San Diego Seals T-shirts are flying off store shelves.

“We’ve had to order more,” said Steve Govett, president of the NLL expansion team that will begin play in the autumn. “Things are going well.”

The NLL announced last Aug. 30 that an entity controlled by Joe Tsai was granted ownership of the franchise. His financial worth and business stature gave the league’s expansion push immense impetus.

Tsai is one of the founders and current executive vice-chairman of the global Internet company Alibaba Group, which is China’s biggest e-commerce company. He was originally from Taiwan and he played NCAA lacrosse at Yale before graduating from the university’s law school in 1990. He has a 49 per cent stake in the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets with the right to buy the remainder in 2021. His net worth is estimated to be in excess of $9 billion.

Govett will wait until after this season to hire a general manager and coaches since he wants to interview personnel now with other teams.

But before that, and because the new Philadelphia Wings franchise also will begin play in the autumn, a flip of a coin will determine which of the two teams picks first in an expansion draft which will likely be held in July since it has to occur before the Aug. 1 opening of free agency.

The winner of the coin flip will decide to go first in either the expansion draft or next September’s entry draft, with the loser of the coin clip getting first dibs in the draft the coin flip winner does not select. The coin flip might occur during a Feb. 20 board of governors meeting.

Each existing team can protect 10 runners and one goalie and will lose a maximum of two players. Thus, each of the two new teams will get nine players from the expansion draft.

In the entry draft, San Diego and Philadelphia will get the first two players in each of the six rounds. As well, the league will allow the new teams supplementary picks at the end of the second, third, fourth and fifth rounds. That’s another 10 players each.

Free-agent signings will round out rosters and Govett said tremendous interest is being shown by American field lacrosse players. Travel hurdles will be faced but Govett said that won’t discourage players.

“There are going to be plenty of players who will want to live here,” he said. “We’ve had players I would never have expected showing interest, guys who are outdoor superstars who have seen the success of Tom Schreiber and want to get into the indoor game. And a lot of them want to play for an owner who is unbelievable for the game of lacrosse.

“This is going to be an amazing shot in the arm for lacrosse. There are so many guys who want to play for him. We’re not going to have any trouble finding guys who are superstar American players.”

They don’t have to be prolific scorers. Jamie Hanford, Dave Stilley and others thrived in the NLL as role players and Govett foresees a new crop of American role players trying out with the Seals.

“They’re great athletes,” he said. “Sometimes they just need a chance — not unlike what Tom Schreiber and Kieran McArdle got in Toronto. We’re putting our flag in the sand. Players are excited and fans are getting excited.”

Govett started up an NLL team in Washington with only two months between the date the franchise was awarded and the first game of the 2001 season and he also launched the Colorado Mammoth with seven months to prepare for their 2003 debut. He’s getting 18 months this time.

“From a business perspective, everything we learned in Colorado, we’ll do our best to implement in San Diego,” he said.

There are 8,000 to 10,000 youth and high school lacrosse players — mostly field — in the San Diego region. For the Denver startup, there were 3,500 in the region. The numbers look favorable for the Seals.

“The response has been amazing,” Govett said. “Fan response and media coverage has been fantastic and the business community that is stepping up to support us . . . it has been nothing short of amazing so far. I feel good about where we’re at.”

The Seals will play in the 12,800-seat Valley View Casino Center, which was built in 1966 and is located 10 minutes north of the city center.

“It will be an old-school experience,” is how Govett likes to describe the team’s not-so-new home.

A turf is being procured and it won’t necessarily be green like other NLL venues — after all, team colors are purple, gold, black and gray — and whatever is depicted on the turf in the way of logos promises to be unique.

“You can bet we’re going to have a hand in something creative,” Govett said.

He sees more teams being based on the U.S. West Coast.

“I’m proud we’re the leader in the process,” he said.

He lauds the work of NLL commissioner Nick Sakiewicz and his team for what they have done to build the league. Tsai is said to have paid as much as $5 million for the franchise. Govett figures that price will soon be viewed as a bargain.

“The league is going to continue to grow because good quality owners are picking up the phone and saying to others like them that they should be in the NLL,” he said. “These connections are happening. They’d better get in now because an NLL franchise is going to be valued at $20 million to $40 million. I swear to you, it’s coming. We are the last great frontier for indoor sporting content for buildings in North America. We’re going to proliferate and it’s not going to take long.”