Down Fall of the Daytona Beach Hawgs

[centurionhater]

Centurion Sports Management Group is the ownership group of the Daytona Beach Hawgs, Kissimmee Kreatures, Lakeland Thunderbolts, and Dayton Warbirds all of the National Indoor Football League.

On Monday May 23, 2005
In the hawgs last home game they beat Kissimmee 52-23 and improved to 7-3 on the season. There was nearly 2800 people in the Ocean Center to root the Hawgs on in their last contest in Daytona. The owner of CSM brings Pepe to the game and is introducing him as the new head coach.

On Tuesday May 24, 2005
Head Hawg Ervin Bryson and staff are fired. Because Bryson and CSM owner Tony Pewonski don't see eye to eye. Bryson expects for his ball players to get paid. Bryson expects for his own check to come in sometime. Bryson expects bills should be paid on time and shouldn't bounce. So yes Coach Bryson and CSM did not see eye to eye.

CSM yes boys, owner, and Pepe the new coach show up at Hawgs post day party at a sponsors waterpark. When a meeting gets heated the venue staff doesn't ask the players, Bryson, or Brysons ex-staff to leave. They tell the CSM do boys and owner to leave.

On Wednesday May 25, 2005
The new coach flys back to Ohio and CSM contact one of Brysons old assistants(Coach Rhodes) and ask if he will run practice that afternoon. The hawgs are preparing for a Friday night game at Everett, WA. Coach Rhodes informs us he was told by CSM that the team will not be flying out until Friday morning and CSM would like to meet with the team at their hotel room at 7pm on Thursday night.

On Thursday May 26, 2005
Coach Rhodes calls players to inform them he was tld by Pepe that morning we will be flying out tonight. Coach Rhodes calls back mid-day says false alarm CSM has booked flights leaving Friday morning and meeting is still on for 7pm tonight.

At 6:45pm several team members are in conference room at the hotel looking at film and Coach Rhodes receives a phone call from CSM. They have yet to leave lakeland and won't be here until 9:30pm. Coach Rhodes insists for them to give him some sort of schedule for the trip. They called him back 15 minutes later.
-They tell him only 20 ball players are going
-They have already picked the roster
-They left the starting center & linebacker off
-The 20 ball players will be flying out on 3 different planes
-7 players must be at the tampa airport (2 hours away) at 6am Friday morning
-14 players must be at the orlando airport (1.25 hours away) at 6:30am Friday morning
-The players must find their own transportation to the airports

CSM GM & Owner show at 11:45pm (for their 7pm meeting)
-Coach Rhodes gives up his plane ticket for the center, then he questions CSM on why things are so disorganized, why was there no transportation for the players, and why not 22 players going??? CSM responded that this was not a trip they planned on taking. The trip already cost them $24,000.
-because of transportation problems CSM was still working out details at 2:15am and expected the players to be at an airport 2 hours away in less than 4 hours.

[Billy5]

Has anyone asked what he meant by " it was a trip they were not planning to take"? Like I said on the NIFL site this is TIPS Baywatch style. Why does this league continue to allow one group to own multiple teams?

[Pounder]

Why does this league continue to allow one group to own multiple teams?

Because the league can't find enough owners.

This practice is more common than you think, in more leagues than just the pathetic NIFL.

The NIFL exists because there are owners who think af2 is too expensive. While they may be right, that's usually a rationale you should run WAY away from if you hear it used. If owners are that concerned about cutting costs, it's because the revenues aren't there in the first place.

Oh, BTW... if the league strengthened the ownership requirements the way many fans demand, it would look like this:

Corpus Christi
Odessa
Everett
Wyoming
Montgomery
River City (maybe)
Fayetteville (maybe)

Really easy by bus, no?

[hawkeye]

To add to that Pounder...many would argue that the AF2 is not better football than the NIFL or any indoor football league.

