Either Columbus or Cleveland will be awarded an expansion franchise for the Lingerie FootballLeague, league officials announced Monday.
The team would begin play next fall.
Founder Mitch Mortaza started the game as an alternative to the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show,10TV's Andrea Cambern reported.
SLIDESHOW: Images Of Lingerie Football League
It has since grown into a 10-team league with a 20-week season.
The players wear helmets, shoulder pads, bras and panties. Seven players on each side tossthe pigskin and slam into each other in the full-contact sport.
According to Mortaza, the right ownership group, initial fan fare and arena/stadium lease willdictate which market is awarded the expansion franchise.
The LFL will debut another three franchises in 2011, bringing the total number of teams to 14 bynext year.
"We appreciate that football is part of the heartbeat of Ohio and we eagerly await next Fallwhen we introduce LFL football in the state of Ohio," Mortaza said.
The concept is similar to one launched more than 50 years ago, when Hugh Hefner launched anothermale-oriented business with women in sexy outfits. Playboy magazine started, followed byPlayboy clubs.
Hefner started his empire with a couple thousand dollars. Now he is worth more than $43million.
"It was pretty exciting," said Abby A. Novel, a Utica, Ohio, resident.
Novel spent four years as a Playboy bunny and even lived in the Playboy Mansion.
She applied for the job along with hundreds of others before she got the job.
Novel, a former beauty queen, said that she was nervous about her first night as a bunny.
"I didn't want to go out because those costumes were cut way up to the hip and I felt soexposed," Novel said. "We had to be checked, and if our ears weren't on straight, we'd getdemerits. And if our tail wasn't fluffed up and combed."
The bunnies were expected to be friendly, serve drinks and play pool with customers.
"I was bending over to take shot, and there was some guy who got a little rowdy and too much todrink, and he's with all his little buddies there," Novel said. "He set his lighter on fireand said it would be funny if he set my tail on fire."
Though the tail was fireproof, a club bouncer removed the patron.
"I do think it is kind of exploitive," Novel said. "But on the other hand, it was such anopportunity for me."
Novel said that she sees a parallel between the Playboy bunnies of the 20th century and LingerieLeague players of the 21st century. They both travel and work in sexy costumes beforean audience that is mostly men.
Neither the bunnies nor the lingerie players receive a salary. Novel was paid in tips,while the football players receive a percentage of the gate.
According to Novel, the bunnies were protected from their admirers and said that she hopes thefootball players are, too.
"Just keep everything professional and don't let your guard down," Novel said.
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