NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WTVF) – A Nashville man unknowingly sold a website domain name to the newly appointed Washington Soccer Team.
A couple of weeks ago, the NFL franchise formally known as the Washington Redskins changed its name to the Washington Football Team. The team’s main sponsor, FedEx, called for the switch amid a social movement to protect Native American culture.
Before the team’s name was announced, an agent for GoDaddy.com, a company that works with website names and hosting, contacted Cal Spears.
Spears said he was offered $ 3,500 for a domain name he had bought in 2012, WashingtonFootball.com.
“I bought a number of college football domains,” said Spears. “So it was a state name plus football. Alabamafootball.com, Tennesseefootball.com, some basketball too. Tennessee Basketball, Kentucky Basketball … The idea was to create some kind of community website for college fans. Such sell equipment, e-commerce. “
Spears said at the time that he was interested in some of the big SEC names, like Floridafootball.com. Washington came as part of the package.
Spears is the CEO of RotoGrinders, a fantasy sports website. He said that he and his team were very busy preparing for the start of Major League Baseball. He didn’t know who was contacting him about the website name and why.
“So after very little back and forth,” Spears said. “We decided on a price that was much higher than what I paid for it. A price that is much higher than what I paid at the time. I really wasn’t thinking too much about whether it’s the NFL team, what they could afford. I’d pay a billion dollar franchise. “
He ended up accepting $ 10,000 for the domain. Later, Spears asked the question to whom he had sold the domain on Twitter.
Then, the next day, Washington announced its new name: Washington Football Team.
“The announcement came out that there was no new team name,” Spears said. “There was no new mascot. It was just the Washington Football team. I sold a domain to Dan Snyder” (the team’s owner).
Spears said she started thinking about donating the money once she realized what had happened.
“If it were the team, I would donate the proceeds to a good indigenous charity,” he said.
After updating the page throughout the day, WashingtonFootball.com finally populated the old Redskins website.
Spears donated the $ 10,000 to the American Indian College Fund, a nonprofit group that awards scholarships to Native Americans.
Spears said he is not concerned about not getting more money. He is glad that he was able to help someone else.
“I don’t regret it. I’m happy to have the story,” he said.
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