Post by 50 Yard Fan on Jun 1, 2013 14:36:52 GMT -5
www.wyosports.net/university_of_wyoming/football/cheyenne-warriors-have-ceased-operations/article_3cc6d236-ca68-11e2-a492-0019bb2963f4.html
Posted: Saturday, June 1, 2013 8:00 am
By Alex Riley
ariley@wyosports.net | 0 comments
CHEYENNE — The turf has been rolled up.
The pads along the dasher boards have been put into storage.
The window display on the 17th Street office has been taken down.
The Cheyenne Warriors indoor football team has ceased operations.
In two abbreviated seasons, the team played 14 games, going 6-8.
It began as a member of the American Professional Football League in 2012 before playing the final two games of that season as an independent. Disputes within the APFL led to several teams not coming to Cheyenne. That forced the Warriors to fill the end of their season with non-league games.
Before the 2013 season, Cheyenne joined the Indoor Football League, but it never played a game. The death of majority owner Toby SerVoss forced the team to step away before ever playing in the league.
General manager Alton Walker, co-owner Mystie Walker and coach Damon Ware worked to create the Developmental Indoor Football League to keep the 2013 season alive. It featured three teams — the Warriors, the Northern Colorado Wolfpack and the Rocky Mountain Thunder.
In the end, it wasn’t enough. The mounting expenses of running a professional indoor football team became too much for those running the franchise. A team once hoping to set its roots in the community is now non-existent.
This is their story.
A troubled start
On Dec. 28, 2012, Wheatland resident SerVoss died of natural causes. He was 62 years old.
A family friend of Mystie Walker, SerVoss had been the majority owner of the team since its inception.
The Warriors arrived at a news conference on Sept. 16, 2011. When SerVoss died, his family made the decision to stop funding it.
The Walkers had three options: begin looking at a new majority owner, assume all the financial responsibilities — or take a season off.
Ware knew the last option would be a problem.
“A lot of teams that go dark don’t get a chance to come back,” he said. “As long as I’ve been in this business, I know it’s definitely not a smart thing. Was (creating the DIFL) a smart move? Obviously hindsight can be 20/20.”
Ware began putting together the Developmental Indoor Football League. He serves as its director of team and league operations.
The organization was put together in a 45-day period. Its schedule was built with the intention of including several teams from outside of Wyoming and Colorado.
Plans to add squads from Texas fell through. So did hopes of playing the Chicago Pythons and the Indianapolis Matrix in non-league games.
Most indoor football leagues set their schedules months in advance, leaving the Warriors with a limited pool of teams willing to play.
While Ware was creating a new league, he also had to put together a fresh roster. Players who came to Cheyenne as part of the IFL were released to find opportunities elsewhere.
“When you’ve only got a month and a half to put it all together and make it perfect – it was going to be a struggle from the start,” Ware said. “It was a tough situation to begin with.”
Financial hardships
When he is not managing a team, Alton Walker works in law enforcement in Florida. He captures fugitives and transports them back to the state.
He is an average man with an average salary. Absorbing the finances of a football team was something he was not ready for.
“We really couldn’t afford it,” he said. “When (SerVoss) was around, I’ll pay our 49 percent, Toby pays his 51. Now we’re 100 percent, Mystie and I.”
Mystie Walker served as minority owner before SerVoss’ death.
Added Alton Walker, “We just weren’t prepared to do that. I don’t know anyone who would say, ‘OK, every year I’m going to be willing to lose money.’”
The costs of running a team quickly piled up.
The payroll averaged around $5,000 a week.
The team rented a house for several out-of-town players. That rent ran $1,150 a month, not including utilities and cable.
The team also provided groceries for the players at that house. That cost $300-$500 a month.
There was renting office space, salaries for the employees, workers’ comp insurance and more.
Despite all the costs, Chris Whatley, a starting linebacker, said the paychecks came and players’ basic needs were taken care of.
“No, we didn’t get treated like superstars,” he said. “But they did treat us like employees and workers and human beings,” he said.
A place to play
But those costs do not include game-day expenses and money paid to the city.
According to the contract for the 2013 season at the City Clerk’s Office, the city charges the Warriors $150 per day to leave the turf and padded walls up at the Cheyenne Ice and Events Center whether the team uses the facility that day.
If the city gets a client who is willing to use the building with the Warriors’ equipment up, it does not charge the $150.
On game days, the city charges the Warriors $150 per hour from 4-11 p.m. along with an added daily fee of $150 for a total of $1,200.
Also, if the Warriors sell tickets through the Ice and Events Center, there is a $2 charge paid to the city per ticket. The team opted to sell tickets on its own this spring to save money.
