LadyStanley
Registered User
Sounds like owner made some bad choices and has habitually neglected travel (IOW cutting the budget) on the four teams he owns.
Maybe the team owner is also a partner in an auto repair shop. Or a regional chain of urgent care facilities.... Considering how ticket sales are a big chunk of revenue for NA teams and the annual cost of a NAHL team is in the area of $500,000, I can't see them even coming close to breaking even without outside revenue.
Maybe the team owner is also a partner in an auto repair shop. Or a regional chain of urgent care facilities.
Thankfully all the players are ok. While the owner of Brookings is certainly at fault with making his players drive, and the bus conditions, etc. I'm also astonished as to why both of these teams didn't make a phone call and just postpone the game. Some 100+ miles between the two of them, they very could have made up the game at a later date, even if it was a weekday match up, some teams in the NA3 have done that this season in Wisconsin.
The league definitely needs to hand down some discipline to the ownership, possibly if this has been going on for some time looking at revoking the franchise rights as much as I hate to say that.
Apparently there is a fine for canceled games. I can certainly imagine if the owner is tight enough with his wallet that the bus isn't in the condition to drive that he would make the players drive through a blizzard to avoid having to pay the fine imposed by the league.
In that case the league should look at reviewing their own policy. While I see the issues in cancelling and rescheduling games, those teams are close enough in distance to make up the game possibly midweek if necessary, in this case it would certainly have helped avoid this accident.