Honest opinion of the USA Inline Cup

[PIHAGOALIE]

Well, i just got back yesterday from the tournament, needless to say i am still tired from the traveling. First of all i want to congratulate my teammates on a job well done! Eventhough we did not win the championship game, i believe we played the best that we could, second is still very respectable cosidering the talent that was there. Also, congrats to my teammates Doug Fetz and Mike Vickerman for making the all-tournament team. I am also thankful for winning the Most Valuable Goalie award.

[PIHAGOALIE]

All staff at the tournament conducted themselves with the utmost respect towards everyone that was involved. Big upside to the rink was the locker rooms. This was the most noticable difference from last year to this year. There is alot of room to get dressed and the locker rooms are located right behind the benches. As far as i know all the toilets worked without any issues lol. i wasnt in there much but the only improvement i would do is make sure that the floor gets cleaned a little more often.The concrete outside of the floor needs worked on ASAP. Concrete is rough and there are alot of divets and holes everywhere. This is dangerous and is also very bad on your wheels. The area behind the benches is bad because there are creases in the concrete and i almost ate s#$# a few times. Last year i enjoyed the photographers this year there wasnt any!! Only pics taken is whats on the website. I have yet to see the pics. I understand that the floor was torn apart on 3 different occasions fixing tiles and there was someone their late thursday replacing tiles to give us the best possible playing surface however there was very little difference from last years floor to this years floor. the tiles are sunken in and the corners stick up and interferes with skaters puckhandling. On a couple different occasions i saw several players out of the blue just fall down due to the corners of these tiles. I was told that as long as people want to go to vegas for the Inline Cup this is the facility that will be used because everyone wants to gamble and drink and do whatever. I would rather pay my hundreds of dollars and play this tournament in New Orleans, Buffalo, Denver, Philadelphia or wherever as long as it is at a nice arena and has a nice floor to play on. Guys this is the ONLY inline rink in vegas and as long as you dont mind playing in it the tournament is going to stay there. It really needs to move to another venue. Again this is no reflection on the staff, they are truly a great group of guys but i think this tournament is starting to get a huge black eye.

[DannyG]

Thanks! to James for his insight...and congrats on the All-Tourney goalkeeper selection.

I believe his analysis of the rink, especially floor facility will turn out to be accurate, our team hits the floor this coming weekend.

I agree with his analysis that other cities would be a good alternative with a good facility...I have played this tournament in New Orleans ('99), SoCal (Cal RHC) and in other facilities in Vegas (both the Expo Center and Crystal Palace)...

James left out one additional reason, which is my incentive to participate year after year...the fact that this is the USA Hockey InLine national event, and I choose to support the one, single organization that has striven to develop our sport for the past 12 years. (We do admire NARCh for the business that it is, but not part of this discussion). I support USAHIL because they deserve our support; they have supported the sport with all that they do for the past decade.

We look forward to the coming weekend, and our four teams from El Paso will let you know how things go...

See you out on the blue floor...

-DannyG

[GROWL]

I think venue is of chief importance in considering this tournament. We enjoyed the several trips we made to Vegas for the event and it is important to note that it being in Vegas was almost 100% of our motivation to play. We leave Friday for the Disney event and again venue is of key importance here.

I suggest a "mardi gras" tournament in New Orleans. It would likely be the biggest adult tournament ever. :cool:

[DannyG]

here we go...

the floor was certainly the poorest condition, and the least playable, that any of us have ever exprienced...your worst concrete nightmare stories are nothng compared to this...each individual tile is grossly concave, resulting in a wave-effect for both puck and skates...uneven seam-edges between individual tiles numbered in the thousands...this floor is either made up of greatly damaged, unserviceable tiles, or the under-surfacing continues to be unremedied, uneven concrete.

I, who have defended the condition of this floor to others, was greatly disappointed. In a full year since we initially encounterd this facility, almost nothing (obviously) has been done toward the cleanliness of the old floor surfacing, which probably is the core problem of everything. After over a full year, the five feet of apron area surrounding the rink continues to look like nobody has swept, mopped, cleaned at all. Place still looks like they just moved into an unused warehouse that has sat dormant for three years...total mustyness everywhere...

