scoreboard

First, and this is not a huge issue, but more than half of the vending machines at the rink haven't worked since the rink opened last year. They are either completely out of order or they work, but don't chill the beverages. I'm actually suprised that it hasn't been taken care of in the year. But I suspect they have a vending contract that they must honor.

My other dealing has been with the adult league, the hockey director, and the front desk staff. I'm sure I'm persona non grata there athis point, but how hard is it to run a hockey league? Judging by the K-Plex, it is one of the most difficult jobs in the world. I've played in hockey hotbeds like Richmond, VA - and to this point have never seen an adult league run so poorly. Now, in my opinion, the gold standard for adult hockey leagues is the Michigan Sports Enterprises adult league. It had everything. Even the Hockey Night in Richmond league was well run, and had a decent website. The K-Plex league lacks almost everything.

It started in the fall with the team I formed. I found out on September 8th that the league would be starting on September 24th. About two weeks before hand. It's lucky that I had my players pay me in advance, or there is no way I could have fielded a team in that short amount of time. After that, we had to wait to get the schedule. We got the schedule on Friday before our first game (on Tuesday), for a short 3-day notice for my guys. Of course, a lot of them had already made plans. Throughout this whole process I got the distinct impression that the adult league was a second thought, and that no one was really taking it as a priority.

Then, once we get the schedule, we find out that we have eight (!) games out of 20 that will be played at 11:15pm. Not good, but apparently they have limited ice time, so we'll deal. Once the games start and we play, the next headache started. I was going to keep track of the stats for the guys because they all ponied up the money up front - but getting a scoresheet has been harder than difficult. In fact, the first time, they had to ask for authorization to copy the scoresheet. I did get that one (but it took a half hour of waiting around). After our first game, I've never been able to get a scoresheet again. The people at the front desk have either been clueless, or the scoresheets have been "lost." Sort of frustrating.

Now, there are two websites for the league - here and here, neither of which have been updated since the season started. The hockey director maintains he is waiting for all of the teams to submit rosters and numbers before he does anything. First of all, that is never going to happen. Second, I'll keep track of my own damn stats - I just want to know the scores of games, and the standings. How hard is it to update that first site with the scores of the games? It probably takes a minute apiece. Just another example of the shoddy way this league has been run.

Lastly, we had a player on my team receive a match penalty. So, that meant I had to try to get a scoresheet, a game report, and some sort of response from the rink and hockey director. You can imagine how well that went. It took almost three weeks to get a response about what the penalized player needed to do to appeal. I still haven't seen the scoresheet or game report. I finally got so fed up with not getting responses that I copied the rink's General Manager in addition to the hockey director. That actually got something done, suprise, suprise. So, now half way into his suspension, he can appeal, which would take time to set up - knowing this rink, longer than the time remaining on his suspension; or he can come back in 2 weeks. Wonder what he is going to choose. This was the last straw for me, because this issue went on way too long. I don't think it even would be an issue if we had two refs for the game - but we only had one.

Anyway, I'm pretty fed up with how this program has been run. Add to that the frustration of vending machines that have been broken since the arena opened, incredibly inflated prices in the proshop, and the general lack of ability of the rink staff to do anything, and I am ready to switch rinks. I'm sure that I am persona non grata there by now. I'm sick of complaining about this stuff, so I'm just going to play hockey from now on. Maybe things will eventually improve, though until they have someone who solely focuses on the adult league, I doubt it will get any better.

I'm just suprised that for such a classy organization, the Capitals have a rink and hockey program that is run so poorly. Maybe I'm just used to how well things were run in every rink I played at in Michigan and Richmond, VA.