League Notes

In Orlando, Noelle Haner reports AFL Predators Managing Partner Brett Bouchy is now the managing partner in Nth Investments, a private investment group “that just bought one-half of an equity share in the” AFL for $2.75M from Orlando-based Football Equities Inc. The deal reunites Bouchy with the group that owned the Predators until February ’03, when he and a group of 20 Central Florida business execs “took the team private.” Formerly known as Orlando Predators Entertainment, Football Equities has spent the last two years “divesting itself of all the sports teams it bought as owner of the Predators.” The group kept two equity shares in the AFL, “which amount to a 9[%] ownership in the league” (ORLANDO BUSINESS JOURNAL, 5/2 issue).

OVERDRAFT: SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL’s Daniel Kaplan reports Orlando “is not among” the possible cities to host the NFL Draft in the future, despite a report that said that “Walt Disney’s entertainment and sports complex in Orlando wanted to host the event” (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 5/2).

MLB: ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark reported that MLB and the MLBPA “have reached a tentative agreement that will extend the experiment that allows the All-Star Game to determine home-field advantage in the World Series –- but only for one more year” (ESPN.com, 5/3)....In Miami, Barry Jackson reports that if the state of Florida does not approve the Marlins’ ballpark funding package by the end of the state legislative session on Friday, “look for MLB to give the Marlins the go-ahead to speak with other cities.” Also, Las Vegas “has emerged as baseball’s top choice among markets seeking teams,” with Monterrey, Mexico, and Charlotte, North Carolina, “less likely options” (MIAMI HERALD, 5/4).