This is not going to be a usual edition of Federal Offenses. Early Wednesday afternoon, Joe Pace posted a cryptic video talking about a situation involving the Carolina Thunderbirds. Immediately after seeing it, I placed a call to Joe who just happened to be with team owner Barry Soskin and got some more information.
Carolina’s bus broke down on their way to Baton Rouge. After being unable to secure vans, they hired and paid in full for a charter bus. After several hours, the bus never showed up. The team was told they would get a full refund in “10-15 business days”. In a pinch, they put 6 players on a plane to New Orleans.
“They put Gus Ford, Joseph Kennedy, Jon Buttitta, a couple other skaters and Cody Karpinski on a plane to New Orleans. Essentially, they sent a starting lineup,” Pace said. “I grabbed my gear from the closet, it was covered in dust, but I am driving down with a couple guys from Biloxi, we’ll be playing and they’ll fill out the team with some kids from their junior team. Unfortunately they forgot to grab the jerseys, so I’m bringing the Biloxi Bone Crushers jerseys.”
Usually I would go on a rant on how this makes the league look bad, but in this case, I think Soskin and his ownership group from Carolina did everything they could to fix the problem. Instead, it looks like they got completely hosed by a charter bus company. Why would you take their money knowing you never planned to send the bus, then tell them you’ll send a refund in 2-3 weeks.
Soskin and Pace left on this note.
“If nothing, having Pace in the lineup will make it interesting.” Soskin said.
“You know if nothing, I’ll at least put on a show,” said Pace. “This is a game you don’t want to miss. Our Social Media guy is with us, we’ll be filming it and I’ll be mic’d up.”
The one saving grace in this situation, the Jackie Moon of the FPHL, Joe Pace. If anybody can put a positive spin on a horrible situation, it’s him.
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