The Philadelphia enquirer article (about business mainly)

You think it's EASY to start up and run a multimillion dollar coorporation? I take it you don't own a business. There's nothing easy about getting off the ground or staying afloat. You don't know what goes on behind the scenes with the football team or with the band--another multimillion dollar business. It all comes down to marketing and having a product people want to buy. Music is just another product. I hope some of the marketing skills float over to the band so they'll get some airplay for a change.

Becky

As a CPA, who saw the books and prepared the tax return of another arena football team, the answer to your question would be NO. He won't make that investment back for quite some time, if ever. The Soul did well the first year by (from what has been said by Craig Spencer) breaking even (didn't lose money but didn't make a profit). Most AFL teams in the first year lose money largely because of all the start up costs involved.

deb

Aloha !

It's easy to start it up when you already have a multimillion dollars on the bank.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Well judging by this article we'll be lucky to get a new album this year never mind May

I cannot imagine may neither .... now we know that they will be working in LA again ...

No. It's not. It's never *easy* to get a business venture of that size off the ground, much less to keep it running, and even less to continue to make a profit or stay in business. It may be easier to get the start when you have the funding, but you can piss away your money in a heartbeat if you don't have the skills to run it or the product to keep it afloat. One bad move can cost you those millions. Easy doesn't come into play. Running a business is not an adventure in carefree fun whether it's big or small. Quite likely, the bigger it is, the more of a hassle it is. The only advantage that Jon and Craig Spencer have is that they won't loose their livelihood or the bulk of their wealth if the Soul go belly up.

Becky

You're right Becky. I can think of one famous example - Paul Simon. He wrote a Broadway play and he wrote all original music for it. He used mostly his own money to finance it. Everyone said it couldn't fail - he had a history of writing great music. In my opinion the music was great - but the play flopped big time. It closed in a few weeks and he lost money on it big time. So all the money and even all the talent doesn't always equal success.

Kathleen