Green Cove fails to show in Columbia

[section106]

Surprise. the Jacksonville (Green Cove) team failed to show Sat night in Columbia and they had to hastily find a semi-pro team to play.

heres the link

http://www.thestate.com/181/story/56297.html

[preeths]

Report we received was that Green Cove was supposed to be paid this week and was not. The team decided not to travel.

[Arena Fan]

Paid or not, Columbia is scheduled to go to Jacksonville later in the season.

It seems to me there's a slim chance of that happening now as the Lions left the Stingers hanging.

***If the Lions decided not to travel, they could have given the Stingers some NOTICE!!!!

They gave no notice, they just no showed and in 2 hours time the GM found another team.

Real classy way to act Jacksonville.

[Magic]

Hey Arena Fan, your only as strong as your leader......and Cleveland Gary is their leader. So figure that!!!!!!

[preeths]

Don't blame Jacksonville. As professionals, they were promised pay. When that payment didn't come, they decided not to play. My guess is the league had to have some inkling that would happen. If the NIFL office didn't tell the Stingers, you have to wonder why. You also have to wonder if the league ponied up the dough for Jacksonville's travel, and if they didn't, the Lions had no way to get to Columbia anyway.

[Arena Fan]

As professionals, it costs .25 cents to make a cell phone call when they made the decision not to come. They should have given the Stingers a heads up.
How about an e-mail?

No showing is unacceptable no matter how you sugar coat it.

But that's alright, what goes around comes around and lets see if the Stingers show in Jacksonville in June.

[GoCavs1]

As professionals, it costs .25 cents to make a cell phone call when they made the decision not to come. They should have given the Stingers a heads up.
How about an e-mail?

No showing is unacceptable no matter how you sugar coat it.

But that's alright, what goes around comes around and lets see if the Stingers show in Jacksonville in June.


I think your missing the point here. More than likely in june there will be no Jacksonville team. Quite possibly by this weekend there will be no Jacksonville team. Why would the people in jacksonville who were lied to and not payed give any courtesy to anything a part of the NIFL. Who have lied cheated and stealed from them.. There more than likely will be no retaliation because your game will be cancelled due to poor management of the league from the league by the league..

[preeths]

The Lions haven't been paid, so they are technically not professionals, though they were promised they would be pros. What you're talking about then is a courtesy, and right now I would bet the Green Cove group believes it doesn't owe anyone in the NIFL anything. I don't know when the Lions made the decision or who told Columbia, but the Stingers knew by Saturday morning, at the latest, according to Bobby Jackson. Jackson at first tried to get the remnants of the Charleston Sand Sharks to come in, but they left him scrambling to find a semi-pro opponent at the last minute.

The league would love to have this turn into a he-said, she-said situation, with people blaming various parties the NIFL has not paid. We can argue about the semantics and politeness of what happened, but in the end the blame falls on the league.

[indoor fan]

As professionals, it costs .25 cents to make a cell phone call when they made the decision not to come. They should have given the Stingers a heads up.
How about an e-mail?

No showing is unacceptable no matter how you sugar coat it.

But that's alright, what goes around comes around and lets see if the Stingers show in Jacksonville in June.


It would have cost Cleveland Gary the same .25 cents to make the call (unless his cell phone was cut off due to not paying his bill).

[GTDREW]

The bottom line here is that someone should have called the Stingers. I am not sure if the League should take the blame but at least a call from one coach to another would be the right thing to do.

My bet is that the J'ville staff knew by Friday they would not be coming and should have contacted the Stingers ASAP.

For those on here that seem to blame each everyone other person than maybe the one's that should know think about this, if you were a coach and could not make a game in any sport, would you not call the other team? I blame both the league a little bit, and the J'ville staff, one for the schedule they seem to be changing as the wind blows and the other for down right unsportsmanlike conduct, professionalism or not. Stand up and be a man about it, J'ville really dropped the ball on this no matter what.

BTW, my bet is that the Guard will not have a game this week unless our office agrees to pay for everything. Unlikely to happen, but let the team come here should it happen, we will take on anyone in the Crown, in any league.

AS ALWAYS GO GUARD!!!!!!!!!!

[billm75]

If the question is courtesy, than yes, the J'ville crew is at fault. I have to agree though, that if they were screwed over all season long, they probably felt justified in not showing up and not calling to say as much.

The league is what's hurting everyone here. The players on the teams do their part, show up and play hard, then turn around and get screwed. I'd walk out on that employer too.

I hope to see the teams that still exist at the end of this debacle...i mean season.....jump to better leagues and continue with great success.

[akrizman]

Why was Columbia expecting Green Cove to show up in the first place?

Dozens of games have been cancelled by the NIFL this season. The league run teams have a particularly pathetic record of not showing up. Has Columbia not been paying attention to what was going on? They have the nerve to act shocked... shocked!... that the unpaid semi-pro players in Green Cove didn't bother to pay travel expenses out of their own pocket to travel out of state for yet another embarassing blow out against a pro team, risking injury when they're not insured.

