Another team, same issues - Vol. IV

[ABARedWhiteBlue]

from the Delta Democrat Times:

Stingers looking for special treatment

By DAVID LUSH - Delta Democrat Times


GREENVILLE - With the Mississippi Stingers basketball team ready to start its fall schedule, the team has some housekeeping business to do before getting started.

On Monday, Sam Lacey with the Stingers organization asked the Washington County Board of Supervisors to waive the county's required deposits for use of the Washington County Convention Center to help ease the team's financial burden in order to play the scheduled games.

At issue is $2,500 to cover the games set only for November, which at this time is four. Six had been set previously but that number has dropped.

George Miller, supervisor of the convention center, said officials were still trying to work out with the Stingers the playing schedule around events already booked into the convention center through 2005.

However, in order to avoid setting a precedent, the supervisors turned down the request to waive the deposits.

Supervisor Mark Seard was concerned about setting a precedent by waiving deposits for the Stingers and not doing so for other groups and organizations who would use the convention center.

A deposit is required to help ensure that an event scheduled by a group for the convention center is held. If the event doesn't happen, then the county at least has some compensation to cover the no-show event.

The board took up the issue Monday.

Supervisor Paul Watson said the county “has been asking them for six months to see if they're coming and what dates they were planning. We still hadn't gotten that information until just recently. We can't hold that place for them and then have them not show up without some kind of a deposit.”

“We elected not to waive the deposits,” Watson added as the board's vote was unanimous.

Following the board's vote, Lacey said “thank you.”

The team is required to pay deposits for game dates prior to the games being held, said Victoria Douglas, front office manager at the convention center.

However, the schedule the convention center has for November games is different than the latest schedule the Stingers have presented.

It cost the Stingers $1,000 per game at the convention center with a $500 deposit required before the game date.

At this time, no deposits have been paid for the November schedule.

Last season, the Stingers were forced to play up to half of their “home” games at other venues around the Delta due to scheduling conflicts with events already books for dates the Stingers wanted to play in Greenville.

The first game the convention center has scheduled for the Stingers is Nov. 14.

[nksports]

Another moron (excuse me owner) thinks all he has to do is start a team and the money will start to flow. If I were one of the county supervisors in question, I'd tell this joker to put up the deposit in cash or take your ball and go home.
An owner should have at least an entire year's operating expenses before getting a team. I know, I know, the ABA wouldn't exist if owners were required to be able to finance their teams, but this is getting downright silly.

[Ken, Steelheads fan]

The Stingers need to have $2,500 waived to schedule games at the convention center?

When you can't come up with an amount so tiny to reserve your venue for an entire month, then you are already in trouble. Good business sense on the part of the Washington County Convention Center though. You can bet that they would never see a dime from the Stingers if they waived the deposits.

...much like the City of Louisville will never see the promised $100,000 in renovations to the Gardens from the fake Kentucky Colonels.

[ABARedWhiteBlue]

An editorial from the Delta Democrat Times - not exactly pro-Stingers:

Antidote for a sting

What a year ago seemed to be a promising relationship between the Mississippi Stingers and Washington County has become estranged.

Granted, the new incarnation of the American Basketball Association - organized in 2000 - is an ongoing evolution with franchises joining the league, folding or relocating at greater frequency than 3-second violations. And the Stingers' players have had better community relations than Greenville and Washington County experienced with a previous pro sports effort.

So it's understandable, to a point, that things are hectic and plans are tentative.

On the other hand, we wonder if the Stingers - who reached the semi-finals of the ABA's 2004-05 post season - will win over the community as they did a year ago.

Very little is known - locally, at least - about who's on the 2005-06 roster.

The Washington County Convention Center, where the Stingers would play some of their home games, confirmed that the team is booked there. However, officials would not disclose the dates because the team's schedule and the convention center's schedule don't match up.

James Britton, general manager of the Stingers, said Wednesday that the reason for the scheduling dilemma is that several teams the Stingers were supposed to play are sitting out the season because of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

After the first group of teams dropped out, the ABA moved the Stingers into another division. Then, two more teams dropped out, Britton said. Accordingly, the Stingers' schedule has been shuffled and reshuffled, he said.

We understand the difficulty of arranging matchups, accounting for travel time and hotel accommodations for the visitors on short notice. However, this makes it difficult, if not impossible, for local fans to buy advance tickets or even decide whether to go to a game.

Attendance last season was fair as families, school groups, civic organizations and individuals came out. However, you can't expect even mediocre support when people don't know when - or where - you're playing.

Britton said the Stingers want to play about 90 percent of their home games in Greenville. If their November dates cannot be settled with the convention center, the team will try to make arrangements for a local high school gym, he said.

According to a schedule at the league's Web site, www.abalive.com, the Stingers are to have 16 home games - three this month: Nov. 17, 18 and 27. Britton said the Nov. 18 game against the Richmond Generals has been moved to Nov. 16.

Adding to the scheduling problem, Stingers official Sam Lacey double dribbled when he asked the Washington County Board of Supervisors to waive a $2,500 security deposit for use of the convention center. The board emphatically rejected the request.

Lacey said it would have helped ease the team's financial burden, which, we must point out, is not a responsibility of the taxpayers. It's the taxpayers who would lose if the fee were waived and the Stingers failed to play on the requested dates.

Britton, on Wednesday, attempted to clarify the request, saying the Stingers are trying to do some charitable work with Greenville-area schools. The team sought the waiver of the security deposit to offset those costs, he said.

The deposit protects the county from loss in case a scheduled event does not take place.

With the first home game tentatively scheduled for next week, the county does not have sufficient time to book a replacement should the game be cancelled.

There are many in the community, including the Board of Supervisors, who have expressed doubts that the Stingers will play at all. With that uncertainty in mind, the board acted properly in unanimously stuffing Lacey's request.

We would love to support the Stingers. We would love to encourage every basketball fan within a 100-mile radius to come to every Stingers home game played in Washington County. We would love to say that the Stingers are here to stay.

But the red, white and blue of it is, we don't know.

Maybe after a few seasons of establishing a fan base and, more importantly, credibility, we'd see things differently. But to have this sort of thing happen in just the team's second season is the public relations equivalent of committing a turnover in your backcourt.

Lacey went to the charity stripe hoping to sink a $2,500 free throw. What he got was a buzzer-beating air ball.

An eye-opening quote:
James Britton, general manager of the Stingers, said Wednesday that the reason for the scheduling dilemma is that several teams the Stingers were supposed to play are sitting out the season because of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

There were NO teams in the region active as of the time of the hurricanes (and the dates of their releases on ABAlive, OSC, etc. will back that up). Both Louisiana franchises had already moved to 2006, leaving only the Stingers as even remotely affected.

Britton - like Joe - is using the hurricane to cover his tracks.

Shameful...