A startup professional league with ten committed team owners, a founder without governance counsel, and a launch window narrowing to a single season. We built the league from the constitution down, then walked owners through the paper one at a time.
There was no league constitution, no franchise agreement, no bylaws, no revenue-sharing model, no salary cap structure, no player-eligibility standard, no code of conduct, no dispute resolution framework, no commissioner powers, and no committee structure.
A prior application to a different league had been declined, and one of the ten owners had begun asking whether the launch was going to happen at all.
We built the governance stack from the constitution down. We drafted the league constitution first, then the bylaws, then the franchise agreement, then the standard player contract, then the code of conduct, then the dispute resolution framework. Each document referenced the one above it. We wrote the commissioner powers to a defined-authority standard rather than a plenary standard, with owner override on specifically enumerated categories.
We set the salary cap, revenue-sharing, and expansion-fee structures against comparable non-affiliated leagues we researched in-house. We built a two-tier player-eligibility standard tied to age, prior professional status, and amateur governing-body rules.
We ran owner onboarding one at a time: a franchise agreement redline session, a governance walkthrough, and a written acknowledgment of commissioner powers. The league opened on time with all ten franchises signed.
"We had a league on a napkin. Brandon turned it into paper that closed ten owners."
— Founder, Professional League
A verbal commitment from ten team owners is not a league. It is ten separate conversations that have not yet been reconciled against each other. The moment one owner asks whether the launch is real, the founder needs paper that answers the question, not another conversation.
Governance built in sequence, constitution first, holds together because every later document can point back to something that already exists. Governance improvised under deadline pressure creates gaps that surface during the first real dispute, usually in Year One, when the league can least afford it.
We build league governance frameworks for startup circuits, and we run owner onboarding as its own workstream so every franchise signs understanding exactly what they agreed to.
Most engagements are flat fee, quoted before the work begins — and most matters resolve without litigation. Start with a free consultation.