National Dodgeball Festival, Youth N.B.A., and Pro Sports Leagues (Nerf Battle, Winter Dodgeball, Indoor Ultimate, Rentals)
EFFECT ON PRO SPORTS
Pro Sports has been hit especially hard by the economic down turn caused by the world events. Like many small businesses we rely on steady flow of monies to organize and run our leagues and events. Many of our activities require a huge investment of money to get them going or to purchase the supplies needed for an approaching season. Pro Sports has two massive events in the spring that make up a large percentage of our company sales. This combined with our rental business which does 90% of its bookings from March to August represent 85% of our year sales.
On March 13 we had to postpone all of our activities. By March 15 we had lost all rental bookings through to September. With these cancellations and delays we have lost much of that 85% of yearly sales with no real end in sight. When we stopped our leagues on March 13 we also stopped accepting registration payments for the National Dodgeball Festival and the NBA youth basketball league. By losing our rental business and stopping registration payments we lost 100% of our business income in two days. A business that we have worked hard at for almost 7 years lost in the space of two days. It’s been a tough time. However, we also feel for everyone who have lost their jobs, lost savings or lost their businesses and even more so for our fellow Canadians and human beings around the world who have been touched medically or lost their lives. There is a great deal of hurt caused by this virus and we all are doing our best to survive and reduce as much stress as possible. Last year we employed 102 people part time at various times during the year. Currently we have zero business and therefore no hours to offer our good friends who work for us. This is not a poor us letter, but I do want to give you an honest assessment of our situation and what we are doing in the face of this crisis. Currently we are looking at our business plan and how we will not only survive this pandemic; but how we will return even better than before when it is all over. This will not be an easy few months for any of us, but I promise we will do our very best to keep our company moving forward and making sure we can return when the pandemic is finally over. This too will pass and the hurt created with be met with the resolve to rise again and make our city, country and company even better.
REFUNDS AND CREDITS
Our company cannot provide refunds for our activities at this time but we will be issuing credits to everyone for future events. I wish we were able to simply send back all fees collected for the National Dodgeball Festival, the NBA, and our dodgeball, nerf and ultimate leagues. Unfortunately we simply cannot as investments in these activities have been made and we simply do not have the funds to cover all the losses at this time. The NBA has only 35% of its registration complete yet we have purchased almost 14, 000 worth of consumables which we have already paid for in anticipation for the season and seasons to come. The National Dodgeball Festival has collected deposits for all 167 teams accepted into the event and about 20 teams have paid full fees but we have invested thousands more than that amount of registration in equipment already purchased such as balls, awards, swag, tape, tarps, supplies, office time as well as staffing preparing for this huge event. The current losses from these two events alone has put us in a deficit situation and has resulted in our inability to refund fees at this time. I hope you can understand that we expected to bring in over 80% of our yearly sales March through April. This has been wiped out in two days without warning. I am truly sorry to tell everyone our events are postponed and that we cannot offer refunds. It is not a decision I made for any other reason than it is simply not possible. We have no source of income for our company until we are allowed to operate. I know many of you could use these funds and I feel terrible for each one in this situation. Believe me when I say the financial hardship being felt by you is also being felt both in my company and in my household. I did not start Pro Sports to hurt or take from anyone. I began the company to continue a love of sports and a desire to offer it in a competitive but fun environment. Telling you all I cannot refund your fees during this tough time is a crushing burden and one I vow to correct when this pandemic is all over. I am sorry but the solutions we are introducing are our only options.
AMOUNT OF CREDIT FOR LEAGUES
Please note the our leagues will be pro rated based on the weeks already played and credits will then be issued based on these amounts.
WHO ARE ISSUED THE CREDITS
PLEASE NOTE WE CANNOT OFFER INDIVIDUAL CREDITS FOR MEMBERS OF TEAMS. THE CREDIT WILL BE HELD IN THE CAPTAINS NAME AS THIS IS THE PERSON WHO HAS PAID THE FEES.
HOW DOES THE CREDIT SYSTEM WORK AND WHAT IS THE STATUS OF EACH ACTIVITY
We are especially concerned for our parents of 2 or more players who have registered and paid. We know this is a greater hardship than for the families of one player. Please note that should we find ways to issue refunds in the future these families of multiple players will be first. Unfortunately with the purchase of uniforms and equipment we simply cannot provide NBA refunds. The funds simply have been spent as our registration was only 40% complete.
IS ALL HOPE LOST FOR REFUNDS????
We hope to return even better in the future. We hope you will stay with us and support us through this tough time as we sure want to bring our games back to you and make good on all the credits and activities. Though we cannot give refunds at this time we do have some hope for the future. Here are the ways we are working to solve our problems for our players and patrons.
None of these are perfect solutions and I appreciate that it may be frustrating to hear. Believe me it is frustrating for me as well. It is painful to see what has happened to events we have built and even more painful to say no to people we truly care about in our Pro Sports community.
Finally I know that some people will understand the issues we are facing and will be supportive. I further know some will be angry and or disappointed with these decisions. Both are understandable feelings and both deserve an honest and clear picture of the situation and the plan moving forward. I have tried to provide this clarity over the past couple weeks and we will continue to provide leadership in the community while lending a hand when we can offer help. COVID-19 will take a lot of things over its course but it will not take my resolve to make sure we keep our promises and eventually make sure everyone is whole with regards to our company.