With several snows blanketing Cheyenne this spring, the Warriors had to cancel many practices. It went two weeks without organized practices or games in late April and early May.
“You guys charging me $150 a day to have the turf down is slowly putting me out of business,” Mystie Walker said. “We’re not on it for three weeks sometimes.”
The Walkers say the city charges the daily fee since it cannot use the building as a roller skating rink.
By comparison, the fees are not all that different from what the Cheyenne Stampede hockey team is charged to rent the ice for games and practice.
According to the 2012-13 contract between the city and the Stampede, the hockey team is charged $150 per hour Monday-Friday from 4-10 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday from 7 a.m.-10 p.m. The contract calls that “prime time.”
The team is also being charged $115 an hour Monday-Sunday from 10 p.m.-7 a.m. and Monday-Friday from 7 a.m.-4 p.m.
Because the team plays more games at home (25) than the Warriors (7), a game day charge was part of the Stampede contract.
The Stampede have their tickets sales through the city. For each ticket sold by cash or check, the city keeps $1. For each ticket sold by credit card, the city keeps $1.25.
Also, the Stampede paid to have a storage room in the arena turned into its locker room. The Stampede also rent an office in the center.
Advertising issues
Warriors officials say their success was hindered by the way the city allows advertising to be sold at the ice center.
The Walkers say they felt shut out of the process by the Stampede, which not only uses the facility but shares ownership of the contract to sell advertising for it.
“They took away my ability to make some money,” Alton Walker said. “But yet you’re asking more and more money from me to even have football stuff there.”
When the Stampede formed, the contract to sell ads for the Ice and Events Center was up for bid.
Stampede general manager Mark Lantz partnered with SeeHear Media of Fort Collins, Colo., to bid on that contract and won it.
City Contract No. 5901 was approved on Aug. 8, 2012, letting the team and SeeHear Media sell ads for the center.
The Stampede are listed as the selling agency because they are a limited liability corporation.
SeeHear Media president Andrew Cronin said his company has been hands off in the selling of ads, allowing Lantz and his team to do the work. If Lantz calls for aid, Cronin said he is happy to help.
Lantz has two sales and marketing associates — Monica Flores and Greg Dale — who sell ads for the facility, not just for the Stampede.
Those display ads are placed on the walls and dasher boards inside the center and are left up year-round. It’s the same as any other arena with permanent ads in place.
Contractually, the Warriors can sell as much advertising as they want on the pads that cover the dasher boards when a game is played. They are also permitted to sell ads on the field.
Several area businesses have permanent ads within the arena and buy temporary ads with the Warriors.
Mark Madsen is the business development director for Simon Contractors in Cheyenne.
The company has a permanent sign on the wall behind the visitors bench in the center. It also bought a banner along the dasher board padding for the Warriors.
Madsen recognized that when the Warriors’ contacted Simon Contractors about space it was a “totally separate marketing endeavor” from the ad that was already in place in the facility. He knew the two were not connected. Linda Diehl with Breeze Thru Car Wash also has a permanent sign in the arena but bought space in the Warriors’ program too.
With Cheyenne a small market, the chance of both the Ice and Events Center and the Warriors seeking advertising from the same companies was bound to be a problem.
What now?
The players who once had Cheyenne as their temporary home are now gone.
Two of them — DaMarcus Trotter and Quinell Atkins — are playing for the Lincoln (Neb.) Haymakers in the Champions Professional Indoor Football League.
Offensive lineman Will Lawrence was set to join them, but he got a spot in the Canadian Football League with the Montreal Alouettes. Meanwhile, the Walkers are working to sell the field, pads and other equipment to the Kearney (Neb.) Hawks. That team will start playing in 2014.
As for a Developmental Indoor Football League championship game, there is still a chance. The June 29 and July 6 dates are still reserved for the Warriors at the ice enter.
The plan was to have a playoff game between Northern Colorado and Rocky Mountain on June 29 to see who would play the Warriors on July 6 for the league title.
Ware still has hopes of organizing the playoffs. He said if the center is not available, he will look into having the playoffs somewhere in Colorado.
Several players contacted via Facebook said that if there was a championship game, they will take part.
“I’ll come back and finish the season,” Whatley said. “I always finish what I start. I definitely didn’t want to go through all that and not have a championship to show for it.”
Whether that title is played has yet to be decided. Financial factors will surely play a role.
All season Ware described the team’s goals as two-sided — to give players a chance to compete and move on to the next level and give the community a pro football franchise it could be proud of.
One of those got done; the other came up short.
“My level of disappointment coming into the season was high (because of the IFL withdrawal),” Ware said. “Now it has probably gone 10-fold at this point.