I now have the resentment as one who has defended this place: Hey, Las Vegas guys! How much would it take to apply a little soap and water????? Your place can be old, nobody would say anything, and it might solve a lot of your floor problems, if you would just clean it up, eh? I was very disappointed...I dismissed this last year as a "just moved in" situation...the situation is still there.

Quality of D1/D2 was extremely high...very competitive tournament...

The quality of the womens' division was very high....five older teams, and two younger ones, all very competitive...best tournament our girls have ever been in...

I have no analysis of our 50's division...our guys can't stick handle very well as a group, but we make up for it by being incredibly slow...I am sure we resemble the "clown act" intermissions between the feature acts at Circus Circus...suffice to say, we 50's guys (and our female keeper on the AZ team!) wouldn't trade this tourney for anything...

Tournament formats and operation by USA Hockey InLine staff continue to be totally first rate in every single aspect. Thanks! to all the USAHIL guys for all their work...

The strip mall shopping center location of the mall is indeed "seedy," but in defense, the Hilton, and the Wynn are just around the corner! Sahara Avenue is one of those "older, run down" streets, but both Paradise and Swenson, as the adjacent streets are new, "Las Vegas brilliant" streets, so I'm not necessarilly buying the "bad part of town" rap..."low rent," yeah, but not horrific...

Las Vegas is srill there and it is cool...Playboy club at the Palms second tower opened up this past weekend..."Cops" tv show was taping on "drive-with's."

At the rink from 7am til 2am three (okay, 2 and a half) nights in a row...dirve up and drive back...I now need a vacation to recover...

In final, this event reminded me whay I love to play this game...everything cool and fun about roller hockey was at this tournament...my new, 'best ever' appellation to the '06 "Vegas Cup."

If you are thinking about next year, do it...USA Hockey will bring in a new floor and install it for the event, count on it...


-DannyG

[EPTBlaze19]

Floor was horrible so was reffing:mad: other than the the teams were great! Wasn't to happy with the floor at all i cant see how they would hold a "national tourny" at such a bad rink, yea i know its vegas and what now but i agree and i would much rather play in a better rink somewhere else even though its not in vegas. Hopefully next year it isnt there and if it is, ill make sure me and my team play somewhere else, thats how bad i wouldnt want to waste my money going there again for a 3 time in a roll.:(

-Jimmy Rodriguez
EPT Blaze

[DannyG]

I made the comment on our local board that "this was the best tournament ever on the worst floor ever."

I re-read PIHA-G's floor description to realize that it was the same as mine...

The best:

1. Jimmy's EPT Blaze made me proud to be from El Paso. Our young guys (all 18-22) played very well in D1/D2 this year...took Pama Cyclone guys to the final 10 seconds...heard a couple of coments that "those Blaze guys get beat, but they never stop comin' at ya..." that's the way it was...

2. Our girls beat the other young team, and got better each game...at the end of it, I asked 'em how they felt...they get it...they really showed up for this one...they know how well they did...

3. Our 40's guys were easily the most improved team in the tourney from last year, and they came 'this close' to making the champ' game...

4. Our 50's team was 2-2, the Phoenix guys won the last one, so they get the banner...congrats...hope Daryn will give us a 50's division at NARCH Winters...

The worst:

5. Floor??? see all the above...

I am counting on USA Hockey InLine to bring in a floor and overlay it for next year, like they have always done with the kids' nationals...I will really miss Vegas if they move this event to somewhere else...

Really, a first-rate floor surface would have eliminated everything that could have been considered problematic about this event.

Presently, there is no other event that has 30's, 40's, 50's, Open D1-4, Women's, and next year we could add wheelchair, ya know...we really need to have this event, and it really needs to be in Vegas...on a first-quality floor.

Thanks! for listening...sometimes I just wanna rant for a while...

-DannyG