DALLAS (AP) — William McCarthy, chosen by fans to coach the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles of the Indoor Football League, will soon be calling plays for the expansion franchise by waiting for a majority vote over a matter of seconds from many of those same people.

Fans calling plays in real time, after scouting some of the players and having a say in the final roster and starting lineup? That’s the idea, and McCarthy understands the skepticism, even tried to anticipate it in his own locker room.

“The way I explained it to the players is, it’s not the old guy standing up in the stands drawing on the back of a Papa John’s box,” McCarthy said. “There is some method to the madness.”

The founders of a company called FANchise want to reinvent what they see as a struggling arena game by letting fans make all sorts of decisions, believing the popularity of fantasy football can translate to the real thing and perhaps be the basis for an entire league of at least partially fan-run franchises.

Players wouldn’t be the only skeptics.

“We were unanimously approved as an ownership group for the new franchise,” co-founder Sohrob Farudi said. “But I think all the owners looking around, ‘Hey, this is kind of cool but go do it with your team. There’s no way we’re doing this with our team. We’re not going to let fans run our team.'”

Farudi says that’s changing, with the league recently creating a committee to explore getting enough teams to commit to a fan-centric model and therefore justify a new name: the Interactive Football League.

For now, the IFL keeps its current name , with 10 teams in mostly smaller markets. The league’s viability got a boost with the Arizona Rattlers and Iowa Barnstormers, who produced Super Bowl-winning quarterback Kurt Warner, coming over from the better-known Arena Football League.

Farudi’s group bought a second IFL team in the Colorado Crush, once owned by Denver Broncos general manager John Elway when the franchise was in the AFL. And while the Crush will eventually incorporate some of the ideas being used in Salt Lake City, the focus for now is almost entirely on the Screaming Eagles .

“When I was approached to help out, I thought it was a no-brainer,” said Andy Alberth, a consultant who has worked to create a fantasy football convention headlined by NFL stars. “Bringing fans closer to the game has been a passion of mine.”

The team says about 38,000 people used the voting app when McCarthy was picked over a three-week period in August. Fans can choose from prices ranging from $10 to $40 per month for different levels of engagement.

But a fan’s involvement also depends on a time commitment. Those willing to spend more hours scouting players by watching film and communicating with McCarthy are apt to be more involved in the long term.