As a lifelong Bengals fan, Mike Schroder always had dreams of passing on his love for the sport to his children.
It was 2022, and the team had won its first playoff game in 31 years.
During their next game, Schroder was hoping to watch with his then 5-year-old daughter Ella, who sings the Bengals fight song, wears the gear and has a love for Skyline Chili. But she was nowhere to be found.
"She was out of there despite my best efforts since birth of teaching her about football," he remembered. "None of it was making any sense to her."
That gave him an idea. He thought of a series that taught her to play chess – a storybook with characters who became pieces on the chessboard, teaching children to play in an indirect way.
This inspired him to create Columbus-based Future Fans. The startup sells activity boxes that teach younger children the rules of a sport. Players meet a character who takes them through a number of lessons and activities, teaching them covertly in a way designed to be fun and hands-on with games, stories and songs.
"Sports are this rare thing that can cross political lines, socioeconomic divides and span generations ... It's this community," Schroder said. "There's very few things in our society, unfortunately, that bring people (together).
"I think that's really important in the world, and that's a huge part of our driving mission toward creating that community," he added.
Future Fans launched in 2023 with an activity box focused on football. It recently added a soccer series to its lineup. Schroder said business has been good and is spreading by word of mouth.
In its first year, the company raised $1 million in capital and sold 900 boxes.
Leaders are estimating total sales to be between 3,000 and 4,000 boxes this fall.
Boxes are available through the company's website and retail for $49.99.
The company works with professional sports teams, including the Bengals, the Columbus Crew and FC Cincinnati.
While the Crew doesn’t have a "formal relationship" with Future Fans, Crew owner Haslam Sports Group Strategy and Development Chief Josh Glessing said the team highly supports Future Fans' efforts to engage youth in soccer.
"I personally have young kids, so using their football and soccer games has been a great tool for me to spend time with them and teach them the game," Glessing said.
Schroder said that Future Fans is already working with other sports, teams and leagues to continue its growth, eyeing activity boxes for basketball, baseball and hockey.
