Neil,

Thanks for your post about Yahoo! Fantasy Football Pro leagues. I want to help clarify how Pro leagues work and answer your questions:

I'm sorry about the vague information of "Coming Soon'. We do not yet have an exact date as to when our Pro leagues will be open for registration, but we do anticipate that registration will be open ASAP.

Private leagues such as yours cannot be made into a Pro league. Pro leagues are essentially considered a public league, where random managers play against each other. You will not be able to invite managers to a Pro league.

Ok, here comes some lawyer talk: 

The Contest is void where prohibited. To be eligible for a prize in the Contest, you must be at least 18 years of age and a legal resident of the District of Columbia or the fifty United States, except for residents of Arizona, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, Vermont, and Washington, where the Contest is void.

In addition, the following groups of persons are not eligible to win prizes in the Contest: employees and agents of Yahoo! Inc., its affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising and promotional agencies, any other prize sponsor, and any entity involved in the development, production, implementation, administration or fulfillment of the Contest (all the foregoing, together with Sponsor, collectively referred to as "Contest Entities"), and the immediate family members and persons living in the same household as any of the above.

I hopes this helps. If you have any more questions, please feel free to respond to this post.