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Boycott Virginia Sports Complex

B Brooks510+ posts
My son is currently playing in a tournament at the Virginia Sports Complex. Given the extreme temperatures of this weekend, the VSC is refusing to allow coolers (even for player use) to be brought into the facility. They have even gone so far as to search equipment bags and ball buckets brought in by the teams. What could have been a great, albeit hot, day of baseball has left coaches, parents, and players vowing to never return to the Virginia Sports Complex. PUT THEM OUT OF BUSINESS!
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P 3plplay100+ posts
Sad to day but I agree with Brooks5. It just doesn't make sense that they could not EVEN leave it up to the coaches to carry and take care of the cooler dedicated for dealing with the extreme temperature i.e. cold towels and washcloths.
They say they'd have cold water coolers at the dugout but, after previous game, they take their time to refill them with water leaving a big jug full of ice and no water.
Unfortunately, the other alternative they can implement is to charge everybody an entrance fee which can make up for bringing in personal food and drinks.
F FoxDad10,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by Brooks5:
My son is currently playing in a tournament at the Virginia Sports Complex. Given the extreme temperatures of this weekend, the VSC is refusing to allow coolers (even for player use) to be brought into the facility. They have even gone so far as to search equipment bags and ball buckets brought in by the teams. What could have been a great, albeit hot, day of baseball has left coaches, parents, and players vowing to never return to the Virginia Sports Complex. PUT THEM OUT OF BUSINESS!


Hate to tell you this, but every owner of the VSC has had this policy. I guess the current owner/manager is just enforcing it. It is a shame they couldn't make an exception for the extreme heat this weekend. I'm sure it won't hurt sales that much to let coolers of water brought in.

My son's Legion team has their "home" games there and we've yet to be searched. (It's not fun driving 40 miles for a "home" game but that's fuel for another thread.) Heck, there's barely any staff there when they do play - usually on weekday evenings. Just a few running the concessions and one or two to prep the field.
C CyberDish100+ posts
Agreed!!!! We had the same experience today.... It's really a pretty nice facility, but a few people did everything they could do to ruin the day. One of the "cooler nazis" came within 6 inches of wiping out half our team! She came around the corner of the building so fast on that d@#% golf cart that she almost ran over 6 of our players. ANYWHERE else, and that type of driving would get you escorted off the property, but her mission of rounding up every cooler she could find was priority #1. We had to go find somebody to fill our coolers twice and we lost one player today to the heat.
On a more positive note... we had a couple VERY pleasant umpires.. HEHE
Q QuadAAAA100+ posts
quote:

Unfortunately, the other alternative they can implement is to charge everybody an entrance fee which can make up for bringing in personal food and drinks.


My understanding is that they did charge an entrance fee of $40 (perhaps someone can verify) for the weekend tournament. Seems steep if you are the parent of a platoon player or a pitcher who might only get in one or two games. Also, any word on if there are actually coaches / scouts there to support this type of fee?
L latazaea100+ posts
the fee was $20 per person...the UVA pitching coach Kuhn was there, as well as a few others I believe. It is silly to not at least let the boys have water/gatorade in the dugout with this heat...the other goodwill gesture would have been to enforce the cooler ban, but drop the prices of water/gatorade due to the much higher than normal sales they could expect. Even professional venues have been known to allow water to come in on extremely hot days.
J Jess1100+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by 5redsfan:
FoxDad: not true, or at least not enforced in the past. We played tournaments there for 3-4 years through 2011 and were always allowed to bring coolers of water/gatorade and coolers of cool rags.


100% correct. Had no problem bringing in coolers/hot weather relief in the past. A real shame.
F fan10Member
$20.00 entrance fee for weekend-what a bargain - NOT!
No scoreboards functioning
Did not water fields all day - unbelievable amount of dirt flying around
Witnessed 4 (yes 4) deputy sheriffs remove cooler and water from dugout of team from MA.
My son's dugout water cooler (provided by org) was empty through 3 innings
Trash not emptied so when storm rolled through last night (40-50 mph winds), the flying debris plus the rediculous amount of dirt (fields not being watered) swirling made it interesting if not on dangerous side for some...Oh the weather warning system was some guy going around on a golf cart in no urgency ...thought there was a horn system? Probably turned off with scoreboards.
2 x ambulances were on site when I arrived hauling 2 folks (understand one a player-not sure?)out of complex for heat related injuries
Overhead umps citing "asinine outfit" and concerns for kids safety & hydration due to extreme heat
The Dynamic baseball organization (hosting/organizer) Just validated that common sense is not common...truly a classless and one could argue dangerous (heat) venue
GW Gavin Wente100+ posts
CBA Cutters 15U was at the Dynamic event at VSC. Cutters will look to avoid VSC in the future. The Cutters 16u team is playing in the Impact 16u event this weekend where there was a no cooler policy that was not enforced due to the heat. The games scheduled at Elon, a turf field, were rescheduled for early morning and evening to avoid the hottest part of the day. and at Elon and NC State there were crews in the dugouts as soon as a game ended refilling two large coolers and restocking cups? Impact and their venues have gone out of their way to keep the boys as safe as possible in this unbearable heat.
fenwaysouthfenwaysouth10,000+ posts
Gavin Wente,

Thanks for sharing. That is how the tournament operator should run their business....saftery first and making a profit second. Word gets out very quickly among managers, coaches, and parents about who knows how to run a tournament and who doesn't.

