[quote=""Ken, Steelheads fan""]I can read between the lines though. PBL
good, CBA/ABA collaboration
bad.[/quote]
You seriously have to be kidding me. Your complete and total bias against the PBL is blinding you from seeing that other than the statement that according to a source in the organization Fiedler (yup, wrong former NFL QB) wanted the Miners to go to the PBL,
this has nothing at all to do with the PBL. I am not saying it is good, bad or indifferent, and my Miners source didn't know all that much about it. If this was indeed Fiedler's position, and I have heard from another person within the CBA that it was, I can see someone arguing only that he saw that the PBL was more stable than the CBA or ABA. Who didn't see that? With all but one league's season complete, history has already shown it. The fact of the matter is that the ABA and CBA
were bad last year. The PBL was better. That's what Shuler allegedly saw happening. No reading between the lines required. This is not about the PBL.
[quote=""Ken, Steelheads fan""]Am I missing something here?!? I'm assuming you have been misspeaking by saying Shuler instead of Jay Fiedler. If so, then Jay Fiedler is 50% of Trinity. There's only the two guys--Jay and Demetrius Ford. I'll even argue that Jay Fiedler is in reality 100% of Trinity's bank and Demetrius is there to help with the decision-making process.[/quote]
You don't have enough information to go on. Minority owners most likely would not be listed. You don't know the ownership percentages of any of Trinity's owners, yet you're not letting that stop you from jumping to conclusions. Fiedler was the money behind Trinity, or at least behind it when they were running the Miners. He is not obligated to continue to pour personal money into a losing venture, but then the organization, including Fiedler and Ford, would have to make a call as to whether to continue the operation. Fiedler may have been part of making that bad call.
[quote=""Ken, Steelheads fan""]To suggest that the fault for unpaid bills may lie elsewhere (as you did in the post above) is to suggest that Demetrius Ford went
rogue. That's unreasonable, IMO. That's how I reached my conclusion. [/quote]
That's not the suggestion. Fiedler may indeed share in the fault. The organization, with or without Fiedler's agreement, decided to forge ahead. I don't know if Fiedler wanted to or not. I don't know if Ford wanted to or not, but either way it is clear that the Miners had to sink or swim on their own. I was told rent concessions were coming later in the season, and perhaps they felt they could keep going until then. Didn't work.
[quote=""Ken, Steelheads fan""]Reason seems to be thrown out of the window when it comes to the PBL[/quote]
Yes, but we're getting used to that from you.
[quote=""Ken, Steelheads fan""]...and make no mistake. This is about the PBL. If Jay Fiedler (or this person Shuler) said they would only continue to fund their team if they switched
to the
ABA, instead of the PBL, you would have been critical of this action. I've followed your postings for years and I'm certain of this. Demetrius Ford didn't go rogue. The following article and quote suggests Jay Fiedler was quite active during the season regarding operations of the team:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/sport ... 09cba.html
[/quote]
I would have been critical of the strategy because it would make no sense for the Miners to go to the ABA. That would have been a desperation move, going from one completely unstable situation to another. They'd move from one league to avoid cancelling much of their schedule and wind up in another where doing so is a virtual certainty. The ABA is the bottom of the barrel of minor leagues and has been for years, based solely on its inability to play its alleged schedule. Having stated the obvious, do you have any idea whatsoever of the number of ABA missteps that I never comment on? How about a team missing an away game because too much of its roster got into trouble for a bar fight the night before? How about the league pushing teams to make money on tryout camps? How about all the shenanigans that happened behind the scenes in Nashville, including a team owner having a confrontation with players? Go back and look at my posts from this year and count just how many folded ABA teams from this past season I hauled out on the carpet. Please, find my lengthy diatribes on the Aurora Force, Bahama Pro Show, Chicago Steam, Cleveland Rockers, Detroit Hoops, Gallup Talons or any of the other joke ABA teams from this last year. Fact is, I don't have the time to comment on everything. Sometimes things just catch me at the right time.
Fiedler may have been active. He doesn't have to give up ownership or management rights when he decides to stop pouring his money into a losing cause. Does he have a moral obligation to walk away or make it right? Now, that's a better question.
[quote=""Ken, Steelheads fan""]...and this, from the post above.
That's quite true if you're dealing with a corporation. The corporation owes the debt, not the individual. Fiedler betrayed a confidence though and shouldn't use a loophole in the law to burn those people. On the other hand, when will towns and communities learn NOT to put so much faith in out-of-towners??? When will they learn NOT to be so star-struck???[/quote]
How many communities have been burned by locals? Tons. Wasn't Jewel Harris Sr. a local? It isn't all about out-of-towners. It's about doing good business, getting your money up front (rent before games are played, for instance) and being aware of who you're actually dealing with (an individual or a corporate entity).