I hope you understand our position but mostly I hope you see that time pandemic has caused a situation that many businesses simply could not predict. We are doing our best and we support each one of you in your battle through this tough time in our world. As we get numerous emails and messages please pass this email on to your teams and players. We will be posting a video address and this email on our Facebook pages and on our websites. Lastly please feel free to ask any questions regarding the message I have sent today but there is no sense in asking for special consideration for refunds as we have no ability to deviate from what we have written today. We know the impact and feel bad but we cannot make funds that do not exist suddenly exist when we are deemed a non-essential service and therefore shut down.
Thank you for you support of Pro Sports and please stay safe. When this is all over I hope we can all once again run, jump, play and laugh during the many events we run as a company. I wish you the best and we will update our information whenever we have new things to announce.
Tim Simpson
Pro Sports Management
Hello Pro Sports Community
The past five months has been a different ride for everyone and as things start to move back to somewhat normal life Pro Sports wants to give you an update on the current situation, future events and credits for those who have had leagues postponed and or events delayed. This past March 12 we shut down operations and have not yet been allowed to begin events. Currently as the province moves to Phase Three some limited sports and events can begin to be held if the right conditions are met. I have divided this email into sections as it is quite long and you may or may not want to read about every event or subject. Everything is covered from credits to refunds to events to expected play dates.
BACK TO THE FIELD REQUIREMENTS
1. We can start to offer some sports in limited ways. Currently any league including officials must not exceed 50 participants. This means that when calculating events we must include exact team lists and the officials must be included in the numbers. For the most part this means no more than 4-6 teams depending on the sport. There would be no use of spares allowed for any team so teams must know their rosters.
2. Players on the sideline must be social distancing from other players.
3. Equipment must be cleaned and players must leave the facility before a new group is allowed to participate. This means after each match we must clear the field or gym and clean everything before the next group of 50 take the field or floor.
4. Players must sign waivers that they have no symptoms and are not supposed to be involved in any other sports bubble.
As you can see this presents some challenges for leagues and it drives up cost as we have to book field time for cleaning.
SPORTS BEING CONSIDERED FOR FALL PLAY
Flag Football Tournament - 3 week league - Beginning September 13 - Details to be announced on August 26 - Mixed and Men’s Divisions / Rec and Competitive
Ultimate League Tournament - 3 week league beginning September 13 - Details to be announced on August 26. - Mixed Divisions
Beach Dodgeball Tournament - September 26-27 - Mixed / Women’s / Mens Divisions - Details to be announced August 26
BACK TO THE GYMS REQUIREMENTS
Currently it does not look like the school boards will be allowing community use permits. If this policy continues we will not have required space to offer indoor events this fall. We are investigating alternative venues in a limited capacity. More information on these events will follow.
CREDITS AND THEIR USE
All captains for our 2020 Winter season have been credited on behalf of their team. Credits for teams were determined by the amount of season played last winter and insurance costs paid on behalf of teams. All captains will receive information on the amount of the credit as some teams had not yet paid full fees.
Individual players on teams CANNOT apply for a credit. Team fees were paid by the captain and therefore it is the captain we must issue the credit too for each team. Players can contact their captain to decide how their team will handle the credit. We cannot give individuals credits from team events UNLESS the captain issues us names, emails and amounts for all players. CAPTAINS WILL BE NOTIFIED ON THIS OPTION.
NBA registrations will be credited to the person who made the payment on behalf of the player.
National Dodgeball Festival Registrations - credits have been issued to the person who made the deposit for the team
CREDITS CAN BE USED FOR ANY PRO SPORTS EVENT
Credits are issued and can be used for any Pro Sports event or activity. If your team wants to have a bubble party, nerf gun battle or archery tag game you can use the credit to pay all or partial cost of the event. YOU CAN USE THE CREDIT FOR ANY PRO SPORTS EVENT OR RENTAL.
REFUNDS - CAN I GET A REFUND?
Pro Sports has lost all income since March 12. We have literally lost thousands and thousands of dollars in bookings and income from the loss of our busiest time of year cancellations due to COVID. I sincerely wish we could refund all funds owed to our loyal Pro Sports community. One of the biggest challenges of my company and me as a person has been dealing with this substantial loss so close to our two biggest events of the year. It has hurt us a great deal financially and even more in our letdown to not be able to simply refund peoples monies. As we said early in this pandemic the fact that we were shut down so close to the Nationals and NBA start up meant that we had spent thousands on equipment expecting our registrations and fees for Nationals to be sent during late March. We lost 85% of our yearly income in 4 days. This is not something I want for the company and for the players, parents and kids who take part in our events. Our rental business alone has lost almost 60,000 in bookings cancelled due to COVID. It has left me in a situation where I can only issue credits and a promise that no matter what we will return and make good on every credit we have issued. I wish I could say when things will return to normal but sadly it is just simply unknown.
To those that have sent messages about refunds I am very sorry we cannot accommodate this request. With no income for the company and massive losses in bookings we are simply trying to stay afloat as a company and getting ready to return in various new forms when permitted.
THANKS FOR DONATING CREDITS TO HELP PRO SPORTS
Special thanks to the people who have messaged us and told us to use their credit to help keep Pro Sports going during these tough days. It is greatly appreciated and has helped keep us going. We have had other messages wondering if this was possible and we can certainly give receipts to anyone who wishes to use their credit to help Pro Sports. If you choose to allow your credit to be put back into the company simply send an email and if you want a receipt just include that in the email.
I hope to rectify this situation over the next year as things return to normal. Once the company events (NBA, Nationals) are back up and running we should be able to handle refund requests in limited situations. Hopefully in 2021 this will happen.
Tim Simpson
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