River City Rage

[nksports]

[quote=""lindsayh12""]Oklahoma Panhandle State University[/quote]

My condolences. That place is college football death. They are NCAA D-II but routinely get drilled by the likes of the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (a small local NAIA conference).
They are a college rodeo powerhouse.
It is a fun place to watch football on a Saturday night (where early season it is still in the upper 90s at kickoff).

[ragefan]

hate to beat a dead horse here but I talked to the pervious owners last night because this is really bugging me that someone is getting blamed for actions that were not taken.

They said they do not know where people are getting their info when they are talking about Coach Wyatt, and I would think the owner would know whats going on in his own organization over a fan, "HE WAS NOT FORCED OUT BY ANYONE IN FRONT OFFICE", Once again he left because a better job came up . Tye said he and Mac had meetings on and they made the decisions on who was fired and who stayed during their time as majority owners which is the time you are speaking of. I am not sure what you have against "someone in the front office" but be careful that you know both sides of the story before trashing someone. Maybe you have a personal relationship here with the coaches in question and feelings were hurt but to wrongly accuse someone is just not what these boards are about. Well not suppose to be about anyway.

You seem to be getting one side to Coach Cox story which i assume is his because they also said many players complained about him as a coach just like they did with Wyatt also , like i said before you will NEVER get all players to like all the coaches. Someone will always complain about a coach. As far a Coach Cox goes he was let go for many reasons, mainly because the new OWNERS, not the front office, wanted their old coach from the Shockwave to run the team but things did not work out and he went back to Cali, before the season even started and Stills was brought in. There is no conspiracy to get rid of coaches here just a team who wanted change.

[lindsayh12]

I take offense to you questioning my integrity by saying "Maybe you have a personal relationship here with the coaches in question and feelings were hurt but to wrongly accuse someone is just not what these boards are about."

I have no peronal relationship with any of the coaches we've been talking about. I am just a diehard football fan who hates to see her hometown team going the tubes of internal issues.

[MarshalsFAN80]

[quote=""lindsayh12""]I take offense to you questioning my integrity by saying "Maybe you have a personal relationship here with the coaches in question and feelings were hurt but to wrongly accuse someone is just not what these boards are about."

I have no peronal relationship with any of the coaches we've been talking about. I am just a diehard football fan who hates to see her hometown team going the tubes of internal issues.[/quote]

Now that we don't have a team in Cincinnati, the RAGE have been harder to follow via just the internet but I can tell you from Personal experience with the RAGE via the NIFL- Tye was one of the worst owners to talk to and deal with on a regular basis. And given the CRAP that the NIFL had in it, that is saying a lot.

Ultimately I'm sure he wants what is best for his investment but I just didn't think at the time that we talked that the RAGE had a good business plan. *Much like Marshals Ownership*

Cincinnati will never see indoor football again, at least not at USBANK Arena. It's frustrating as a fan, lindsay, when you hear the things that you have been hearing but, if you don't want to know all the CRAP that goes on, then don't read the boards when it comes to your team. While Preeths does a great job monitoring the BS that is put out here, the majority of the posts here are people's opinions and NOT ALWAYS based on FACTS.

Enjoy your team and keep supporting them if you want to keep them around. 3,333 fans for the final home game of the year makes it sound like people in St. Charles still want the RAGE around

[ragefan]

First of all MarshalFan80..How did you come to deal with Tye if your just a fan.. Or are you one of the owners?? When i asked tye he said he had nothing but good experiences with the Marshal team when the Rage was in the NIFL. But lets be clear here. Tye rarely dealt with the owners personally,he was more the money behind the team and not the spokesman when it came to dealing with owners and teams, it was his partner at the time the rage was in the NIFL, Scott Wilson, who was on the board and who went to the meetings to represent the Rage. So are you sure you are trashing the right person here??

By the way, Tye does not own the Rage, he sold them in the off season to the Sprowls.


By the way i looked up the history of your team and boy you got some guts calling Tye out.. Your teams history is disgraceful to say the least ... at least Tye did not embezzle or not pay his players or fold the team...Or Flee the country due to money laundering charges... Never cast the first stone if you live in a glass arena...

[lindsayh12]

Besides the 2006 coaching staff...Tye was the best thing that ever came to the RAGE so Marshall fan is just jelous he doesn't have a hometown team anymore.

Also, I have to thank god that our players played this season to spite the person running the front office.

All the best to the PLAYERS on the Rage during their playoff run.

