Montgomery In Trouble

[slaid]

The owners of the AIFA also own the Montgomery Bears and the Carolina Speed. They have been presenting a picture of tranquility and even stating that the AIFA is where the AFL was in year 7 and that the AIFA will overshadow the AFL in 4 to 5 years. Contrary to belief, having been a former employee of M&M, I beg to differ. The league is getting a quality team in the Fayetteville Guard and Wyoming Cavalry but the smoke and mirrors game is better played in the AIFA than in the NIFL. The Montgomery Bears do not have a venue to play in 2008 and neither owner is local nor spends enough time in Montgomery to find one. The players and the head coach are diligently working to find a venue and new sponsors to stop the travesty from happening like the 2007 season. The players finished their last game on June 2nd and have just recieved payment on July 16th. Poor management and lack of communication caused a great team in the Bears to have such a poor start to the season. It was only after players and coaches realized that they were on their on before the team stopped focusing on what they didn't have such as, equipment, trainer, sales people, lack of PR, etc... before they got together and put together a few wins. Lack of funding caused a breach in the coaching staff as the offensive coordinator was told three different things before being let go and proving his worth to be rehired only to not get paid for the last 3 games. Their will be some expansion teams in the new season but they will only replace those that are fold as we speak. Morris help foot the payroll cost of 3 teams in order to have all the games played. That is how they got 100% completion. They had to take a dive themselves so that they would not loose interest from big time sponsors who are still weary of the league and have not signed on as of yet. I wish them all the best of luck but the truth has to come out. I feel it is better to let your mistakes and blemishes show so that you can learn from them then to break you back so that you can tell everybody a good story.

[preeths]

But the story you seem to be telling is one of paid bills. Late yes, but paid. It may not have been a great situation in Montgomery, but it isn't perfect, or even good, everywhere. I'd rather have owners meet their obligations and ensure the schedule is played than deal with cancellations and replacement games. Here's to further improvement in 2008.

[blueridge]

The Speed are now owned by the Bakers. Who came on half way through the season as minority partners. The way I see it all new leagues will have growing pains I think the way M&M handled the league this year was fine, did they have issues yes what big company does not. Just a little side note this is not the first league they had a hand in starting and it is doing well. The aifa had a fill in team called the Gulf Coast Pirates that team is actually an outdoor team they own in Tampa. I belive the league is the SEFL not absolute on that but can get back to you on that. Give it time I believe that the AIFA will do fine. Remember even the AFL had teams come and Go in the begining stages.

[bearone]

If you are trying to make John Morris and Mike Mink look bad you really gave them props. That is what the owners of the league is supposed to do. Also, why would you come on the message board to vent your gripes about them when you could call them or get in touch with someone in their organization. By being a former employee of the organization, you know that they do not air dirty laundry on message boards. Why have you not talked to the coach about it. I'm pretty sure he is not hard to find. If you don't have his number you call e-mail him thru the Bear's website.

[The Man, The Myth]

Bottom line is that the bills were paid. There are still bills from the AIFL that are not paid.

I went through the first two years of the AIFL. We started this year anticipating the worst. We had pools on which team would fold first. We were very skeptical of a neutral site championship game.

No teams folded, every game was played, I went to Florence and was extremely impressed with the production. John Morris and Mike Mink recognize the importance of the fans. They stood in front of us, took our best shots, admitted mistakes were made and vowed to fix it. We can not ask for anything more.

I have no doubt that the AIFA will survive and year two, three and four will incrementally improve.

[arenaboy2006]

[quote=""preeths""]But the story you seem to be telling is one of paid bills. Late yes, but paid. It may not have been a great situation in Montgomery, but it isn't perfect, or even good, everywhere. I'd rather have owners meet their obligations and ensure the schedule is played than deal with cancellations and replacement games. Here's to further improvement in 2008.[/quote]

What I have heard from the Arena management is that the AIFA is not welcome in Montgomery due to not paying bills and arena rent. Its just like the NIFL. When the NIFL was there they did pay for the arena rent but not other bills. One thing is that I was told that the AIFA has had problems paying rent in other arena is that true

[exit322]

That wouldn't be a good thing for the A. Doesn't shock me a whole lot, but that doesn't make it a good thing.

[slaid]

[quote=""The Man, The Myth""]Bottom line is that the bills were paid. There are still bills from the AIFL that are not paid.

I went through the first two years of the AIFL. We started this year anticipating the worst. We had pools on which team would fold first. We were very skeptical of a neutral site championship game.

No teams folded, every game was played, I went to Florence and was extremely impressed with the production. John Morris and Mike Mink recognize the importance of the fans. They stood in front of us, took our best shots, admitted mistakes were made and vowed to fix it. We can not ask for anything more.

I have no doubt that the AIFA will survive and year two, three and four will incrementally improve.[/quote]

That is the problem the bills are still not paid. Yeah Mink and Morris stood in front of you and admitted problems were there and vowed to fix them. You must have had them in a corner where they could not run. I have seen several instances where they have "vowed" to fix problems and the problems are still here. I wish the league the best but unless they get some help from people that know about how to run a sports organization and stop taking the "get as much as we can for as least as possible" approach it will not make it. Mink and Morris should be used car salesman because they will make you believe they are on your side while in the meantime they have an alterior motive to benefit them. They dont care about the fans but they also do not care about money either, they care about recognition and praise. Prime example before the last seven games of the season they did not want Tyvon Green on the team they wanted Jeff Aaron despite the coaches disapproval but once J Aaron went psycho and T Green settled down all of a sudden T Green was there choice from day one and Morris even went as far as to resign as QB coach of Charlotte and put himself as QB coach of Montgomery without ever showing up to practice or knowing how to correctly pronounce Tyvon Green's name. Good Luck AIFA I hope they listen to their supporters but if not, I am not one to say I told you so......

[chardale]

Stay with the NIFL trolls and take your medication, there are plenty of teams out there having problems, including Nashville Kats, do you think they will be back nxt yr? Nope, u heard it here first.