PORTLAND, Ore. -- Portland's professional lacrosse team has a twist on player-owner relationships.
Angela Batinovich, majority owner of the second-year franchise, is engaged to player Adam Bysouth.
They plan an August wedding.
"We kind of had to decide if this was going to be something we really wanted to try, or if this was just something we needed to just end and not let it complicate our lives," Batinovich said. "And we decided we wanted to keep going."
Batinovich, 26, and Bysouth, 27, lived together last season, when the indoor team went 11-5, The Oregonian reported.
Batinovich said she has dealt with the conflict-of-interest issues: Bysouth, also the community relations director, reports to the LumberJax's vice president, not to Batinovich. She rarely negotiates salaries with players and doesn't dictate playing time for Bysouth or anyone else.
David Carter, a sports business professor at the University of Southern California, told The Oregonian that the similarity in ages and the low salaries in the National Lacrosse League -- the average is about $14,000 a year -- reduce the potential for conflict.
LumberJax coach Derek Keenan acknowledged that the intra-franchise romance is unusual but said the close-knit, 13-team league honors it.
Bysouth said he is considering retirement after the season, which starts Dec. 30.