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Post by SOOTH SAYER on Jul 16, 2007 21:26:23 GMT -5
The owners of the AIFA also own the Montgomery Bears and the Carolina Speed. They have been presenting a picture of tranquility and even stating that the AIFA is where the AFL was in year 7 and that the AIFA will overshadow the AFL in 4 to 5 years. Contrary to belief, having been a former employee of M&M, I beg to differ. The league is getting a quality team in the Fayetteville Guard and Wyoming Cavalry but the smoke and mirrors game is better played in the AIFA than in the NIFL. The Montgomery Bears do not have a venue to play in 2008 and neither owner is local nor spends enough time in Montgomery to find one. The players and the head coach are diligently working to find a venue and new sponsors to stop the travesty from happening like the 2007 season. The players finished their last game on June 2nd and have just recieved payment on July 16th. Poor management and lack of communication caused a great team in the Bears to have such a poor start to the season. It was only after players and coaches realized that they were on their on before the team stopped focusing on what they didn't have such as, equipment, trainer, sales people, lack of PR, etc... before they got together and put together a few wins. Lack of funding caused a breach in the coaching staff as the offensive coordinator was told three different things before being let go and proving his worth to be rehired only to not get paid for the last 3 games. Their will be some expansion teams in the new season but they will only replace those that are fold as we speak. Morris help foot the payroll cost of 3 teams in order to have all the games played. That is how they got 100% completion. They had to take a dive themselves so that they would not loose interest from big time sponsors who are still weary of the league and have not signed on as of yet. I wish them all the best of luck but the truth has to come out. I feel it is better to let your mistakes and blemishes show so that you can learn from them then to break you back so that you can tell everybody a good story :smileybears:
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Post by UnoBomber on Jul 17, 2007 0:22:04 GMT -5
You said you were a formerly employed by M&M. I'm going to assume you went out on a good note... I always guessed since there wasn't much done with the league website, etc. that the Bears and Speed were their main focus. Guess not. It's noble that the coach and players are trying to keep the ship a float. Hopefully they will be around next year.
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thor!CRAZIES
2nd String
2007 AIFA AND SOUTH DIVISION CHAMPS THOR! CRAZIES go THUNDERBOLTS 2008 AIFA CHAMPS FLORENCE PHANTOMS
Posts: 242
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Post by thor!CRAZIES on Jul 24, 2007 11:21:27 GMT -5
you definitely could notice a difference in the level of play by the bears in mid-late season----i was in tallahassee when they almost knocked of the titans on the road----and when they came ot lakeland they lead until the 4th quarter----but they are solid and in the end i think they will be here
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Post by mudcatmaniac on Aug 15, 2007 6:33:04 GMT -5
Nothing like airing other people's laundry..........
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Post by SOOTH SAYER on Oct 2, 2007 15:56:51 GMT -5
The Montgomery Bears of the American Indoor Football Association will not play next year, said John Morris, the owner of the league and the Montgomery team. He said the team averaged about 200 paid attendance per home game last season, which ran from February to April.
"It's a real emotional decision," Morris said. "I love the kids there and the city. It's where we got involved in the sport."
Morris and Mike Mink bought the struggling Montgomery Maulers from Jamie LaMuyon after a scandal involving unpaid players and bounced checks. LaMunyon, whose team played in another indoor football league, at one point fired the entire team after players said they would not make a road trip unless they were paid.
Morris and Mink founded the AIFA last season and changed the team's name.
Morris said the enterprise lost a great deal of money last year. But he hopes to find local ownership for the team, and a new venue. The Maulers and Bears played at Garrett Coliseum, which Morris said was part of the problem because it's not air-conditioned.
"I think somebody with local connections and good business sense could make a go of it there," Morris said. "We'd love to keep a team in Montgomery."
-- Tom Ensey
It was only just a matter of time. The writing was on the wall and no one took it seriously. I hope the AIFA continues on with serious ownership ask serious questions and getting straight answers, which seems to be impossible by the way. If not this will not be the only team leaving....
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Post by Free Agent Fan on Oct 2, 2007 16:02:55 GMT -5
You are a day late......and a dollar short. Nice try.........former employee.
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Post by frostbite on Oct 2, 2007 16:23:11 GMT -5
see this is like i said in my pm to you, i usually dont post here because some of you are just plain mean to each other. it looks like this soothsayer person was right by looking at the first post and that looks like what i read on the montgomery newspaper website. he post it here and you make smart remarks to him about nice try and he was right all along.
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Post by Free Agent Fan on Oct 2, 2007 16:44:25 GMT -5
I beg to differ. Soothsayer just looks to drum up any kind of negativity that he can. All of his posts show it. He is a disgruntled former employee.
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Post by frostbite on Oct 2, 2007 20:00:34 GMT -5
but he was right. i didnt look at his other posts what does that have to do with the post you replied to and were trying to be smart with.
thats a really old skool avatar btw shimadajoe
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Post by xmradiodave on Oct 3, 2007 6:07:43 GMT -5
So what league on this level does not have teams fold? If a team is buring through more money than it is bringing in, it only makes sense to cease operations. Even if it was a league owned team, the market just simply did not work.
The players were paid late. At least they were ultimately paid. That is more than what can be said for other team in both this league and other leagues. I am sure Morris and Mink do quite well in their personal ventures, but when they are paying out of pocket to try to make something out of nothing, at some point, something has to give. The Bears simply did not make money.
It is easy to slam a company after it's first year of operations. Anyone who has ever worked in a startup company knows what to expect. The first few years are almost all negative in revenue. This is no different. The AFL had a very, VERY, rough beginning. Teams came and went like there was a revolving door on the front office. Even the NFL in it's inception had a very difficult beginning. It takes time to work things out.
It seems to me that people let their personal opinions of Morris and Mink get in the way of the big picture here. With leagues folding left and right after a few years of operations, that should be a testament to how difficult this venture truly is.
NIFL, WIFL to name a couple as an example. People will claim that those two leagues were far superior to the AIFA. Maybe in some regards they were. I personally don't know, and dont care. They however are all but kaput. Operations costs being the reported factor. It is so easy for everyone on the outside looking in, to point blame and the league owners anytime this news comes out. But the big picture is, in America, this type of thing happens every single day in every single business.
Products come and go. New Coke was a financial disaster for the Coca-Cola company, but the corporation rebounded. Crystal Pepsi was a catastrophic failure for Pepsi-Co. yet Pepsi still remains. Formatting of terrestrial radio that came into play in the early 1980's as developed by Lee Abrams was shunned and dismissed at first and seemed a devestating failure, but radio continues to broadcast just fine. This is what happens with companies is my point.
This is a mountains out of mole-hills scenario. Let it ride. If the AIFA blows up their spot, then so be it.
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Post by frostbite on Oct 9, 2007 0:24:04 GMT -5
crystal pepsi kicked ass so did pepsi blue.
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Post by xmradiodave on Oct 9, 2007 4:55:36 GMT -5
crystal pepsi kicked ass so did pepsi blue. Sweet Jesus! |
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