Response from XIHL

[XIHL]

Hello All,

First, I want to thank everyone for their support so far. I also want to thank those who have offered constructive critism on the league, particularly regarding recent events. I'm going to post a response below from Steve Seeger, which he posted on the XIHL forum. I thought he answered a number of issues and I felt it would be appropriate to post it here. Before I do that, I want to add my personal comments.

The creation of XIHL, a semi-pro roller hockey league, has been a group effort. I think to date, we have provided a vehicle for elite inline players in the Northeast to play the game, a full-contact version, at the highest level available. As many of you already are aware, this is a start-up venture. With any start-up, you formulate a plan, you secure commitments from partners (team operators, sponsors, media, press, players, ect...) and you set the whole thing in motion. The two important keys to potential success is 1). Fulfillment of commitments and 2). being flexible. When people who promise to do things, don't, you have to be flexible and make the necessary adjustments. Mistake will be made. It's critical to learn from these mistakes. We're trying to learn from our mistakes and from that, constructive critism is greatly appreciated.

To address two specific points: the one regarding legitimacy, in addition to being one of the founders of AIHP, I am responsible for Public Relations. It is vitally important for me to be honest and accurate in making information about the league public. This means all the bad things as well as the good things. Sure, I try to spin things, this is what any good PR person does, but I can't make things up or hide things. When a situation like the Cougars bailing out on their commitment happens, we have to take appropriate action and make that situation public. We're not interested in hiding facts or covering them up no matter how bad they may make us look.

The other point concerns Mike Egan. Mike you are a very knowledgable and well-spoken person. Your thoughts and comments are greatly appreciated. You are always welcome to e-mail me or Steve at any time (as anyone is) with your concerns and requests for more information and we'll respond, as was the case this past weekend. Please don't throw the baby out with the bath water, so to speak. I hope you have been clarified on the recent situation and you'll reconsider you're self-imposed exile from the XIHL forums.

Steve Seeger's post:

Clearly, moving this thread to the Players section has received a large negative view in the eyes of some of our forum members. Please note that the rationale for moving the thread is based upon the reason that the XIHL forum was created in the first place; this is not meant to be a "public" forum. For that, please visit and utilize our friends at Inline Hockey Central. Rather, player issues and "banter" is targeted to the Player area of this forum system. Critical issues are always welcomed, but players addressing concerns outside of their team owners and GMs with little to no background information is not welcomed in the public XIHL forums. For this one time, I will move the thread back to the main forum area.

The final schedule that you saw on Saturday was the culmination of 2 weeks of attempting to work out the status of the Cougars and possible replacements teams, if any. This actual schedule was finalized on Friday evening, and clarified to the team owners involved immediately.

The simple fact is that all three teams received the number of games they were guaranteed; no one received any additional games. The Gladiators offered to play a double-header on Saturday, so that the Thunder would not be stuck making the long trip only to play one game on Sunday. The League would never ask nor expect a team to play a double-header in one day, due to the nature of full-contact, and we thank the Gladiators for helping to resolve the situation by offering to do so.

There are, of course, other outcomes and solutions that could have been created, but we felt this was the best decision, to provide the players with games to play, the facility with competition that would draw fans, and the teams with the opportunities to help their standings. What is most unfortunate, is that the teams that originally made commitments to play in the league, and are not following through with those commitments, are impacting our league and the other teams. The Thunder has been hit the worst, both for their home venue and for this past weekend. Hopefully, the remaining teams will be ready to honor their agreements, and we can finish the season on a strong note.

Regarding the concern about league attendance, I can only say that we also hope to attend more of the events and are not satisfied with our inability to make the weekends so far.

Thanks for your concern, and please don't hesitate to address these types of issues in the future. That's why these forums exist.

-Steve


Benny Gulakiw
Director of Marketing & Public Relations
eXtreme Inline Hockey League

[MDE3]

Thanks for the detailed and concerned response...I think your forthrite explanation will help those who want to see the league succeed and want to continue to work through the teething problems. Most of the players and fans on here and in other forums want nothing more than to see a venue succeed where stellar competition for the players and entertaining hockey for it's fans continues to be made available....Any negativity in the posts generally comes from when this desire has been thwarted in some way...so even the negativity could be percieved as encouraging when you consider where it comes from..... You guys probably know better than most of us how frustrating it is when you are working so hard to get to the place you want to be, and people or circumstances keep throwing objects in your path.