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Post by sportznut on Sept 10, 2011 15:01:00 GMT -5
AS much as the Fans would Love to see a championship game between games from east and west, The owners actually do not like it. No one wants to foot the bill for the team traveling, and the team traveling has to make sure players actually can take extended time off to make the trip. The longer the teams play, the more costs they incur, like housing, food, electric bills... you may say, yeah right.. But i have been in those discussions and it always amazes me. But this is a business for these guys and if you are not making money but yet have a great team, then when it comes down to the end of the season, things get really tight in the what we want to spend on expense....
Even if it is just 2 teams involved in this game, I have seen the home team before not really wanting the game because it will COST them to play it, and the visiting team not wanting to make the trip because it was too far and key players couldnt make it, plus they had to scramble to cover the cost it took to make the trip that the home team doesnt cover. That is a scramble in 3-4 days to come up with 10 grand or more.... question, do you think you could in 4 days come up with 10 grand, after knocking on doors all year just to get sponsor money to could scrape as it is....
In year 1 of the SIFL, Houma to Austin was the longest trip..roughly an 8 hour trip. Outside of that, all other teams had no longer then a 5 and most games were within an hour and a half trip. Travel for teams were nominal, and FANS could easily follow their team to ALL road games, and i know MANY that did.
In season 2 of the SIFL, and the expansion east. The CLOSET trip from east to west was Lafayette to Columbus and that was 9 hours. The longest was Lake Charles to Greenville which was 15 hours or so. We were lucky that Lake Charles to Lafayette and Columbus to Albany were no longer then a hour and a half, which helped on travel.
Now i say all this but i do not know if many of you realize how large Texas actually is. Here in the Beaumont area, it is an 11 hour trip to go to Odessa, it is a 10.5 hour drive to go to Columbus Ga from here. Corpus or Laredo to Amarillo is over an 11 hour trip. RGV to Amarillo is 14 hours. The regular season travel costs for this LSFL will be there week in and week out. I personally doubt a west league v east league championship game will transpire..... But stranger things have happened in this crazy sport we love
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Post by Banana Cat on Sept 10, 2011 21:20:23 GMT -5
Very true. The only owners I know that never cared about traveling long distance for a game between two league champions were the Rochester Raiders (they were full of bluster about traveling to Sioux Falls or Lake Charles to take them on after winning the CIFL, but two years ago in the IFL playoffs they were complaining about having to travel to Wichita), Sioux Falls (they didn't really care about the other leagues though, viewed them as lower level), and Billings. All three ownerships had plenty of cash at the times they would even consider traveling. Lake Charles only went up to Sioux Falls three years ago because it was prearranged before the season that the United and Intense champs would meet at the United winner. There's no doubt in my mind that Lake Charles would've avoided the trip if it was attempted to be setup after the season's were completed instead of being locked into it before the season.
Yes, I know Texas is gigantic, but I do think some who haven't been there can overlook that fact.
Are you going to be involved with the LSFL at all?
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Post by exit322 on Sept 10, 2011 21:34:28 GMT -5
They complained about the Wichita trip because their money train (Barto) had finally left McCarthy to fend for himself.
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Post by sportznut on Sept 12, 2011 19:30:30 GMT -5
BC, As i was apart of the situation of the merge... I will disagree with you about the decision of an inter league championship being made before the season. Talks were being made behind the scene between Tommy B and Dakota Crow. I am sure there were others involved but these 2 were the spearheads. the Intense season had started, i think we were 3 games in when the owners were presented with the chance for a game between the 2 leagues champs. TB was very persuasive as he always is, and they all agreed on the game, BUT concerns on where the game would be played, which leagues rules and COST of traveling to or hosting the game were put out there but tabled by TB till a later date. It was then addressed that, that season the game would be played in the UIF arena and that Intense rules would be used. the next season the game would be in the Intense leagues arena and played by UIF rules.
