Doug Bland | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | July 14, 1970 Marseilles, Illinois, United States |
| Alma mater | Parkland College |
Doug Bland is an American entrepreneur and former athlete.
Doug Bland | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Born | July 14, 1970 Marseilles, Illinois, United States |
| Alma mater | Parkland College |
Doug Bland is an American entrepreneur and former athlete.
After a brief time as a collegiate athlete, Doug Bland moved to Southern California, where he lived in Newport Beach. He began his business career in event marketing with Ritz Entertainment, producers of music festivals and sporting events. [1] In 1996 Bland became marketing manager of the Roger Penske-owned California Speedway in Fontana, California. [2] [3] He stayed in that position until he was promoted to marketing director for the Penske/ISC-owned Homestead–Miami Speedway in 1998. Penske Motorsports was sold to International Speedway Corporation in 2000. Bland then formed Short Track Entertainment, Inc, a motorsports marketing company that promoted racing events and represented racing properties and race teams. [4]
Bland purchased the UDTRA United Dirt Track Racing Association in 2002 and re-branded the property into the Xtreme Dirt Series. [5] In 2003 he signed a TV rights deal with Speed Channel and signed a ten-year sponsorship agreement with NVE Pharmaceuticals (Stacker 2) for $13,000,000. [6] At the time, this was the largest sponsorship deal in the history of dirt track racing.
In 2005 Bland sold Xtreme DirtCar Series to UMP, a company owned by NASCAR driver Ken Schrader. Shortly after the sale, Xtreme/UMP merged with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series. Later that year Bland purchased Springfield Raceway with partner Jerry Hoffman. [7] [8]
Bland ventured into the mixed martial arts industry with his XCF (Xtreme Cage Fighting) brand, He promoted 14 professional MMA events over the next three years. [9]
In 2010 he started Bland Sports Inc., a sports marketing agency that represented athletes and sports properties including Kyle Busch Motorsports, Liquid Nitro Energy Drink, Maxim Racewear, Digital Qpons, and UFC fighter Michael Johnson. [10]
Bland was named the managing partner of the Mesquite Arena in Mesquite, Texas in 2014. [11] Six months later he became owner of the Dallas Marshals of the Champions Indoor Football League (CIF) team, who played their home games at the Mesquite Arena. [12] Bland sold the Dallas Marshals in August, 2017 to Dallas businessman Bruce Badgett. [13] The Dallas Marshals played the first six games of the 2017 season under Badgett's ownership, then folded.
Bland returned to his home state of Illinois to revitalize the Quad Cities Steamwheelers [14] indoor football franchise that had been dormant since 2009. The team made the playoffs in 2018 with an 8-4 record, then went 7-7 in the 2019 season. In 2018 Bland moved the Steamwheelers to the Indoor Football League to compete on the biggest stage in the industry. [15] In 2020 the Steamwheelers played one game (Win against Cedar Rapids) before the COVID 19 pandemic forced the IFL to cancel the season. In October 2020 Bland announced the Steamwheelers were forced to file dormancy with the IFL due to the state of Illinois COVID-19 regulations for indoor mass gatherings.
In 2022 The Steamwheelers made their return to the IFL (Indoor Football League) after a two season hiatus due to the covid-19 pandemic. Doug Bland and his franchise won the Franchise of the Year Award for the 2022 season and the team won the Eastern Conference Championship where they faced the North Arizona Wranglers for the IFL National Championship game. [16]
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International Speedway Corporation (ISC) was a corporation whose primary business was the ownership and management of motorsports race tracks. ISC was founded by NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. in 1953 for the construction of Daytona International Speedway and in 1999 it merged with Penske Motorsports to become one of the largest motorsports companies in North America. The company played an important, though controversial, role in the modernization of the sport. It worked with NASCAR to create new tracks and update older ones in an effort to improve the racing and the experience for spectators and has constructed popular new tracks in regions previously thought uninterested in NASCAR. Because both companies have several members of the France family in top positions, ISC's competitors have filed multiple lawsuits on antitrust grounds
Nazareth Speedway is a defunct auto racing facility near Nazareth in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania which operated from 1910 to 2004 in two distinct course configurations. In its early years, it was a dirt twin oval layout. In 1987 it was reopened as a paved tri-oval that measured just slightly under 1 mile.
The Texas Revolution were an American professional indoor football team and a founding member of Champions Indoor Football (CIF). The Revolution were based in Allen and Frisco, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.
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MAVTV is an American cable and satellite television channel owned by the automotive lubricant company Lucas Oil, a ubiquitous presence in the motorsports world, which mainly airs programming focused around motorsports and programming for automotive enthusiasts. CJ Olivares serves as the network's president.
Cory Ross is a former American football, Canadian football and indoor football running back. He is now the head coach of the Quad City Steamwheelers of the Indoor Football League (IFL). He most recently played for the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League. He was signed by the Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free agent in 2006. He played college football at Nebraska.
The Indoor Football League (IFL) is a professional indoor American football league created in 2008 out of the merger between the Intense Football League and United Indoor Football. It has one of the largest number of currently active teams among indoor football leagues. As of the 2023 season, the league consists of 14 teams in two conferences with each team playing 16 games over 19 weeks.
The NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series is a points championship for NASCAR sanctioned local short track motor racing around the United States and Canada.
The Louisville Xtreme were an indoor football team based in Louisville, Kentucky, with home games at the KFC Yum! Center. They began play as the Kentucky Xtreme in the Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL) in 2013 and 2014. Midway through the 2014 CIFL season, the league removed the team's membership and the Xtreme temporarily suspended operations. After playing the 2015 season in the semi-professional Minor League Football Alliance (MLFA), the team rebranded as the Louisville Xtreme in 2017. In 2020, the Xtreme were added to the American Arena League (AAL) but cancelled its season citing the COVID-19 pandemic. For the 2021 season, the Xtreme were announced to be joining the National Arena League, but instead joined the Indoor Football League three months later.
Hunt Brothers Pizza is an American pizza restaurant chain. It was founded in 1991 in Nashville, Tennessee. The store's locations are primarily within convenience stores.
Champions Indoor Football (CIF) was a professional indoor American football minor league created in 2014 out of the merger between the Champions Professional Indoor Football League (CPIFL) and Lone Star Football League (LSFL), plus one team from the Indoor Football League and two expansion teams.
The Dallas Marshals were a member of Champions Indoor Football and based in Dallas, Texas. The Marshals were scheduled to play their home games at the Fair Park Coliseum, but all remaining Marshals games were listed as postponed as of April 21, 2018. The team announced it had ceased operations on April 27.
The Quad City Steamwheelers are an indoor American football team that began play in 2018. They played their first season as part of the Champions Indoor Football, and then joined the Indoor Football League prior to their second season. Based in Moline, Illinois, the Steamwheelers play their home games at the Vibrant Arena at The MARK. The team announced it would be dormant for the 2021 season due to the arena capacity restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The San Diego Strike Force is a professional indoor football team based in San Diego, California. It is a member of the Indoor Football League and began play in 2019 at Pechanga Arena in the city's Midway district. It is the second professional football team in San Diego that began play in spring 2019, after the San Diego Fleet of the Alliance of American Football, more than year after the departure of the NFL's San Diego Chargers in 2017.
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The 2021 Indoor Football League season was the thirteenth season of the Indoor Football League (IFL). The league played the season with twelve teams, down from thirteen the previous season, by adding one expansion team, one team from the National Arena League, one team from the American Arena League, and four teams going on hiatus. In addition, three existing teams made their IFL on-field debut after the 2020 season was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.