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Taking over the ownership of an indoor football team plagued with financial and legal problems is one of the hurdles J. Michael Loomis said he's working to overcome as the chief executive officer of the Fort Wayne FireHawks.
The FireHawks could replace the Fort Wayne Freedom, a team that lost in the Continental Indoor Football League championship in 2009.
The Freedom team was placed in receivership because of debts associated with Todd Ellis, an Atlanta businessman who owned the team during the 2008 season. Bill Falhsing and Mark Chappuis took over ownership of the team for the 2009 season.
Loomis, an attorney in Fort Wayne, his wife, Judi, John Christner, former Freedom head coach Willie Davis, and Indiana’s NewsCenter are all owed money from Ellis' companies that controlled the Freedom. Loomis and Christner formed a group, Championship Sports Enterprises LLC, and petitioned a judge to take over the team after it went into receivership.
Loomis said the judge will make a final decision on CSE’s ownership at a December hearing.
The FireHawks are moving forward and have scheduled their first open tryout for Dec. 12. Davis will be the FireHawks' coach, the team announced.
“There’s a large amount of skepticism, and that’s what I’m trying to overcome,” Loomis said. “I’m trying to remove the legal and financial problems associated with the team so that it emerges with a new corporate identity and without many of the problems that the franchise has had the last several years.”
Those problems include four different owners since 2006, two name changes, two league changes and players and team officials going unpaid.
“I think there are a lot of people who are interested to know whether another evolution of this franchise can emerge successful and whether someone can create a business model that will allow a professional indoor football franchise to be successful in Fort Wayne,” Loomis said.
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