Our season was coming down the stretch and with some Arena unavailability for playoff games, We gathered on a call to discuss playoffs. It was decided by the majority to back the playoffs back a few weeks to accommodate the teams who won the right for home playoffs games. That is when TB dropped the Bomb on the owners that, this decision would piss off the UIF owners and they wouldn't want to play the inter league game. When the consensus was OH WELL, we are concerned with finishing our playoffs first then the extra game, TB then said this was more then a Inter league game but Merger talks had been going on behind closed doors and this might break off talks....... silence i tell you..... I thought the Call was dropped. All along, the Year end league Meetings and All Star game was to be held in Lake Charles and TH asked how that would play out. It was told that would go on as scheduled and then the extra game would follow. Lies lies lies.....
Let me tell you how that would have played out. The Intense Bowl was played on a Monday Night in Lake Charles, Tuesday morning and afternoon League meetings,Tuesday Night in Lake Charles would have been the All Star game, Wednesday Finish Up League Meetings, Friday UIF/IFL Merger Press Conference, Saturday IFL/UIF Game in Sioux Falls. The Friday before the Intense Bowl, ALL IFL activities past the Intense Bowl were canceled. On Tuesday, night after Louisiana won the Intense Bowl, they began practice for Sioux Falls, And found out the game would be played by UIF rules. Wednesday practice, Thursday making sure all flights were booked and travel plans readied. Friday, Swashbucklers had to make 6 flights to get all personnel there. The last group (defensive backs) arriving after flight trouble at Denver, to Sioux Falls a couple of hours before kickoff. That trip was supposed to be reimbursed by UIF on travel for Louisiana, that never took place. A meaningless game that costs the financially struggling Intense league Champion a BUNDLE.... The Last season of the Intense League, I was told that ONLY 3 of the 9 Intense teams made ANY kind of profit. The idea of downsizing the budget (part of the SIFL original plan) was going to be on the table. Problem, seeing the Millionaire owners of the UIF made the Thoussandese owners of the Intense League want to go play with the big dogs.....Here we are, 3 years removed from that and NONE of those Thoussandese owners of the Old IFL are still around in the New IFL. I preached all along this was an UIF Take over rather then a merger...
I have a Book in me... a really good one, that you would say, You coul not even make this **** up..... I need to put it on paper.
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psx234
Team Captain
Posts: 281
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Post by psx234 on Sept 13, 2011 14:16:18 GMT -5
That is some crazy stuff there.
As a fan in the stand, bottom line is that I like the UIF better than this current IFL. But oh well.
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Post by Banana Cat on Sept 13, 2011 16:38:49 GMT -5
There were some things I liked about the UIF better as well, but the bottom line is that the UIF needed to grow.
@nut: Yeah, I know the Intense League got stiffed in many ways with the merger. They did get back at Sioux Falls though in the meetings where they had to decide their punishment for not carrying insurance.
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Post by sportznut on Sept 13, 2011 16:59:08 GMT -5
as Dominate as SF was/is, I think there were more then just the Intense Teams voting for the punishment. I mean look who won that season, Billings.. From my dealings at the merger, the Billings owner had a HUGE say in things... They wanted him and his Money in the league and he gave an idea, they ran with it. 3 Seasons later after the Merger and he is gone the way of the Intense teams... out of IFL.
Yeah, I would always be the last person to leave the Conference Call, That holds true in Intense, IFL, SIFL, and current Job.... Sometimes you hear conversations that weren't intended for you. But it is still part of the call, The plans to get rid of the intense teams owners, price them out as it were, were discussed in length by a few of the UIF owners, I go back to Millionaire and Thoussandese reference... Thoussandese was a common name THEY USED!
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Post by Micah008 on Sept 14, 2011 14:04:49 GMT -5
...Yeah, I would always be the last person to leave the Conference Call ... Sometimes you hear conversations that weren't intended for you. But it is still part of the call.... I do this at work sometimes too, and learn some very interesting things.
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