“Indoor football – it’s not a huge money-making business, but it’s a quality business. It’s a way to give back to communities where they have affordable family entertainment.
“(But) at the end of the day, the numbers have got to fit.”
Posted: Saturday, June 1, 2013 8:00 am
By Alex Riley
ariley@wyosports.net | 0 comments
CHEYENNE — The turf has been rolled up.
The pads along the dasher boards have been put into storage.
The window display on the 17th Street office has been taken down.
The Cheyenne Warriors indoor football team has ceased operations.
In two abbreviated seasons, the team played 14 games, going 6-8.
It began as a member of the American Professional Football League in 2012 before playing the final two games of that season as an independent. Disputes within the APFL led to several teams not coming to Cheyenne. That forced the Warriors to fill the end of their season with non-league games.
Before the 2013 season, Cheyenne joined the Indoor Football League, but it never played a game. The death of majority owner Toby SerVoss forced the team to step away before ever playing in the league.
General manager Alton Walker, co-owner Mystie Walker and coach Damon Ware worked to create the Developmental Indoor Football League to keep the 2013 season alive. It featured three teams — the Warriors, the Northern Colorado Wolfpack and the Rocky Mountain Thunder.
In the end, it wasn’t enough. The mounting expenses of running a professional indoor football team became too much for those running the franchise. A team once hoping to set its roots in the community is now non-existent.
This is their story.
A troubled start
On Dec. 28, 2012, Wheatland resident SerVoss died of natural causes. He was 62 years old.
A family friend of Mystie Walker, SerVoss had been the majority owner of the team since its inception.
The Warriors arrived at a news conference on Sept. 16, 2011. When SerVoss died, his family made the decision to stop funding it.
The Walkers had three options: begin looking at a new majority owner, assume all the financial responsibilities — or take a season off.
Ware knew the last option would be a problem.
“A lot of teams that go dark don’t get a chance to come back,” he said. “As long as I’ve been in this business, I know it’s definitely not a smart thing. Was (creating the DIFL) a smart move? Obviously hindsight can be 20/20.”
Ware began putting together the Developmental Indoor Football League. He serves as its director of team and league operations.
The organization was put together in a 45-day period. Its schedule was built with the intention of including several teams from outside of Wyoming and Colorado.
Plans to add squads from Texas fell through. So did hopes of playing the Chicago Pythons and the Indianapolis Matrix in non-league games.
Most indoor football leagues set their schedules months in advance, leaving the Warriors with a limited pool of teams willing to play.
While Ware was creating a new league, he also had to put together a fresh roster. Players who came to Cheyenne as part of the IFL were released to find opportunities elsewhere.
“When you’ve only got a month and a half to put it all together and make it perfect – it was going to be a struggle from the start,” Ware said. “It was a tough situation to begin with.”
Financial hardships
When he is not managing a team, Alton Walker works in law enforcement in Florida. He captures fugitives and transports them back to the state.
He is an average man with an average salary. Absorbing the finances of a football team was something he was not ready for.
“We really couldn’t afford it,” he said. “When (SerVoss) was around, I’ll pay our 49 percent, Toby pays his 51. Now we’re 100 percent, Mystie and I.”
Mystie Walker served as minority owner before SerVoss’ death.
Added Alton Walker, “We just weren’t prepared to do that. I don’t know anyone who would say, ‘OK, every year I’m going to be willing to lose money.’”
The costs of running a team quickly piled up.
The payroll averaged around $5,000 a week.
The team rented a house for several out-of-town players. That rent ran $1,150 a month, not including utilities and cable.
The team also provided groceries for the players at that house. That cost $300-$500 a month.
There was renting office space, salaries for the employees, workers’ comp insurance and more.
Despite all the costs, Chris Whatley, a starting linebacker, said the paychecks came and players’ basic needs were taken care of.
“No, we didn’t get treated like superstars,” he said. “But they did treat us like employees and workers and human beings,” he said.
A place to play
But those costs do not include game-day expenses and money paid to the city.
According to the contract for the 2013 season at the City Clerk’s Office, the city charges the Warriors $150 per day to leave the turf and padded walls up at the Cheyenne Ice and Events Center whether the team uses the facility that day.
If the city gets a client who is willing to use the building with the Warriors’ equipment up, it does not charge the $150.
On game days, the city charges the Warriors $150 per hour from 4-11 p.m. along with an added daily fee of $150 for a total of $1,200.
Also, if the Warriors sell tickets through the Ice and Events Center, there is a $2 charge paid to the city per ticket. The team opted to sell tickets on its own this spring to save money.
With several snows blanketing Cheyenne this spring, the Warriors had to cancel many practices. It went two weeks without organized practices or games in late April and early May.