As a former manager/coach, we had no issues like this with the previous VSC management and their policies. My players and families liked playing there, and I always had positive feedback....so we continued to return year after year. Common sense seemed to prevail in extreme heat. If I was a current manager/coach I would not be committing any dollars to VSC tournaments (now or in the Fall) and looking at other options.
PISPIS1,000+ posts
I was there on Friday. It was one of the most absurd things I've seen at a baseball field in a long time. Sort of reminded me of TSA groping people at the airport.

Redbird, doesn't look like anyone on here is placing blame on Dynamic/Canes at all. It was very apparent this all came from the onsite people. But it might be something to keep in mind for any future events at that location. Teams want to play in ya'lls events with good reason. Maybe ya'll could provide some of this feedback to the venue operators as a way to put a little pressure on them.

I understand they want to run the concession and make a little coin. I would think most people are ok with that. But not being able to even bring coolers/water in for the teams is over board. Maybe they could place a new rule allowing personal water on days over 99 degrees (all 3 days this weekend!).

Rich
www.playinschool.com
Z zippyMember
I must say I think enforcement of the cooler policy was a bit over the top. but the bigger issue for VSC is the condition of the fields. It would have been easier to swallow the cooler policy if teams were playing on nice fields. But the lack of maintenance knowledge is quite evident. I can't imagine Dynamic was happy with the field quality. I'm sure if they host any more tournaments in "Richmond" teams will want to know where games will be held before they sign up.
IMHO VSC is in a precarious position. I'm sure they have a big mortgage to pay down, thus the desperate attempt to get everyone to buy their water. They have lost sight of the bigger picture. If your field are a disgrace, you won't have any teams there to buy your water.
under original ownership VSC always had pretty nice fields. And they always allowed coolers in dugouts. it just wasn't an issue and the concession was busy. Someone with VSC needs to wake up and get the fields in shape and groom and wet them after each game or they will be in foreclosure within a year. i was excited to see someone buy VSC, it's too bad they have struck out so far.
redbird5redbird510,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by PIS:
...Redbird, doesn't look like anyone on here is placing blame on Dynamic/Canes at all...


Actually, fan10 DID blame it on Dynamic. I'd like to be perfectly clear that Dynamic had NOTHING to do with the above complaints. We will definitely evaluate that when planning our next tourneys in RIC.
Midlo DadMidlo Dad10,000+ posts
I would be curious to know by what claim of legal authority the sheriff's office got involved.

There is no ordinance or statute implicated here. If the coolers rule was a condition of entrance, then those offending might have been trespassers and potentially could have been escorted off the private property. But stepping in to seize and dump coolers is not something they have any legal authority to do, and quite frankly, it exposed them to a suit.

I would hope someone would send the sheriff a reasoned (i.e., not flying off the handle) letter informing him of the situation so that he can take appropriate action towards the deputies involved and so that such police state-type actions might be avoided in the future.

In the meantime, I suspect the owners of VSC will find that their policy was short sighted. That place has always struggled financially to say the least. When you do things that lead to word spreading that you cannot be dealt with reasonably, and when sponsoring organizations learn that they cannot use your facilities without incident, the free market can be pretty tough in passing judgment on your future business prospects.
D dblemup100+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by LDRIVE:
I was also there, this was not Dynamics fault it is the owner/managers fault of the facility. On Sunday I approached the kid working the front gate who was about to passout stating he had not had a water break in hours. I gave him a water from my cooler and entered cooler in hand.


...and now one more kid won't have a job...
Last edited by dblemup
B bkwl10+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by Midlo Dad:
I would be curious to know by what claim of legal authority the sheriff's office got involved.

There is no ordinance or statute implicated here. If the coolers rule was a condition of entrance, then those offending might have been trespassers and potentially could have been escorted off the private property. But stepping in to seize and dump coolers is not something they have any legal authority to do, and quite frankly, it exposed them to a suit.

I would hope someone would send the sheriff a reasoned (i.e., not flying off the handle) letter informing him of the situation so that he can take appropriate action towards the deputies involved and so that such police state-type actions might be avoided in the future.

In the meantime, I suspect the owners of VSC will find that their policy was short sighted. That place has always struggled financially to say the least. When you do things that lead to word spreading that you cannot be dealt with reasonably, and when sponsoring organizations learn that they cannot use your facilities without incident, the free market can be pretty tough in passing judgment on your future business prospects.




freakin lawyers..... Wink hope you're well mr. m!
F FoxDad10,000+ posts
To add insult to injury, the Complex now has signs stating "No Tailgating". These just went up in the last few weeks apparently.

They are digging they're own grave with these type of policies.

FWIW though - I've walked in with my own drinks and snacks and not a word has been said. However, the legion games I was attended were on weeknights and not a crowded tournament weekend. And on at least one occasion the concession stand was not open.
Midlo DadMidlo Dad10,000+ posts
Maybe Triple Crown required it as a condition of helping to host. After the problems encountered with the extraordinary heat at last year's event, I would think Triple Crown would be very attuned to the need to allow people to take appropriate hot weather precautions.

Though at the moment, that would not be the immediate weather problem ....

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