Email from a Hockey Mom in St. Louis
What to do?
There are many things to weed through when choosing a team. Leagues are quickly made up, and they charge so much, what can they really do? Lots of promises of taking a player all the way up the ladder. These coaches are calling and raving about a player’s resume like they are the next Gretzky, all because the want the money!
We get excited, at first thinking…this is it, and finally someone see the potential in our little hockey players!
The researching begins, looking at the area that our players are going to be playing at. Making sure he is going to be living in a safe area. Start googling the coaching staff to see if they have had multiple DUI’s or felony convictions. Double check what the web site says, just to make sure about anything and then it starts to unravel quickly, what a tangled web these coaches weave!
One team has a coach calling and talking up a storm, this guy sounds like a used car salesman as he is telling us how wealthy the owner of the team is and how first class the organization is ran. Look at the site and discovering that the owner’s name is XYZ and he is the owner of a landscape company. Ok, landscaping companies are profitable and when they have grown they can profit in the millions…then keep reading “and some of the players even work for the owner of the team in their spare time to earn extra money” Ahh Ha! No wonder he makes so much money, he’s a sweat-shopper!
I recently talked with a coach in Philadelphia who claims that getting your kid to the NHL is not a problem. He can do that easily. I know a good deal of guys who play in the NHL and none of them tell you it was easy to get there, too bad they didn’t know this guy because it would of made life a whole lot easier for them.
The coach tells me he played in the NHL system for five years…simple enough, I run his name but there is no hockey profile for him! How can that be? How can they have skipped over his name after he played five long years in the NHL? How can google have nothing on him? I double check the spelling of his name and do everything all over again… I search and search to only discover why his name is missing. It was so simple, and all along while I was searching, it just didn’t dawn on me why he was missing in the NHL database, the simplest answer and yet it just slipped past me? How stupid of me!….ITS BECAUSE HE NEVER PLAYED IN THE NHL!
The guy also told me that he got a player into the NHL system. I check out the player is he talking about and I see he warmed the bench for five games with an ECHL team. I would hardly say that is a person in the NHL system, I mean seriously, the stick boy warms the bench too! I come to find out that when the coach says “in the system” by his definition Jr. B is “in the NHL system”. I mean they are affiliated with a team, that is affiliated with this other team that is affiliated with a team above them, that is that farm team for an NHL team, so I guess with that reasoning if you are playing midgets you are in the NHL system too. Are we playing Six Degrees of Separation here? I mean if we are, while I am it, I just wanted to let you know that I am related to the Queen of England and I own the Brooklyn Bridge!
Speaking of the Brooklyn Bridge; when you hear the team fees are $6800, housing is another $3600, the contract also obligates you to pay for the show case, but doesn’t tell you how much it is, and that you will have to pay for play offs too, but also neglects to tell you how much those are. Then the coach says “we lost twenty four thousand dollars last year” So are they just going to scratch that on last year’s books? NO! Guess who is going to make up for it? You guessed it! Good answer! Ding! Ding! Ding! You are!
Then the coach says “Everything is included, the road trips and lodging, food on the road trips….” If it’s not in the contract, it’s not included! He can promise you the world but, let me just tell you something else that is really important that you should always remember no matter what; If it’s not in the contract, its not included! To further confirm what I am saying, the coach goes on to tell me “Well the guys just pitch in $5 each day and that covers their Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner” well now lets do the math here; $5 divided by 3 meals is about $1.67 per meal. Now when is the last time your hungry hockey player spent a dollar sixty-six for a meal? Oh yeah I can recall when, it’s when the Beetles were touring, Jane Fonda entertained troops in an anti war movement and McDonalds had cheese burgers for twenty five cents!
And speaking of the contract…. an essential element in any contract, for any contract to be valid, is that both parties fully agree and both parties must get something. This is a concept that the coach has not grasped into his greedy little fingers. In the contract it says “pay the Club a non-refundable Fee of $6,800.00 for the right to participate as a Player”, but then he also says “the execution of this contract nor the payment of the Fee automatically entitles the Player to receive playing time during games.” If he never plays, is he a player? So the coach is saying that he can take your money and never play you and if you sign this contract you are agreeing to this. FYI, this particular contract as it stands can easily be challenged and you don’t have to pay him.
Now let’s do the “out of pocket” math here, there’s roughly 26 away games at around $130 in meals, of course lets don’t forget the $6800 and then housing for another $3600, who knows what play offs and showcases cost after they skip the real story, but you are signing a contract to pay for them no matter what they want to charge you, but so far that a grand total of $10,530.00 for a team with 54 games, 4 goalies on the roster, and only 3 other teams in the league to play! To top it off you are not even entitled to be seen wearing a baseball cap until March of 2010 or you are kicked off the team!
OH NO! Is that the coach on the front page of the web site? And what the hell does he have on his head? it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s awful! It’s disgusting! It’s a heinous crime! Oh my God! It’s a baseball cap!!!! http://www.phillythunder.com/
Email from Ree in St Louis
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