Has anyone read the article in the Ft. Worth Star Telegram regarding the Texas Collegiate League? Will the teams be able to form a new league in the metroplex and be up and running for the 08 summer?
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Hi DD,
I haven't read the article, but wanted to say hello!
I'll go read it, then revise this post with an educated response...lol...yeah, that's going to happen.
I haven't read the article, but wanted to say hello!
I'll go read it, then revise this post with an educated response...lol...yeah, that's going to happen.
DD,
I sure hope the league will resume play next summer with more or less the same teams. I am hoping that my son will be able to come home for the summer and play against good competition with his childhood friends in Coppell. Hopefully, this will all get worked out. It is never good when people start filing lawsuits, though.
I sure hope the league will resume play next summer with more or less the same teams. I am hoping that my son will be able to come home for the summer and play against good competition with his childhood friends in Coppell. Hopefully, this will all get worked out. It is never good when people start filing lawsuits, though.
quote:Originally posted by diamond darling:
Has anyone read the article in the Ft. Worth Star Telegram regarding the Texas Collegiate League? Will the teams be able to form a new league in the metroplex and be up and running for the 08 summer?
For those of us that don't get the Ft. Worth Star Telegram can you summarize the article for us or post a link to online if it's avail?
League files suit against 7 teams planning to leave
By MAX B. BAKER
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
FORT WORTH -- The Texas Collegiate League may have played its last game.
Seven of the nine teams in the baseball summer league have told league Chairman and Chief Executive Gerald Haddock that they do not intend to return next year. Haddock has responded by suing the teams.
"We are all under agreement that we are not going to play under this business model," said Jeff Najork, general manager of the Duncanville Deputies. "There is no way any of us will come back. It sounds like to me that we can't lose any more money."
Haddock, a Fort Worth investor and former minority owner and general counsel for the Texas Rangers, said in his lawsuit that the teams' action is a "textbook example of an illegal group boycott" and a violation of Texas antitrust laws.
In the lawsuit, filed in Tarrant County civil court Tuesday, Haddock is asking the court to block any effort by the teams to form a new league using the same concepts as the TCL. Haddock places the value of the TCL at more than $3 million.
Haddock and his lawyer, Jeffrey Wolfe, declined to comment on the lawsuit, but court documents state that the league "will have no choice but to cease operations" unless other teams are found to take the place of the seven teams.
The teams named in the lawsuit are: Denton Outlaws, Duncanville Deputies, Coppell Copperheads, Colleyville LoneStars, Wichita Falls Roughnecks, Mineral Wells Steam and Weatherford Wranglers. Not included were the Brazos Valley Bombers and McKinney Marshals.
The TCL played its first games in 2004 with eight teams and a dream of replacing Cape Cod as the nation's premier summer wooden-bat league.
Each team played a 54-game schedule. The Copperheads are the 2007 champs, beating the Marshals in a final game Sunday.
Striking out
The lawsuit states that the TCL was poised to add teams and possibly enter a televised playoff series with other college leagues. But several teams apparently were striking out financially.
Jim Reeves, a Star-Telegram sports columnist and investor in the Wranglers along with his colleague Randy Galloway, said that it cost the team $160,000 to $200,000 each season to operate and that the Wranglers have lost more than $50,000 a year since the league began.
"We don't feel like we can sustain it. It has been a difficult situation, and we've done the best we can with it," Reeves said.
Reeves said he had known that the 2007 season could be the Wranglers' last.
Stacey Hollinger, owner and president of the LoneStars, would not say how much money his team has lost. He said the league's fees and other charges made it tough to balance the books.
Hollinger confirmed that he tried to buy the league from Haddock at the start of the season for $500,000. The lawsuit states that Jim Leslie of the Outlaws unsuccessfully tried to buy the league for $750,000.
A nonprofit foundation established by Haddock in 2005 owned the league. To start a franchise, each owner paid $300,000 plus an annual fee. Reeves said teams could drop out each year by Sept. 1.
The lawsuit states that the league owes Haddock's foundation $700,000. Team owners said Haddock, who could look at their books, refused to allow them to see the foundation's financial records.
"I think it is sad. I think it is a good product," Hollinger said. "We had several teams that worked hard for four years and put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears."
Max B. Baker, 817-390-7714
maxbaker@star-telegram.com
By MAX B. BAKER
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
FORT WORTH -- The Texas Collegiate League may have played its last game.
