COPPERHEADS LEAVE TOWN OWING KISD, BOOSTER CLUBS:

 

COPPERHEADS LEAVE TOWN OWING KISD, BOOSTER CLUBS

By Nick Georgandis

Managing Editor

When the Katy Copperheads announced they were leaving the Leonard Merrell Center, the National Indoor Football League and the Katy area for greener pastures a few months ago, they left behind several disgruntled business partners. [Actually it was less than a month ago --October 26--when the announcement was made and AFTER the 2006 second bond election.]

The team, which now calls Cy Fair Independent School District's Berry Center home under its new moniker, the Texas Copperheads, and has moved up to join the AF2 league, reportedly owes KISD more than $20,000 in expenses for renting the Merrell Center. [Anyone still have that report that shows how much the District "made" last year from occupancy by this outfit?]

"They were supposed to pay per game and the rate charged some game by game depending on how much concession sales were," KISD Deputy Superintendent John Bailey said.

"They defaulted and didn't pay for four games. We've issued a written demand letter asking for payment and at this point we are expecting it to go to litigation." [Wonder how much "litigation" will cost the taxpayer? That's also a way to keep anyone, including Board members from talking about the matter.]

The Copperheads played seven home games at the Merrell Center between March and June of 2006.

"The typical game cost was between $6,400 and $7,000," Merrell Center General Manager of Facilities Jim Chapman said.

"That depended on when the games were scheduled. If there was a large event the night before, it would vary on how much we had to work to change it over, sometimes that meant working through the night. Early in the season it was also taking us longer to get the system down to set up the field, so that was an extra cost." [So lack of experience, perhaps incompetence costs MORE???]

The district did provide the Copperheads with a "rebate" based on concession sales. The team was refunded 30 percent of concession sales during the game.

The Berry Center, the Copperheads' new home just up Barker-Cypress Rd., seats 8,000 compared to the 5,900 person capacity of the Merrell Center.

Berry Center General Manager Beth Wade said CFISD takes precautions when renting its facilities.

"We are aware of (the situation with KISD)," Wade said.

:They are going to pay us before the games are played. I would never do any event without payment. We always require deposits at the Berry Center. We would never put ourselves in that position."

KISD is not the only area entity frustrated by a lack of funds from their involvement with the Copperheads. Both the Katy and Taylor High School Athletic Booster Clubs entered into agreements with the team to have volunteers sell programs at home games in exchange for a cut of the sales.

Neither booster club was ever paid for its services.

"It started out that they were selling tickets at Taylor High and we were going to get a commission on that," Chuck Chesser, Taylor High School athletic booster club president said. [Of interest to the taxpayer would be "where" those tickets were sold at Taylor High School. Were they sold by adult members of the Taylor Athletic Booster Club, by members of the athletic teams, or by someone in the Taylor High School office who is being paid by taxpayers to perform business duties related to the school district.]

"We were selling programs at the games and figured we'd make about $500 for the booster club. We got our parents there, sold quite a few, waited a while, called and they said, "We're working on it, we'll settle up at the end of the season.' I could kind of tell as we went through to the end of the season that it was never going to come to fruition. I wrote it up to experience."

Mitch Fralick, Katy High School booster club president, related a similar experience.

"The initial deal was they called us and told us they were opening up the season with a Katy night and asked if we'd be willing to sell programs for $3 a piece and in return for the volunteers, we'd get $1 per program," Fralick said.

"About halfway through the season I addressed our booster club officers and said I was a little concerned, this was a cash transaction, why are these guys not settling up with us?"

Seven Lakes High School booster club president Greg Henry said the other schools' officers warned him away from dealing with the football team.

"The presidents of the athletic booster clubs meet together about every three months to share and be cohesive in our endeavors for the district," Henry said.

"When I asked about the Copperheads' deal, the others warned me so we did not partake on their offer."

While Fralick himself never was part of the volunteer squad of parents, he related that several other Katy High parents were approached by the Copperheads to continue selling programs at the games in exchange for a cut of the profits going to the booster club. They agreed and worked several more home dates during the season.

"I made some calls and they told us they were fixing to settle up, just getting their tallies on everything," Fralick said.

"I made a couple more calls and was told the checks were being cut, but we knew they were in trouble by late in the season. We probably should have been more cautious when we didn't settle after the first round, we were working on good faith and had some pretty zealous members as always who are out to do whatever they can for the Katy High School booster club.

Calls to the Copperheads' office were not returned.

On Friday morning, Katy's newest professional football team, the Katy Ruff Riders, were formally introduced at a press conference held at Don McGill Toyota. The Ruff Riders are members of the Intense Football League (IFL) and will play mostly in-state opponents.

Bailey said KISD has learned from the mistake it made when dealing with the Copperheads.

The new team has paid in advance, we made sure of that," Bailey said Wednesday evening. "Once bitten, twice shy."

For Fralick and Chesser, the most frustrating part of the experience is how many hours their parent volunteers spent without the promised return to the club's funds.

"It's hard enough to get people to volunteer," Chesser said. "I had just been elected president, and I told our parents, 'Hey guys, we've got a couple of opportunities here to raise some good money for our athletics. (The Copperheads) were giving me the story of 'we'll get back to you at the end of the season' but nothing ever happened."

Fralick chalked the sour deal [and then the story is cut off to make way for an ad!]

I guess my biggest question is --when did the school district know about this matter (from all appearances it was at least as long ago as last summer and probably before that) and why did they hide it until two weeks after the election? And is it coming out now so everyone will have time to forget about this serious mismanagement by the superintendent by board election time? And did the district call up Nick Georgandis or was it some booster club member who thought the public should know about it?