Cary News Sports Editor J. Mike Blake talked to Selby Wellman, majority owner of the Carolina RailHawks, about the prospects of a new professional league, now that the team has applied to start one along with other former United Soccer League members. Here's what Wellman had to say:

Q: There are just seven teams in the current proposed league. Isn't there a United States Soccer Federation rule that new leagues must have a minimum of eight teams?

A: There are two answers to that. The process for filing an application to the federation is not something you just do blindly. You don't just prepare a big old' document and shoot it up there. We've been working with the federation for about six months now.

I've met with them numerous times, so we know pretty much what the issues are and that's what we included in the application. To answer the second part of your question, yes there is a policy that they like a minimum of eight teams. That does not mean that they do not make exceptions. For example, last year they granted an exception to the new women's league and it has seven teams. So there's precedent for that.

Again, we're not a new league like the WPS women's league. We have established teams. The second answer is that we had to file with the seven known teams, but we believe there's really high odds that by the time this thing is reviewed and all out there and even before we start playing in April, we believe there are other teams that will join us.

Q: Where would the other teams come from? Would they be new franchises or...

A: A combination. There are teams out there, of course, that are not a part of this application that are still ostensibly part of USL. They may decide to come over and there are some new franchises out there that have been in contact with us for months.

Q: What's the vision for next year? How is this league going to be different and what are the differences fans in Cary can expect to see?

A:I don't know that in the first year that they would see much [difference]. The fundamental difference of the structure of the league is that it's an owners-controlled league versus a third-party. Probably 90-plus percent of [sports leagues] around the world are owned by the owners.

So that's the fundamental difference. What the people in Cary might see next year is, when you turn it into an owner-controlled league, our focus would be the increases needed in marketing the league. In other words, improving the profile of it all over the country and in Canada, which has never been done. Which is why we still have this image of a minor-league soccer team off the field. But on the field, everybody knows we can compete with just about anybody.

So the differences the people of Cary might see is there might be some new marketing, maybe some new sponsorships for the league, things like that. But again, we're not naïve. It'll probably be a year -- it'll be a transitional year -- to start up a fully loaded marketing-oriented league staff that's going after national sponsorships, TV contracts, etc. So those are not short-term things, so again, I would think more of the difference you would see would be in year two.

Q: Is there any concern being the smallest market in new league? Or is that something you were hoping to have, all these large markets so that the RailHawks were, by default, the smallest one?

A:Well, let me ask you something: Would you rather see Carolina playing Montreal, or would you rather see Lexington, Ky., coming to town? Being the smallest market in this group is, to me, an attractive thing for us because all of the big teams would be coming in here. Second answer of course, is look at the Hurricanes. I'm sure they had those concerns when they talked about hockey coming to Raleigh. I think it's a very positive for Carolina, to be the smallest market in a new league.

Q: What happens if this new league fails in a couple of years?

A:I don't like to think like that.

Q: But what if?

A:Well, again I don't consider it an option. I guess a better question I'd throw out is 'What if the federation didn't approve you?' That's a short-term thing, right? The answer is some would go back to the USL and some may just quit. We don't spend much time talking about that.

Q: It seems like a lot of risk in it though. Because of the way things ended with the USL, would they welcome back a [seceding] team?

A:I think they would. They might be a little selective, but the way me and to the way my colleagues and fellow owners think about it, there's much more risk staying in the USL. The USL's gone nowhere. Again, it's run like a franchise business.

To use the new owners' words in a meeting we had in New York, he referred to is as we bought a franchise business much like Burger King. Well that's not the right way to think about elevating soccer. The way they run their administrative operation in their headquarters, they don't spend any time on marketing and sales, they just like to get a franchise fee. You give their annual fees and keep on going.

A professional sports league office is just the opposite. They are very focused on helping the team, marketing the league, all those kinds of things. If you stay doing what you're doing -- I mean every one of us lose money to them. There's only two exceptions in the old league that make money. Most of us lose money and we believe we lose money primarily because nothing is done for the teams on a national basis. Nothing to image, brand. It doesn't take you too long or too many people to stop and ask if they've ever heard of the United Soccer League to get a dazed look on a face and they say 'no.'