“You guys charging me $150 a day to have the turf down is slowly putting me out of business,” Mystie Walker said. “We’re not on it for three weeks sometimes.”
The Walkers say the city charges the daily fee since it cannot use the building as a roller skating rink.
By comparison, the fees are not all that different from what the Cheyenne Stampede hockey team is charged to rent the ice for games and practice.
According to the 2012-13 contract between the city and the Stampede, the hockey team is charged $150 per hour Monday-Friday from 4-10 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday from 7 a.m.-10 p.m. The contract calls that “prime time.”
The team is also being charged $115 an hour Monday-Sunday from 10 p.m.-7 a.m. and Monday-Friday from 7 a.m.-4 p.m.
Because the team plays more games at home (25) than the Warriors (7), a game day charge was part of the Stampede contract.
The Stampede have their tickets sales through the city. For each ticket sold by cash or check, the city keeps $1. For each ticket sold by credit card, the city keeps $1.25.
Also, the Stampede paid to have a storage room in the arena turned into its locker room. The Stampede also rent an office in the center.
Advertising issues
Warriors officials say their success was hindered by the way the city allows advertising to be sold at the ice center.
The Walkers say they felt shut out of the process by the Stampede, which not only uses the facility but shares ownership of the contract to sell advertising for it.
“They took away my ability to make some money,” Alton Walker said. “But yet you’re asking more and more money from me to even have football stuff there.”
When the Stampede formed, the contract to sell ads for the Ice and Events Center was up for bid.
Stampede general manager Mark Lantz partnered with SeeHear Media of Fort Collins, Colo., to bid on that contract and won it.
City Contract No. 5901 was approved on Aug. 8, 2012, letting the team and SeeHear Media sell ads for the center.
The Stampede are listed as the selling agency because they are a limited liability corporation.
SeeHear Media president Andrew Cronin said his company has been hands off in the selling of ads, allowing Lantz and his team to do the work. If Lantz calls for aid, Cronin said he is happy to help.
Lantz has two sales and marketing associates — Monica Flores and Greg Dale — who sell ads for the facility, not just for the Stampede.
Those display ads are placed on the walls and dasher boards inside the center and are left up year-round. It’s the same as any other arena with permanent ads in place.
Contractually, the Warriors can sell as much advertising as they want on the pads that cover the dasher boards when a game is played. They are also permitted to sell ads on the field.
Several area businesses have permanent ads within the arena and buy temporary ads with the Warriors.
Mark Madsen is the business development director for Simon Contractors in Cheyenne.
The company has a permanent sign on the wall behind the visitors bench in the center. It also bought a banner along the dasher board padding for the Warriors.
Madsen recognized that when the Warriors’ contacted Simon Contractors about space it was a “totally separate marketing endeavor” from the ad that was already in place in the facility. He knew the two were not connected. Linda Diehl with Breeze Thru Car Wash also has a permanent sign in the arena but bought space in the Warriors’ program too.
With Cheyenne a small market, the chance of both the Ice and Events Center and the Warriors seeking advertising from the same companies was bound to be a problem.
What now?
The players who once had Cheyenne as their temporary home are now gone.
Two of them — DaMarcus Trotter and Quinell Atkins — are playing for the Lincoln (Neb.) Haymakers in the Champions Professional Indoor Football League.
Offensive lineman Will Lawrence was set to join them, but he got a spot in the Canadian Football League with the Montreal Alouettes. Meanwhile, the Walkers are working to sell the field, pads and other equipment to the Kearney (Neb.) Hawks. That team will start playing in 2014.
As for a Developmental Indoor Football League championship game, there is still a chance. The June 29 and July 6 dates are still reserved for the Warriors at the ice enter.
The plan was to have a playoff game between Northern Colorado and Rocky Mountain on June 29 to see who would play the Warriors on July 6 for the league title.
Ware still has hopes of organizing the playoffs. He said if the center is not available, he will look into having the playoffs somewhere in Colorado.
Several players contacted via Facebook said that if there was a championship game, they will take part.
“I’ll come back and finish the season,” Whatley said. “I always finish what I start. I definitely didn’t want to go through all that and not have a championship to show for it.”
Whether that title is played has yet to be decided. Financial factors will surely play a role.
All season Ware described the team’s goals as two-sided — to give players a chance to compete and move on to the next level and give the community a pro football franchise it could be proud of.
One of those got done; the other came up short.
“My level of disappointment coming into the season was high (because of the IFL withdrawal),” Ware said. “Now it has probably gone 10-fold at this point.
“Indoor football – it’s not a huge money-making business, but it’s a quality business. It’s a way to give back to communities where they have affordable family entertainment.
“(But) at the end of the day, the numbers have got to fit.”