[ragefan]

Agreed on the part about Tye . When he and his then partners, Scott and Jerry bought the Show Me Believers from Ed they had their work cut out for them. I think this team has come along way. It is to bad the Rage does not have more support from the community. They are a great team to watch and you can't beat the cost of a ticket and it was a fun run when Tye and Mac Meetings ran the team. I enjoyed working with them a lot.

We will have to wait and see what the new guys do and I am sure they are good guys but they have a tough act to follow. It takes a lot more than throwing money around to build the kind of loyalty the team and its previous owners had.

Ask any player or coach and they will tell you Tye and his family were very supportive and loved the team. To bad they moved to Pittsburgh. Maybe someday he will buy a team out there....Well if he is crazy enough to own a team again.

[gostlouis]

--"It is to bad the Rage does not have more support from the community. They are a great team to watch and you can't beat the cost of a ticket and it was a fun run when Tye and Mac Meetings ran the team."--

Getting peoples interest in minor league teams in St. Louis is almost impossible among my friends. If they are not the Blues, Rams or Cardinals then they are labeled as "a minor sports team" and it's hard to get any of my friends to care for them because of that.

I've taken tons of people to Rage games to get some interest in them among my friends, but it just never stays. Sadly the media doesn't help either when they don't even mention the scores every week on the local sports TV stations. (and I'm talking about channels 2, 4 and 5. The channels that really matter.) There are still many people in St. Louis that have no idea we have an arena football team and these people are football fans mind you.

Now don't get me wrong, the Rage are indeed getting supported by a good amount of people. But that number of 3K to 4K a game just can't seem to go up anymore in a 10K seat arena. The next step has to be taken and the local sports TV stations has to acknowledge the Rage's existence every week with a final score update at least if this team is going to get higher attendance.

I sadly have no idea how you can force the media to do this though.

[ragefan]

I know what you mean... Tye and I have talked about this a lot . He could not get the media out there.. The only time they covered was when the Rage was downtown that year and that was only because they were only a few blocks away and ran over to get a few bits for a clip. I know aaron is always sending press releases and they never get picked up by the stations, hell high school sports gets more coverage.

Now Randy Gardner does a great job covering us on his show and so does Howard Balzer on his show and the St.Charles paper always did a great job covering them in the past too.

I think if you look at the teams that draw, they are smaller towns with no major league sports to deal with. The Indoor team is their major sports team and the only game in town so they draw pretty well. When you live where people are use to teams like the Cards , blues, and Rams they think the Rage is minor league stuff and not worth driving out to St.Charles for. I know Tye dealt with that for 3 years. He knew he had a great product but what do you do to get people out there? So far the new owners, who have given away a ton of tickets, and have done a ton of ads are not getting them either. It is really a shame because i would much rather watch the Rage play then the Rams, it is more personal and up close at the Rage games and the players are not jerks who think they are above signing an autograph or taking a picture. I am glad you get people out to the games.. If you can figure out how to keep them let the Rage know....

Anyway... Hey we made it to round 2 of the playoffs maybe this is our Year!!

GO RAGE!!!!

[Boromir2300]

"Success is defined not so much by where you end up, but where you came from to get there" -Dean Smith, retired UNC Basketball Coach

To respond to a couple of other posts-yes, the General Manager of the Rage is a 'baseball guy'. My response is, who cares? The General Manager has to manage the whole function of the team-arena issues, trying to sell tickets, sponsors, etc. Coach Stills and his staff are probably making most if not all of the personnel decisions of what players to have on the team. Also, to lose 7 straight games and then win 3 of the last 4 to make the playoffs, and then win your home playoff game-that is quite an accomplishment. Also, I am happy Coach Wyatt found a better coaching job, he did a good job for the Rage and we wish him well.

The Rage have made the playoffs for 4 straight years, with 3 of those years in the much more competitive UIF league. Though the players and coaches deserve a lot of credit, the General Manager must be doing something right to have that kind of success. When was the last time the Rams were in the playoffs anyway?

Given that the players only make $200-250 a game, it is hard to say which players will be back any given year. The fact that they had 9 different quarterbacks, lots of injuries, an offense that couldn't score consistently, crappy kicking, and a new head coach, the year went about as well as it could have. With a head coach that has NFL experience and made the playoffs, hopefully the team will attract some good players in the upcoming season.

Bring your friends and family to the Rage games next season-with cheap ticket prices and (hopefully) good quality football, it is one of the best family entertainment values around.