Now fans in Columbia are whining that nobody bothered to give them a phone call? The ineptness of this league is spray painted in giant letters on every available wall, and you want a flippin' phone call? With all the fraud and criminal activity, you're concerned about etiquette? Sorry, if you want sympathy you'll need to get in the back of the line behind all the other fans of teams that have had their games cancelled. It's a long line.

[UNLogger]

I respectfully disagree with the notion that Jacksonville was at all to blame for this. If the league was fully functioning and Jacksonville decides not to show up for whatever reason, then sure they could be blamed. But at this point, I wouldn't lift a finger to do anything that should be done by the league if I was in their position.

UNLogger
Aaron

The bottom line here is that someone should have called the Stingers. I am not sure if the League should take the blame but at least a call from one coach to another would be the right thing to do.

My bet is that the J'ville staff knew by Friday they would not be coming and should have contacted the Stingers ASAP.

For those on here that seem to blame each everyone other person than maybe the one's that should know think about this, if you were a coach and could not make a game in any sport, would you not call the other team? I blame both the league a little bit, and the J'ville staff, one for the schedule they seem to be changing as the wind blows and the other for down right unsportsmanlike conduct, professionalism or not. Stand up and be a man about it, J'ville really dropped the ball on this no matter what.

BTW, my bet is that the Guard will not have a game this week unless our office agrees to pay for everything. Unlikely to happen, but let the team come here should it happen, we will take on anyone in the Crown, in any league.

AS ALWAYS GO GUARD!!!!!!!!!!

[billm75]

Why was Columbia expecting Green Cove to show up in the first place?

Dozens of games have been cancelled by the NIFL this season. The league run teams have a particularly pathetic record of not showing up. Has Columbia not been paying attention to what was going on? They have the nerve to act shocked... shocked!... that the unpaid semi-pro players in Green Cove didn't bother to pay travel expenses out of their own pocket to travel out of state for yet another embarassing blow out against a pro team, risking injury when they're not insured.

Now fans in Columbia are whining that nobody bothered to give them a phone call? The ineptness of this league is spray painted in giant letters on every available wall, and you want a flippin' phone call? With all the fraud and criminal activity, you're concerned about etiquette? Sorry, if you want sympathy you'll need to get in the back of the line behind all the other fans of teams that have had their games cancelled. It's a long line.


Oh trust me, we don't want your sympathy. We understand why Green Cove did what it did, we're just saying it would have been nice to know in advance to allow us a chance to get something put together in time. Luckily our GM had the good fortune to book a game of any caliber for the weekend in the short amount of time he had.

Don't get your panties in a bunch, we know what this league is all about, and that many MANY other teams are getting screwed over all around. But forgive me if I think a heads-up was in order. I know the "LEAGUE" screwed Green Cove, but does that mean the teams within the league are granted a pass when they screw another team within the league?

Anyhow, it's bound to get worse and I'm sure it's being taken into consideration for the teams that actually will be playing their games from here on out. I wouldn't be surprised to see the rest of our season consist solely of our home games filled in by semi-pro teams just to finish it out. Save for Fayetteville and Greensboro, I don't see anyone else on our schedule this season that's even going to be suiting up.

[akrizman]

But forgive me if I think a heads-up was in order.

Sorry if my point was lost in my ranting.

The point I was trying to make is that you *did* have a heads-up. Heck, I could have called you and told you Green Cove wasn't going to show up.

Paul can correct me if I'm not remembering correctly, but he personally warned Columbia before the season started about the NIFL and TP. and they *still* took the chance.

Now y'all are acting surprised?

[billm75]

Sorry if my point was lost in my ranting.

The point I was trying to make is that you *did* have a heads-up. Heck, I could have called you and told you Green Cove wasn't going to show up.

Paul can correct me if I'm not remembering correctly, but he personally warned Columbia before the season started about the NIFL and TP. and they *still* took the chance.

Now y'all are acting surprised?

Well, unfortunately I was out of town this past weekend and only found out what happened when I got home late Sunday night. I've not had a chance to get in touch with the Stingers office, so I really shouldn't get too far ahead of myself here. HOWEVER.......

I see where you are coming from, yes the signs were there glowing in neon letters. But my understanding (MY understanding, and 50 cents might get you a cup of coffee) was that the Stingers had been told that J'ville was coming to town for a game. If I'm correct, then someone, maybe not J'ville, but SOMEONE shoulda called to say "Hey, guess what? Not happening".

Anyhow....The Colonial Center has not lost a penny, all payments have been made to the arena. There are still some issues with our dasher board padding, but again, it's being addressed. I believe the reason that the Colonial Center took the chance on NIFL/Pewonski is because they got paid. Who'd turn down $6500/game? It's not like the arena was booked and they had to rearrange scheduling. ANd it's proven that the sport and the team will be able to succeed here if they can get out of this sinking ship. ;)