It was during this time that Michael Ribant had a dream. Ribant was a stockbroker and entrepreneur, and even though his only prior baseball experience was coaching his daughter's T-ball team, he saw the potential for professional women's baseball. "There is interest," he said. "The gate potential is higher than ever before." Ribant reached out to friends, and got $500,000 in start-up capital. He admitted that major financial backing wasn't readily available, with many sponsors waiting to see how the league would play out, which was why he wanted to start the league this season. "Part of the reason is to build credibility," Ribalt said. "Next year, we can go all out." Ringor, an Oregon-based shoe company, was the main corporate sponsor and provided the uniforms and equipment. Ribant's investors recognized that this would be a long-term commitment, and would take about 3 years to turn a profit.
Quickly though, Sacramento's California Condors were abandoned, possibly due to field negotiations. But the remaining five-team league went forward, with tryouts being held in the Bay Area and in Phoenix. Turn-out was good, and Legends coach Bridget Wold-Satriano reported that there were 10 applicants for each position. "We believe there's plenty of talented women out there looking to a chance to play baseball," said Mike Ribalt. The average pay would be around $850 per month, about the same as a class-A baseball player. An abbreviated 2-week training camp was planned for June 25th. The games would follow the same rules as men's pro baseball, except games would be seven innings in length, the the women would use aluminum bats.
