A-Game Closing Leaves Athletes Out In The Cold. Literally.

A-Game

With the A-Game Sportsplex abruptly and without warning shutting down on Thursday morning, and with police called in to manage clubs and parents as they gathered their equipment, those clubs and parents are literally left out in the cold. Local volleyball, hockey and other clubs, and their thousands of athletes, who had games and practice scheduled at A-Game tonight and beyond, as of now don’t know where to go.

Let us know what you think, comment below.

On Going Battle

The action comes as another act in a months- long, contentious battle between A-Game and the organizations which lease its facilities for youth volleyball and hockey.

The Williamson County Select Volleyball Clulb Alliance and MDG Management, which runs the hockey and figure scating clubs at A-Game, have leases that go through September 2017 and December 2019 respectively. Shortly after signing those leases, however, Sports Land Group, LLC agreed to sell the property to Al Neyer, whose residential plans for the property by definition require the eviction of MDG and Alliance.

MDG and Alliance filed a lawsuit in December, a restraining order, actually, asking the courts to not let A-Game prevent them from using the property- to protect, the order said, their right and “the right of the 2,000-plus families they serve.”

Sports Land Group, LLC, which has owned the buidling since 2008, released a statement defending their  action as an economic necessity on Thursday: “[We bought] A-Game facility . .  with the intention of promoting athletic programs for the benefit of our children and hundreds of Williamson County families. In addition to the $8 million purchase price, our members have personally loaned or invested an additional $13 million to expand,upgrade and improve the facility, and also to meet operating expenses. Despite our best efforts, the facility has never generated a profit. In fact,the facility averages a monthly shortfall of over $72,000 and the members simply cannot afford to continue funding the shortfall. The business is not sustainable”

However it is not business realities but the timing and the way it happened that has the people most affected most upset.

It is mid-season for various sports that depend on the complex for practice and games. Not to mention that those clubs have leases with A-Game that go through the next couple years.

Players With Nowhere To Play

GNASH, the youth hockey league, had- and as of Thursday afternoon on its Web site still has- games scheduled at A-Game this Friday and some of its upcoming post-season games scheduled there next week and beyond. There are only six sheets of ice in the Nashville area that can be used for hockey games, and A-Game has, or had, two of them. It will be a scheduling nightmare, if not a scheduling impossibility, to keep the rest of the season- and next season- viable. We are working on getting GNASH’s take on the closing.

Here is part of what Jim Diamond, a writer for rinksidereport.com wrote earlier today:

“The thousands,that’s right thousands, of children who play volleyball and hockey at A-Game now have nowhere to go. There is a month or so left in the seasons. The volleyball and hockey clubs who operate out of A-game have valid leases that extend beyond this season. The owners are attempting to force them out of those leases by locking the doors.

“Oh, and there is a school that operates in A-Game. Sorry again kids

“A statement today submitted by the ownership group said that they will work with the lease holders to reopen the facility for the remainder of the season, but only if the volleyball and hockey groups agree to terminate their leases early, thereby enabling the owners to sell the building.”

Sports Land Group’s statement addresses this by  “For three years,Sports Land Group worked diligently to find a buyer which would continue to operate the facility as a sportsplex. Those efforts were not successful.  After receiving the proposal to purchase the facility from AI. Neyer, Sports Land Group communicated with both major tenants of the facility, MDG Management and Alliance Volleyball Club.  Those tenants were encouraged to make a proposal to purchase the facility and/or to spread the word that the facility would be sold. No viable proposal was ever submitted.

In addition,Sports Land Group has been working with MDG and Alliance since July,2015 to plan for their futures after the sale to Neyer and the closure of the facility. Those efforts have included negotiating a delayed transfer of the facility to allow for Alliance and MDG to wind up their sports seasons,offering the reimbursement of Alliance’s and MDG’s relocation cost, and offering incentives. Those efforts on our part to reach a consensus with Alliance and MDG proceeded up to the filing of the lawsuit by Alliance and MDG, and have continued since the filing of the lawsuit, up to as recently as Feb 2,2016. As of the date of this press release, we are still striving  to reach a mutually  satisfactory  resolution with MDG and Alliance.”

Let Us Know What You Think

On the one hand, the clubs can’t expect A-Game to operate on a loss. But on the other, A-Game signed legally binding multi-year leases with these sports clubs a short time before agreeing to sell. If the economics were so untenable last summer when the leases were signed, then they why were they offered to the clubs at all? Should a landlord be allowed to lock the doors and throw a tenant out of their apartment because they got a lucrative offer to turn the property into a restaurant? Is that a fair analogy or is this situation different?

Let us know what do you think and add your comment below.

 

  Alliance Volleyball Club Files Complaint Against A-Game

 

 

 

1 COMMENT

  1. The main people who use A-Game are KIDS. Dedicated, responsible, and generally well-behaved elementary, middle and high school students who are exercising their bodies instead of finding trouble to get into. Business is business, and maybe a sale is needed if the losses are as bad as they claim. However, closing the doors on the kids overnight seems like a disgraceful way to get the clubs to allow the seller to break the lease– aren’t they using the kids as as pawns? From what I’ve heard, I believe there is more to this story, and I hope Williamson Source and other media outlets will take time to hear from the people who have proposed viable solutions over the last few years..

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