Monday, November 22, 2010

WAKA Strikes Back

So WAKA flexed their muscle and decided to monopolize the "South Tampa" kickball market.  As many of you know, there have been a couple of people working diligently with Kickball Society to give us another option a little closer than Temple Terrace.  Here is a time line of events:
  • November 1st (Monday) - Michael Luppowitz, speaking on behalf of WAKA, sends out his first direct correspondence ever to Bayshore Division individuals.  Ironically, he decided to begin this inaugural dialog by saying we were banned from the league.
  • November 4th (Thursday) - The director of PAL returns from partying with the San Francisco Giants (his son, or something, is on the team).  He returns to countless emails from Kickball Society, who is interested in playing two to three leagues in 2011 on Wednesday nights.
  • November 5th-9th - PAL and Kickball Society discuss potential dates for 2011.  There's a lot of effort put into shifting schedules around PAL's youth soccer and football leagues.  KBS feels the general idea is worked out and mulls over the risk of investment.  In all honesty, I think they doubted a bit too much during this time how many of us are willing to give WAKA the finger and switch leagues.
  • November 10th (Wednesday) - The director of PAL (Phil) calls WAKA and tells them Kickball Society is attempting to sign up on Wednesdays.  When asked why he did that, Phil replied: "They are a loyal customer so I wanted them to know competition was moving in.  Maybe you guys can have inter-league play."
  • November 12th (Friday) - PAL finally sends KBS a contract for Wednesday nights... however due to "computer issues" they only had a template so the official contract was scheduled to be hammered out and signed the following Monday.
  • November 13th (Saturday) - Jonathan Korb and Michael Luppowitz show up at the Breaker Division tournament.  Korb meets with PAL and says they want to have a Wednesday night league in 2011.  Tyrus Gordon then goes on to ruin kickball as we know it by allowing the championship game to be decided by an Accuracy Kick.
  • November 15th (Monday) - On the day KBS was set to sign a contract, Phil from PAL informs them that WAKA has enacted a clause from their Big Guava league (Summer 2010 on Wednesday) which says they get first choice of Wednesday nights.  This is very confusing for two reasons: 1) PAL NEVER mentioned this clause during the previous two weeks 2) Big Guava was in the summer, not the winter or fall.  So it makes no sense as to why they have first right for the entire calendar year.  This is nothing more than sketchy on PAL's part.
  • November 18th (Thursday) - WAKA was supposed to finalize with PAL what Wednesday nights they wanted.  Initially, they requested a time during youth soccer.  PAL had promised KBS this would be resolved, but continues to give WAKA extra time in deciding.
  • November 19th (Friday) - PAL informs KBS that WAKA has reserved Wednesday nights starting January 16th, and again on June 14th.  This means in the winter season, WAKA will have PAL for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights at the same time.
Well played, WAKA... you pissed on our parade and stopped KBS from playing at PAL in 2011.

Despite the lies that have been told to us in the past, Breaker on Tuesday does not sell out.  This past season they had only ten teams... so there's really no chance for WAKA to make a "standard" profit on Wednesday nights.  They just didn't want KBS to move in, and PAL bent over backwards to accommodate their wish.

PAL has since been informed that we will no longer donate the Leif Nissen golf charity money to their organization, due to their involvement with WAKA.  This totaled $1,373 this year and should continue to grow as we add more teams.  Every year we hold this tournament, I will send PAL an email detailing for them how much money we are giving to a more deserving organization.

So now what?  It's far too late to find a South Tampa option for Winter 2011.  I'm talking to another kickball league tonight, but as of now it's just going to be an initial discussion of our groups needs.

Kickball Society has moved their Temple Terrace league to Thursday nights, in hopes of getting our members to sign up.  Historically, they do not have a season party like we're used to...  But they will have one this year (although rates are increasing to make this happen).  Starting tonight through THIS Wednesday, sign-ups will be $55.   November 25th - Dec 4th, sign-ups will cost $59.  After Dec 4th, it'll be $65 to play in Kickball Society.  I've been told that you can just sign up and put "DPT" or something as your team... and rosters will be shuffled once there is a good idea who's playing.

The members of this blog have nothing to do with Kickball Society's offerings.  We've done our best to show them that we're a large group fed up with our current league.  Undoubtedly, what they currently have is not good enough for many of our friends who live in St. Pete or South Tampa.  In the meantime, WAKA is banking on their monopoly strategy.  MLoop bragged to Brie before the start of last season that players threaten to quit every year, yet they always return.  We need to start holding these people to a higher standard.  We're the customers, and somehow we're getting pushed around and lied to.

If you know for sure you're going to play in KBS this winter, leave a comment.  If there is a need for DPT to host roster spreadsheets to help teams form, we'll gladly do that.  I apologize that this news isn't "best case," but I assure you we'll keep working on improving our situation.

13 comments:

Griff said...

The Toejammers will be making the switch.

YellowBird said...

Since I was banned for essentially attempting to hold Ty and cohorts accountable, having a very full social life, dating the lovely April Williams and being too busy with work to post on DPT, I will sign up for KBS.

PS. WAKA enjoys murdering puppies.
PPS. Michael Vick supports WAKA.

Chandler said...

You just fucked up Yella... now that WAKA knows you're dating April, they're going to ban her too.

They have a history of such shenanigans.

M. Gorecki said...

Chandler, Bull, and I are meeting with another kickball league tonight who has the hopes of getting us a field in S Tampa in time for a winter league. I'm sure Chandler will post the results from this meeting but for those debating whether to sign up for KBS or not, you may want to wait to hear the results from this meeting.

J.W. said...

How many teams are expected to make the move? Is there a way to go TBCS style and just have one field for several games a night for an 8 team league? We used to practice little league football off of Manhattan SOG. The Seahawks used to practice right by Coleman Middle School. There are all sorts of little league baseball/softball fields. I don't know what booze restrictions would be, but I figured I'd throw the idea out there.

Alison said...

Drinking alcohol is prohibited on any county or city-owned field. This would include the school you mentioned, JW. To allow drinking on the field the land needs to be privately owned.

The only other possibility is a special type of permit available in Hillsborough County. However, such a permit is only granted if the field is not within 1,000 feet of a school, church, or daycare and there is not already 3 such permits granted within that same zone. It is possible for another kickball league to work to get one of these on a field for us, but they would have to be willing to apply for it and pay the costs. It's quite the long-shot.

Anyone who is keeping their eyes out for a field...make sure to consider if it has lights and who owns the property to see if it's a viable option.

Chandler said...

Not sure how many teams will make the move. While we do have a meeting tonight with another league, I'm not as confident as Gorecki is about securing something for Winter. But, I'll post a recap tomorrow.

Every field I know about in S. Tampa has one of the following issues: 1) No lighting 2) City or school owned and thus no drinking.

Griff said...

Ya if its the league I'm thinking of, he will def need to find a bigger field....with lights...on a different night of the week...before he can hope to expand fast enough to accommodate our group.

Looking forward to the details of your meeting though!

Chandler said...

They are who you think they are. Haha.

trinihic said...

I'm in.. :)

Maria said...

hmm, lots of decisions to make.

MuffDaddy said...

Chandler

What about those fields by your house that those people were getting all stabby on a year or so ago, Im sure they'd like a little cream in their coffee over there.

April (tall) said...

I guess I'll wait on my banning email. Thanks Yella. lol.