Seven of the nine teams in the baseball summer league have told league Chairman and Chief Executive Gerald Haddock that they do not intend to return next year. Haddock has responded by suing the teams.
"We are all under agreement that we are not going to play under this business model," said Jeff Najork, general manager of the Duncanville Deputies. "There is no way any of us will come back. It sounds like to me that we can't lose any more money."
Haddock, a Fort Worth investor and former minority owner and general counsel for the Texas Rangers, said in his lawsuit that the teams' action is a "textbook example of an illegal group boycott" and a violation of Texas antitrust laws.
In the lawsuit, filed in Tarrant County civil court Tuesday, Haddock is asking the court to block any effort by the teams to form a new league using the same concepts as the TCL. Haddock places the value of the TCL at more than $3 million.
Haddock and his lawyer, Jeffrey Wolfe, declined to comment on the lawsuit, but court documents state that the league "will have no choice but to cease operations" unless other teams are found to take the place of the seven teams.
The teams named in the lawsuit are: Denton Outlaws, Duncanville Deputies, Coppell Copperheads, Colleyville LoneStars, Wichita Falls Roughnecks, Mineral Wells Steam and Weatherford Wranglers. Not included were the Brazos Valley Bombers and McKinney Marshals.
The TCL played its first games in 2004 with eight teams and a dream of replacing Cape Cod as the nation's premier summer wooden-bat league.
Each team played a 54-game schedule. The Copperheads are the 2007 champs, beating the Marshals in a final game Sunday.
Striking out
The lawsuit states that the TCL was poised to add teams and possibly enter a televised playoff series with other college leagues. But several teams apparently were striking out financially.
Jim Reeves, a Star-Telegram sports columnist and investor in the Wranglers along with his colleague Randy Galloway, said that it cost the team $160,000 to $200,000 each season to operate and that the Wranglers have lost more than $50,000 a year since the league began.
"We don't feel like we can sustain it. It has been a difficult situation, and we've done the best we can with it," Reeves said.
Reeves said he had known that the 2007 season could be the Wranglers' last.
Stacey Hollinger, owner and president of the LoneStars, would not say how much money his team has lost. He said the league's fees and other charges made it tough to balance the books.
Hollinger confirmed that he tried to buy the league from Haddock at the start of the season for $500,000. The lawsuit states that Jim Leslie of the Outlaws unsuccessfully tried to buy the league for $750,000.
A nonprofit foundation established by Haddock in 2005 owned the league. To start a franchise, each owner paid $300,000 plus an annual fee. Reeves said teams could drop out each year by Sept. 1.
The lawsuit states that the league owes Haddock's foundation $700,000. Team owners said Haddock, who could look at their books, refused to allow them to see the foundation's financial records.
"I think it is sad. I think it is a good product," Hollinger said. "We had several teams that worked hard for four years and put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears."
Max B. Baker, 817-390-7714
maxbaker@star-telegram.com
What a sad situation. Sure hope they're able to work things out.
I have gone that last couple of years and watch the Coppell Copperheads(they had the most Longhorns on the team) and the product was very good but, the it was very poorly attended. I can not figure that out it is great competition and a great value. Also we were able to meet the players.
I wish the best for the TCL -- I, like Uncle Ethan, have hoped that PantherSon might have an opportunity to play in the league one day. To state the obvious, its success will require a sound business model that does not rely on attendance alone. There is too much baseball in the area to have to rely on 3-4 hundred people per game. It seems the current business model is not working. In addition, there are Indy teams preparing to begin play? Rangers, Rough Riders, TCL, summer select, Indy teams......MANY options.
I am really sad. My son had a very successful summer in the TCL this year. We were already thinking about next year. I hope this gets worked out.
I hate to say it, but the two teams not pulling out had pretty decent attendance and did something the others did not - serve alcohol. I wonder if that has anything to do with the revenue generated? Brazos Valley even has a party deck. McKinney serves beer and frozen margaritas. It was more like attending a minor league game at those two places.
I'm just so sad though.....
I hate to say it, but the two teams not pulling out had pretty decent attendance and did something the others did not - serve alcohol. I wonder if that has anything to do with the revenue generated? Brazos Valley even has a party deck. McKinney serves beer and frozen margaritas. It was more like attending a minor league game at those two places.
I'm just so sad though.....