[ChampionOfSteel]

To add to that Pounder...many would argue that the AF2 is not better football than the NIFL or any indoor football league. AF2 doesn't pay enough to get players outside of their immediate city to play for their teams, right? The NIFL is in the same boat. However, if money is the concern the better players will seek a tryout with AF2 first before the NIFL, since the ownership is stable in AF2. Based on the above, AF2 will get slightly better players on average than the NIFL. I personally prefer the NIFL game over the AFL. I've seen both games played out involving the Columbus Destroyers and the Dayton Warbirds. The NIFL has a different defensive scheme (4 dbs and 1 linebacker that is 5 yards off of the line of scrimmage) that makes for a better entertaining game.

I also found it intriguing to see the ball sail into the stands during a fieldgoal. Doesn't make sense but it's true, without the nets the game is better entertaining. Seeing squib kicks on kickoffs in the NIFL is actually more entertaining than a strongly kicked ball that rebounds off of a net in the AFL.

I was skeptical at first until I went to an NIFL game. The only reason I don't buy season tickets is the NIFL teams are poorly financed. A possible reason why more fans don't show up is they see the AFL on TV and get bored with the jack linebacker arrangement and assume the NIFL will be just as boring.

[plbell627]

I can speak from personal knowledge my son has played in yhe old IFL, AFL,af2, NIFL and now in the UIFA.

The old IFL was owned by Kerry Ecklund who owned the league and all but 1 team in the IFL. Luckly his family owns Ecklund Trucking so they were able to make all the payroll although you had to go to a truckstop and use one of their cards from Ecklund Trucking to get your money. The reason the old IFL went out of business was the Orlando Entertainment Group wanted ome of the teams so they bought thwe whole league.

When my son played in the AFL it was for the Toronto Phantoms the main reason they went out of business was players were paid in US dollars and the fans paid with Canadian money. Even though thr owner had the money to keep iy going. The Rodgers family chose to terminate after 2 years. The Rodgers own the Toronto Blue Jays, Rodgers Communication which is the Cable company and all the Bell stoes in Toronto. When he played in af2 it was for the Tennessee Valley Vipers the owner Art Clarkson was very shroud and didn't have a lot of free give aways. That team is now the Tennessee Valley Raptors of the UIFA. The UIFA was started by Art Clarkson and Rich Coffey who owns the Ft. Wayne Freedom.

My son is now in his 2nd year with the Freedom and they do well they have at least 2800 season ticket holders and average this year over 7000 a home game and most of the other teams in the UIFA have solid financial backing as well you don't hear check bouncing or other bill left unpaid.

If I were going yo start a team I would pick either af2 or the UIFA as both leagues are on silid ground. In the NIFL Commisioner Carolyn Shiver will yake anyone who can pay the startup cost and then you are on your own.

[tony-o]

There is a new team in the AIFL. A Dayton Beach expansion team. And they have exclusive rights to the Ocean Center. Unless there is another arena in Daytona Beach, you can wave bye-bye to the Hawgs.

[centurionhater]

Centurion Sports Management Group and Tony Pewonski

Sha-na-na-na na-na-na-na hey-hey-hey good bye!!!!!

Good ridence.

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

[tony-o]

I'm glad I made someone so happy.

[nksports]

Would Daytona Beach be the new home of the homeless AIFL Ghostriders?

[centurionhater]

Well that might be a possibility!

Centurion Sports wouldn't have to:
bounce checks to the venue
who knows if the players will get paid all their money anyway


So it would cut down on those basic costs...

[centurionhater]

We must give it up to these players. Some may say they have a terrible owner, are weeks behind on checks, their coach was fired, and the new coach has yet to attend a practice.

A guy who was unqualified as a film coordinator and now CSM has him pretending to be a coach to "run practices." The players are organizing and game planning on their own. The players are preparing themselves and going out and winning. The players deserve all the credit in the world here. I am proud of them and hope they win the rest of their games.

Go Hawg Players!