The Maine Mammoths are for sale.

The Mammoths, an indoor football franchise in the National Arena League, played their inaugural season earlier this year. In December 2017, the Mammoths signed a three-year lease to play home games at Portland’s Cross Insurance Arena, with a mutually agreeable option to renew for two years.

“From the get-go, our goal was to get something off the ground, get it established and turn it over to a local ownership group,” said Rob Storm, who along with partner Richard Maslia owns National Sports Ventures, the corporation that owns the Mammoths and the NAL’s Carolina Cobras.

Storm also serves as executive director of the league and has an ownership stake in the Jacksonville Sharks, giving him a piece of three of the NAL’s six franchises.

The Mammoths missed the league’s four-team playoffs despite ending their season with a five-game winning streak to finish 7-8. The Cobras, also an expansion team in 2018, won the NAL championship in late August.

Attendance at Cross Arena dwindled for each of the Mammoths’ eight home dates during a season that ran from April to August. It peaked at 3,713 for the home opener and ended at 1,472.

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At a news conference in December to introduce the franchise, NAL expansion chair Jeff Bouchy said, “We’ll come, start the team and we’ll operate it. If somebody wants to buy it, great. It’s already running. We’ll drop the keys off. It’s perfect. If they don’t want to buy it, we’ll keep it. Either way, we’re completely happy.”

At the time, Bouchy was one of four principals in National Sports Ventures along with Storm, Maslia and Steve Curran,

Two NAL expansion franchises are planned for 2019, likely in the New York metropolitan area and Orlando, Florida.

The 2019 Mammoths schedule will be announced by mid-January.

“The market has been great and working with Cross Insurance Arena has been phenomenal,” Storm said. “We’d love to see 20 teams in the league but we’re focused on slow and steady growth. We’re not trying to rush anything to a point where it sets itself up for failure.”

Storm said the Carolina franchise is not for sale. He would not reveal the asking price for the Mammoths.

Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or

Gjordan@pressherald.com

Twitter: GlennJordanPPH


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