The first contact took place a year ago, when the league announced an expansion of six teams for its third season and expressed interest in a club from the Czech Republic. For the Lions, a period has begun that head coach and long-time soul of the club Zach Harrod describes as several long sprints.
“Funding was key, I talked to friends from other teams and potential partners and managed to find investors. They were interested in the Lions story and how fast ELF was developing, which already had a reach of half a billion households,” calculates Harrod, who used his contacts overseas to find investors.
The American native, who learned excellent Czech during his two decades in Prague, had two children with his Czech wife, now led the Lions to another goal after their triumphs in the Czech Bowl. “The budget is now at least ten times larger than in the Czech league. But, of course, investors don’t do it because we’re nice, but they also want some kind of return,” he reports.
Another task was to assemble a competitive staff from the Czech Republic, Europe and overseas. If teams in the Czech league have an American in the key position of quarterback, they cannot have another player from overseas. Even ELF makes sure that the base of the team is made up of domestic players, but the rules are more relaxed. And so there are a dozen so-called imports in the 65-member squad of the Lions, six-time winners of the Czech Bowl.
“We gave the players the opportunity to play at the highest level and get something for it,” Harrod says, explaining that the team operates on a semi-professional basis. “It doesn’t support anyone, but all the players get something, which has never been the case,” he recalls.
Lower prices in the Czech Republic are an advantage when negotiating with foreign players. “When we offer an American 1,000 euros a month, it’s like 2,000 in Germany, for example,” says the head coach. “And of course the biggest calling card is Prague. They immediately look for information about her and want to come here,” says the American native, who pays attention not only to playing skills but also to the character traits of the players.
Photo: CAAF
Czech Bowl 2019 final between Prague Lions in white and Ostrava Steelers.
“It is important for us that there are also good people. When they go to restaurants for meals, as they have in the contract, they only praise them for how polite they are, that makes me happy,” admits Harrod, who came to the Czech Republic with the American sports-Christian organization Athletes in Action.
The league itself and the Lions also take care of promotion with inspiration from the successful behind-the-scenes series NFL Hard Knocks. A series of videos with the influencer Tomáš Touha, who also collaborates with Oktagon MMA, is being created on YouTube, and a joint project with the Netflix streaming service is also planned.
And the team’s goal for the first season, in which Shazzon Mumphrey remains at quarterback in his third season in Prague? “We will do everything to get to the playoffs,” Harrod promises. Lions matches at ELF will be broadcast live by O2.
