Doom status, future still cloudy
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
The future of the Georgia Doom remains hazy.
The immediate future is clear: the Doom, who tied for second in the American Arena League, will not be in the playoffs despite qualifying.
The team called a Monday afternoon meeting on Sunday night, but cancelled it less than an hour beforehand, thus seemingly continuing to leave its players and fan base uninformed.
Tucker Sargent of WMGT-TV 41 NBC in Macon was the first local reporter to begin inquiring, on Sunday.
Sargent’s multiple attempts to contact the team, players, its spokesperson and the league Sunday afternoon and night were unsuccessful.
That continued Monday with Doom management not addressing media inquiries.
Arenafootballinsider.com reported Monday that the Doom had alerted the league by email before Saturday’s home game against Atlanta that it wouldn’t be participating in the playoffs.
Georgia would have opened the playoffs in Atlanta, but would have traveled to Charlotte or Richmond with a win. The expenses, the website reported, of a bus, driver, hotel rooms, meals, etc., for two road games would have been substantial.
The league allows teams to not participate in the postseason.
The website compared opting out to college football teams declining to go to a bowl. But bowls are by invitation. This was a league playoff, ostensibly a goal, since a team can’t win a championship without being in the playoffs, whereas teams declining bowls aren’t in contention for anything but a check that may not cover the costs of that bowl trip.
Oddly, a league statement said it didn’t need to know why a team would pull itself out of the postseason.
Doom CEO Kevin Adkins has not responded to media inquiries since word initially leaked out Saturday night.
The team is currently in good standing with the league, which league continues to be in some chaos.
At a minimum, it has failed to maintain its website – which it redid, along with rebranding, several weeks into the season – nor provide its fans with playoff information.
A release that wasn’t posted or sent out to media but given at the request of Doom front office employee Hannah Jet Moore explaining the playoff situation doesn’t clearly say Georgia is out, or why, only that it qualified but wasn’t seeded among the playoff teams.
The league’s website is hardly maintained – the “weekly results” link on the first page hadn’t been updated since the end of March, and most of the current “news releases” were dated signings by the New England Cavalry. On the Doom’s link, the last news item was a preseason signing of Larry Beavers.
The Atlanta Havoc hosted Cape Fear recently, at Buford High, on graduation day. Ceremonies had to be moved inside because of weather, delaying the setup of the 5,500-seat facility and pushing kickoff back an hour.
Kickoff was scheduled 2.5 hours later, with all sorts of issues setting up the nets – including involvement from the Buford school system - and then adhering to the promotional schedule.
The delay put into effect, according to Arenafootballinsider.com, a regulation regarding the time frame for certain workers - like bus drivers - and a minimum rest time. Cape Fear’s bus driver would be breaking that law if the game took place and he drove the team back, a nearly 7-hour ride, the same day.
Eventually, it was decided the game was a forfeit, thus saving Cape Fear major lodging expenses.
Atlanta protested. The ruling? Cape Fear would still get the win, but Atlanta would not be credited with a loss.
Plus, teams haven’t played the same number of league games, thanks to cancellations, postponements, and playing non-league opponents closer to home.
Atlanta then lost to Carolina before playing in Macon, with home playoff implications, courtesy of a convoluted tiebreaker system.
That night, Richmond owner Gregg Fornario reportedly put on Facebook that Georgia was vacating its playoff spot.
A Facebook page that serves as a forum and “to help free agent players get signed , as well as teams owners to help (sic) ptomote their brand” has a number of threads on the situation, including offerings from players.
It contains all sorts of speculation, from current and former players in the league as well as assorted team and league officials, current and former.
Fornario of Richmond responded to one poster Monday that “We still couldn’t afford Derek (sic) Stingly as our head coach even if Diddy was my partner math is math! (sic).”
He said that Stingley’s resume came with a “price tag”. Head coach Gerald Dockery, promoted from coordinator after Stingley was let go only four games into the seasons, has been quoted in different forums saying that money was not an issue, a thought echoed by some players, including Westside grad Marcus Brooks.
“…this situation has nothing to do with our owners,” he posted just after midnight Monday.
But Sargent Tweeted late Monday afternoon of reports that players “had their furniture moved out of their apartments” on Monday.