LaborLawyer,
Looks like I got under the skin of the GBL front office if they have their lawyer jumping on the message board.
First of all, while Steve may not be a female boxing promoter now, he was at the time he was President of Armada. He use to bring his clients to the games and even missed a few games while attending their fights.
Second, while Steve may not have filed the paperwork for the lawsuit, it seems conveniently suspicious that his partner did. If the partnership benefits by the hiring of you in this case, Steve indirectly benefits too. I'm not buying your proposition that Steve "has nothing to do with this case."
Third, I can't independently verify that Steve owed the city of LB money, but when he stocked the Armada full of former Ice Dogs employees and fired (or forced nearly all of the Armada employees out), the new employees talked. Few had nice things to say and I'm still friends with many of them. In legal speak, as you know, the inability to independently verify information is called heresy. But I do know that under Steve's leadership, the Ice Dogs folded due to financial reasons about 8 months after he took them over. I'm sure you can find info on OSC and the internet recounting that fiasco. And I had plenty of conversations with city officials that I can verify first-hand about his actions. You want an example? After the city of Long Beach told us that we couldn't host a "Bark in the Park" night, Steve did it anyway. The manager of the field fumed into my office demanding answers (Steve was absent, as usual) the morning of the event (even I didn't know he was doing it and I was directly under him), and the manager's boss cut her vacation short to come back and deal with wiener dog races on the field and scores of dogs urinating on Michael Vick jerseys. THAT I can verify, and THAT is consistent with his disrespect for the city, Armada employees, sponsors, independent contractors and the fans all summer (feel free to browse this board to find fan responses if you want). I suppose you're also going to deny that the fans boycotted games in protest of his actions to try to get the league to take notice, holding signs in the outfield that voiced their displeasure?
Finally, while the stadium scoreboard issue was also heresy on my part because I was a thousand miles away and years removed from the league, while I was with the Armada, part of the stadium improvements included building a deck. I spent tons of time with Kaval and an architect working on the thing, trying to get it built before the season, but when it came time to pull the trigger like the city wanted us to, the GBL bailed. So when I hear that the city paid for the scoreboard as a stadium improvement and the Armada didn't pay them back, I believe it. It's consistent with the notes on my Excel spreadsheet that I still have detailing unpaid vendors. I'd bet a good chunk of change that when the info was relayed to me, the league HADN'T paid for the scoreboard, but after plenty of notice and the threat of expulsion, they did.
If you want me to give more examples, and back it up with witness testimony and documentation, I'd be happy to. And if you want to independently verify the attendance statistics, the company that used to host their ticketing database is Glitner. I'm sure the owner, Gordon, would be more than happy to provide the information if you supply a correct request. My numbers are exact for the attendance, as it was my job to count ticket stubs every night: 599 in 2006 and 620 in 2007.
The intent of my post was not to recount the atrocities committed by Steve and the GBL while I spent two years there. I was simply trying to provide detail to the fact that selling franchises (to my knowledge) was never part of their original plan, but it became necessary and desperate shortly after its inception. I'm also saying they, at least in Steve's case, they hoped he'd buy the team and that had a heck of a lot to do with why he was brought in. I can expand on that if necessary too, as I have first hand knowledge of the situation.
And by the way, as I'm the alumni director for the University of Oregon School of Law, I sort of know a few thousand attorneys and am one myself. I saved records for a reason. Go ahead and test my credibility again. Go ahead and dare me to bring the records out. Go ahead and dare me to recount the actions of 2006 and 2007, much of which I can back up.
Look, my GBL experience was mostly a pleasant one. I got to live the dream and had an opportunity to pursue a future with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Cleveland Indians too (both jobs I passed up). But I chose to return to my alma mater because I simply loved Oregon. And while I root for the owners of the independent teams to survive and thrive, I have no respect for the front office of the GBL. Every so often I hop on this board to see what's going on. When I read the posts of the GBL Future, I thought it would be prudent to give some insight from someone who ranked at the top of one of the teams. My intent wasn't to come out of hibernation. So don't dare me to.
