach out and ask questions if they have any,” Rollins said.
“The event (Wednesday) is a great opportunity for people to meet the leadership of the club, as well as people of the Vicinity team to help them get more comfortable and understand the details on this.”
Dothan United president and co-owner Steve Donner said the community ownership project was pursued to build on what’s already been established.
“We have been searching for the next step to get our community totally involved,” Donner said. “We’ve been pleasantly surprised with how things have gone for us in the first three years, but we’re just not quite there with the full buy-in from the community.
“We’ve got segments of the community that’s growing … and needless to say it takes time. I’ve learned it’s a four to five year process to really get your name and trust out there as a business.
“So, how do we stay relevant, how do we grow, how do we compete as a small market moving forward, and we thought, ‘Man, if this (community ownership) could work in Dothan, wouldn’t that be the great next step for us to secure our future long term.”
Donner explains that such additional funding would also help with potential stadium improvements.
“I think our stadium has been a blessing for us in our growth,” Donner said. “Three years into it, fans are always expecting more fan features, better amenities … we’re trying to each year better our fan experience.”
One thing on the wishlist for upgrading Rip Hewes Stadium is adding some permanent chairback seating to go along with the bleachers in the 10,000-seat stadium, which is owned by the City of Dothan.
“We’re talking to the city about adding permanent seats to the facility, which we think would be both amazing for our fans and the high school football fans,” Donner said. “Dothan High has been separately trying to find a way to add some permanent seats for their fans as well, so we think this would be a mutual benefit for the stadium – for our fans and theirs.
“And I believe it would allow us to sell more season tickets. We’ve been pretty steady around 500-550, but it’s not growing dramatically despite our success.
“It’s really because when people think of season tickets, they’re buying tickets for a location. With a 10,000-seat stadium, if you can’t give a location, what’s the hurry in buying in advance?
“I think maybe 1,000 or 1,500 permanent seats would be one of the things we would be targeting if it’s successful.”
Donner also said potential plans would include improving the experience in the VIP seating, concession delivery and adding enhancements to the large video scoreboard during games – such as the possibility of adding instant replays and fancams.
Donner said the initial response to the community ownership idea has been encouraging.
“We’ve had over 200 people sign up to be talked to about potentially investing in the team,” Donner said. “For a market like Dothan to have hundreds of people interested to support the team has certainly given us a lot of enthusiasm to go after this aggressively and see if we can make it all happen for ourselves and for our fans.”
Dothan United co-owner Mike Schmitz is familiar with the idea of community ownership of a sports franchise.
Schmitz is among more than 500,000 fans who are shareholders of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers, which is the only professional sports franchise in the United States that is publicly owned.
“Even though the stock didn’t mean we ran anything, it gave us a lot of civic pride,” said Schmitz, who grew up in Wisconsin rooting for the Packers. “I think we’re building that same kind of community thing with Dothan United.
“It gives our community something to cheer for, and be part of, and be proud of. Really, that’s my goal is to create not just a winning team, but a team our community is really proud to be part of … wear the merchandise and talk about the game afterwards.
“It’s a community event that I hope we can all take pride in, and you can own a piece of it.”
Inquiries can be sent to the info@vincinitycapital.com email address for those not able to attend the Wednesday meeting or wanting additional information.
