(posted 06-21-10)

 

Delaware Girls Basketball.com recommends that all Delaware AAU clubs and teams avoid entering tournaments hosted by Fencor.  We take this action after serious reflection on our part and dubious, highly questionable behavior on the part of Fencor.  Our issues with Fencor tournaments are all well documented and are as follows:

 

Fencor has consistently – going back at least to 2001 – run tournaments whereby 9U through 11U age groups get 14-minute halves.  This is the lowest (shortest) game time in the Tri-State Region that we are aware of.  Today, many other operators offer 16-minute halves in every age group.

 

This year, Fencor has advertised 14 minute halves, but when the teams arrive on-site, they are greeted with 13 minute halves and on-site Fencor officials and referees who are unwilling to hear any complaints about it.  Even when they are shown the 14 minute wordage from their own website!

 

Exhibit A:  The website language promising 14 minute halves.

 

Exhibit B:  What teams were greeted with at the gym.  A game 2 minutes short of what was promised.

Eight minutes short over the 4-game weekend.

 

Just this past weekend (June 19/20, 2010), a local team was verbally promised by Stuart London (Fencor representative in charge of the tournament), via telephone, that the game times would feature 14-minute halves.  But yet again, when that team got to the gym, the times were 13 minutes.  And again, with no recourse left to the team.

 

Even Pennsylvania winter scholastic games are played with 14-minute halves down through 5th and 6th grade.  What Fencor appears to be engaged in is a bait-and-switch business practice.  Promise one thing (in writing and verbally).  Deliver something less.  And it is without any logic at all.  Why make teams angry?  Why provide the shortest game in the Tri-State area?  When a club posts its tournament rules and conditions on its website and a team pays their fee and enters the tournament, a legal contract exists.  A host club that would then change the rules and conditions would have to do so under a clear burden to show a new or unique hardship that it was suffering, or was going to suffer, that made the change necessary.  And that hardship would have to be communicated to each of the participating teams.  But there was none of that.  All there was were unkept promises and a game so short that the teams affected lost 8 minutes of court time over the weekend (the equivalent of a full high school quarter) compared to what was promised.  Had the teams participating found another tournament to play in that offered 16 minute halves – which many host clubs offer – the court time differential would’ve been a whopping 24 minutes!

 

This is what happens when greed and shortsightedness get involved in youth sports.  It is DGB.com’s position that it is just as easy -- easier, in fact -- to run a tournament on the up and up, with integrity and fairness, as it is to swindle and cheat the participating teams.  DGB.com ran a piece earlier in the year about Fencor’s questionable practices.  At that time, we stopped short of an official recommendation that Delaware clubs (and really, any club anywhere) avoid Fencor tournaments.  But after the events of this past weekend, we had to take a clear stand for what is right. 

 

We approached Fencor for comment earlier in the season about this whole matter.  At the time, they chose not to respond.  Feeling that there is nothing materially different this time around, we did not even bother attempting to contact them.  However, if they would like to present their side of the story, we will be happy to publish it.

 

 

June 21, 2010

 

The above article is commentary and opinion of the author, Jim Charles.  He has carefully listed the facts, to the extent that he is familiar with them, and from testimony of an affected coach.  However, the conclusions reached about Fencor’s motivations and positions are commentary and opinion, although highly considered and reflected upon by the author.