GOOOOAL | Pirahnas Owner Marcie Laumann shares how she became owner of the Hampton Roads Pirahnas Soccer League. Photo by Paul Chin, Jr.
By T.J. Prieur
“The bottom line is still the bottom line,” says Marcie Laumann; but other than that, running a sports franchise is very different from most other businesses. Marcie is the owner and general manager of the Hampton Roads Piranhas Soccer franchise, which includes both a men’s PDL (Premier Development League), professional and amateur athletes, and women’s team.
Laumann never expected to own a sports franchise. Although she was active in sports in high school and played soccer at Old Dominion in college, she felt that 25 years ago, there were no opportunities for female athletes once their college careers were over.
“I’d planned to become a lawyer, but after my first year in law school I came home and told my husband that I was bored. I wanted to open my own business instead of becoming a lawyer.”
As Laumann looked around for possible business opportunities she considered her two passions: sports and photography. She opened a photography studio and specialized in sports photos. “One Hour Photo was just getting big at the time. We owned two of them. We had a staff of photographers who specialized in weddings and baby photos, but I wasn’t interested in that. I liked the sports photos.”
When the Hampton Roads Hurricanes, the first professional men’s soccer franchise in the area, came along, Laumann won the bid to become the official photographer for the men. One evening, while taking team photos, she heard some staff members discussing the USL’s (United Soccer League) plans to open a women’s league.
“I went straight home, called the league and asked for information on starting a franchise,” she says. That was 16 years ago and Laumann has never once regretted her decision. While at first she divided her time between her photography business and the franchise, within a few years it became clear that the photography business was changing. “You had to either go digital or get out of the business,” she explains. Laumann decided to get out and focused full time on the Piranhas, which soon included both a women’s and a men’s team.
“Some people think that because the league has games for only three months of the year that I have a three-month job. But the reality is that those three months are the easy part of the year for me,” says Laumann.
The rest of the year is spent working to market and brand the team, set up sponsorships, and practice what she calls creative bartering. “You have to figure out how to stretch a dollar, work with people, and come up with creative solutions to problems,” she says.
For example, while on the road Laumann noticed how much time was lost and money was spent stopping for after-game meals. She got together with several other teams and arranged for a food barter. When a team is on the road the host team will arrange for a meal to be delivered to their bus so that it can be eaten while they are driving back home. To arrange the meals, Laumann barters a team sponsorship package in exchange for the food.
The restaurant gets publicity for sponsoring the team while paying in food, which often costs them less than paying in dollars. Both teams save money on meals. “That can add up to three or four thousand dollars a season,” she notes.
In a business where franchises come and go so quickly they often are barely noticed by the public, the Piranhas’ 16-year history is a real success story. So what’s the secret? “You can’t run a franchise with your heart. It is still a business,” she says.
That means recognizing that you need to get the community behind you to make it a success. “We spend a lot of time organizing the next sports clinic and signing up the next school sponsorship. We know that the community doesn’t owe us anything. We owe the community.”
