Forum Visibility

My site allows users to create fantasy cheat sheets for multiple sports.  My idea is to have a forum dedicated to each sport.  I'm trying to wrap my head around how to make this possible.  Take for instance this sitemap:
 
Home

• Football
  • My Cheat Sheets
  • Player News
  • Forum
  • Blog
• Basketball
  • My Cheat Sheets
  • Player News
  • Forum
  • Blog
• Baseball
  • My Cheat Sheets
  • Player News
  • Forum
  • Blog

 
Logically it looks like this would require a separate installation of ASPPlayground for each sport which probably requires additional licensing?  I'm guessing that my other option is to put the forum at the root and somehow allow the user to switch between sports as desired?  My issue is that some users will be coming to my site only for a particular sport, so if I were forced to put the forum at the root, I'd want a way for either myself or my users to only view those forums which are relevant to them.
 
Thanks.

Hi pinch,

What you can do is create a category (container of forums) for each sport, and you can have multiple related forums for a sport under that category. Then, on your site, you will link to categories only. This way, users won't see other forums coming from your site unless they go back to the home page.

Or, you can create the forums as "Private" and handle user registration on your site. This is how it works:

We have a site integration package (SIP) that allows you to inject users in the database as well as assigning group membership. Once you have created the private forums, you create a user group for each forum (or category of forums), so that the forum (or category of forums) will only be visible to the group.

Then, when users register on your site, you will use cookie or something to note down which sport section they come from and use the SIP to register + assign group membership.

What you can do is create a category (container of forums) for each sport, and you can have multiple related forums for a sport under that category. Then, on your site, you will link to categories only. This way, users won't see other forums coming from your site unless they go back to the home page.

 
I'm thinking this would probably be the easier approach. 
 
If I understand you correctly, under this scenario the forum could be installed in a 'forum' directory off on the root, but when someone entered the forum from a particular sport, I would link them to the forum at the root but with the category tacked-on to the url: .  However, if someone entered the forum from the home page, I would link them to the actual home page of the forum without a category, .
 
Sound right?

Yes, you are correct. This would be easier and less restrictive since people might still want to see what other forums are available, even they are only interested in say baseball at the moment.