Player strike at my home rink

**EndGame** · 09-27-2004, 10:57 PM

I don't post here much (in fact this might be my second post) but I thought you'd all be interested to hear about the player revolt at the rink I play at. I play in the adult leagues at Shooters Indoor outside Richmond, VA. I believe there's someone here who plays in the youth leagues. We were getting ready for the new season last week, with all rosters approved by the competition committee, when the league owner decided he would do a power grab and start reconfiguring the rosters. He informed one team that their captain was too good for the intermediate division, and told two teams in the advanced division that they had to swap some players because the teams weren't even enough. Again, there was a competition committee made up of players that had looked over all rosters and approved them for their respective divisions. The captains of the 10 teams in the two divisions met tonight and decided that the ultimatum would be made that the committee's decisions would be reinstated, or we would walk. The rink owner pretty much told them to shove off. So, seven of the teams (two have been silent and one is siding with the ownership) have decided to walk away from the rink despite having paid heftily for the season.

What a mess.

**SpeedDemon** · 09-28-2004, 12:28 AM

It's too bad they already paid. Rinks are generally a bad investment and most rink owners heavily depend on men's league revenues (at least in ice hockey). If he lost those teams without pay, he'd change his tune fast.

**EndGame** · 09-28-2004, 12:31 AM

Yeah .. I actually advocated playing out this season and then making our demands next season before we paid. But, hotter heads prevailed. The rink owner now has our money and we don't have hockey. We're looking at moving the teams en mass to another facility. We can bring a lot of money to someone.

**NLane** · 09-28-2004, 08:19 AM

Is this RK's rink? You guys could make the drive to Williamsburg, or check into Fredericksburg. Both may run adult leagues. That's too bad. I had good hopes for that rink.

**Rebecca** · 09-28-2004, 10:14 AM

End Game

first, I LOVE the 10 person committee!

What do you think would be the advantage to this man in changing up the teams? What stake does he have in it and what would have motivated him to do this? Did people complain or ride him to make this change or is he directly involved with a team(s)?

And yes, are you referring to RK?

Rebecca

http://www.collegerollerhockey.net/b...r_stallion.gif

**umroller** · 09-28-2004, 11:13 AM

You guys probably have a good case to get your money back if you wanted to speak to a lawyer down in Virginia. It seems that you guys signed up for this league expecting that this 10-player committee would be making the decisions. When the owner came in and started messing with things, he was effectively breaching that contract because you were not getting what you contemplated (teams that were approved by the committee, not the owner). You guys are probably talking a few thousand dollars here. Considering everyone was paying the same amount and it is a breach of contract action, a class action lawsuit would probably work very well.

**EndGame** · 09-29-2004, 12:31 AM

I'm not sure of the motivation, really. He says it's business to run, and that he's a better judge of what's fair than the players in the league. We were pleased with the teams as they were before he started monkeying around.

RK's parents own the rink. Is he famous or something? I know he's played on national teams and such. I've played against him.

**NLane** · 09-29-2004, 08:02 AM

It was the parent I was thinking about as the owner, not the son. Now that I know, were the teams newly arranged so that the son's team would win?

**EndGame** · 09-29-2004, 11:16 PM

Nah .. nothing like that. The moves could have been justifiable, but the owner didn't go through the right channels. He completely sidestepped the entire organization he put in place.

**EndGame** · 09-30-2004, 12:10 AM

I thought for sure this thing would drag on another week or two. A couple of approved negotiators worked it out. There will be a different system -- a three-person committee made up of players will replace the competition committee and the commissioner. The ownership will have input into the process but will NOT have a vote.

Thank goodness .. now I can play some hockey!!!

**webster** · 10-01-2004, 01:08 PM

*censored* that, id be out there playing by myself, i paid i wanna play i dont care about rosters and who im playing with, i just play to play, thankfully thou where i play we can make our rosters how we want and there is very limited interfietence unless like a top division player wants to play in a low division, really all the rink i play at does is if i dominate a division for too long they jus move ur whole team up

**EndGame** · 10-01-2004, 10:27 PM

I *do* care who I play with. I formed a team full of my friends and that's who I want to play with. I've played in a league where there's a redraft by the management after every season. Sure, the teams are even but there's no chemistry whatsoever and you risk not getting along with half of your team. Right now there was no worry about my team being torn apart as we are appropriate for our league (kind of weak actually) but down the road we didn't want the rink owner reaching in and reconfiguring our team with no due process whatsoever just because one or more guys got good.