SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP Charleston Women's Shootout

Last fall the boys weekend was canceled and the lost revenue blew a hole in the MPSC budget. That's why they had a golf tournament to make up the lost money. They could not afford to lose the revenue from this weekend and next weekend.
That's why one game was played and then the rest canceled.
Ensure the revenue from both weekends. Unfortunately everything about this club has become about money, but that could be another thread.

Just a note, but the fields are owned by the Town of Mount Pleasant, not MPSC, so it's their property that they are worrying about damaging. I wouldn't be at all surprised if field closure decisions were made by someone much higher on the food chain than just the club. If you look at the fields that stayed open, they're mostly either highly underused and "out of the way" fields or owned and governed by a different entity.

Old Wando - not a main field, usually well draining
Long Point - owned by Long Point Homeowner's Association
Moultrie - school is being rebuilt and not a main field
Town Hall - multi-use field with track, not main field
College of Charleston Stadium - CofC has the funds to ensure drainage and fix turf issues

That said, I doubt it's the conspiracy that several people are insisting upon. Did they make good decisions? Possibly yes, possibly no; it depends on who you ask. But did they conspire against everyone who spent money at the tournament? I doubt it. Their job is to elevate the tourney and bring people back and attract better teams, so conspiring against everyone completely negates that end. Or if that was the goal, it was probably made by someone high up in the food chain, because I doubt everyone would think that a great idea.

That said, MPSC teams were only even in contention for the title match in 2 or 3 of the 16 or so brackets...and on the cursory look, none or one of which actually played in a final match with results online.

Part of it comes down to who to please, the people who want to play at least one game or two games and then just tool around and enjoy the area before going home versus the people would have rather the tournament been flat called for the weekend, no games, go home.

The main problem for MP right now is that this is a trend. Every year since this tournament began, either the girls' or boys' side gets disrupted due to rainy weather. They need to either expect the rain and make contingency plans so everyone gets their money's worth or move the tournament dates, which may or may not be feasible. If they expect revenue and to build the tournament, they need to handle this more appropriately.

Again, did they make a good or bad decision? In the end, no matter what you do, you'll never please everyone. But I seriously doubt that they conspired against everyone at the risk of ruining the tournament they've been trying to build. More than likely, someone in MP Rec said to close the fields they own and MPSC did their best to try to let some people play anyway so the weekend wasn't a bust for everyone.

Hopefully though, someone will understand good marketing and customer service and respond appropriately to keep the tournament on some legs, but that's yet to be seen.

I do not pay for my daughter to play soccer so that I can support a rival (MPSC) club. SCYSA needs to step in and force them to refund us. This post clearly states that they chose to both start and cancel the tournament solely for financial reasons.

A lot of these posts clearly state things that are mostly or all speculation by the posters. I don't think these "clear statements" are going to be grounds for SCYSA to step in and force a club to offer refunds on a tournament that they sponsored.

Given the history of MPSC for these tactics it should be reason enough to investigate it.

LOL...I hate to burst your bubble...but it takes me rougly 2.5 hours to get to Charleston. I admit I did not drive down until Saturday morning...and I drove back home Saturday night to see another child play where we live today.

If they had cancelled the tournament Friday night due to the weather forecast, as you have alluded to, then that would mean there were no refunds. You can't have it both ways.

I'm trying not to make this a personal attack, but seriously, what clubs are you with?

What is their cancellation policy for their tournaments? What would YOUR club officers and DOC's do in the same situation????

When have your clubs been faced with this situation?

Did you go to Columbia last year and have games cancelled...under conditions WWAYYYYY better than what MP experienced this weekend. (I'm talking rainfall amounts)

And one last thought. Are you aware of the number of children INJURED playing soccer on wet fields...either during rain or after the rain has ended but before the fields are dried? Any of you ever experienced that?

Look, I honestly don't have any idea just why the games were cancelled. I don't have any "in's" like you indicate.

I just know that it only makes COMMON SENSE that on a weekend where the weather conditions were the way they were it should not be some huge surprise that some of those fields ended up getting closed. I agree that Park West probably could have had games. I know someone who went out there and told me the fields looked okay, didn't appear that wet, and probably could have been used. As to the rest of the fields, I don't live there, so I don't know what they looked like, I just know from talking to friends that were in MP, that some of the fields were in fact bad...and it was obvious why they were closed. They went to quite a few of them and said PW was the one that probably could have been opened.

I really would like to see your club's policies for their tournaments.

There was no reason to close Park West and that is where we were playing. They also had the option to play some games on Sunday afternoon on the fields that did remain open. They failed to hold the tournament when it was possible to hold it. That means they reneged on the agreement for reasons other than weather. Mismanagement seems to be one of those reasons.

DISCLAIMER:

I have no idea why MP handled things the way they did. I personally liked the fact that they tried to hold some games. I talked to my kids today and we discussed what happened and how things were handled and what they would have liked.

My children would rather have played the shortened format than to not have played at all!

My thoughts and words here are MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION. Not that of anyone at MP soccer. Just little old me offering my speculation on why they did what they did.

I agree with the other poster who doesn't believe this is some conspiracy by MP soccer. It makes no sense to believe that.

As people have previously posted, the Mt. P folks are pretty well known for closing the fields due to rain and field conditions; no arguing against that. Part of the unfortunate circumstance is that these fields are low-lying and very susceptible to holding water. I'm not sure where people were looking when they saw all of the fields that were "fine" on Saturday afternoon, but the one we played on (Field 1, U18 White division) was a pond on one end. Dribbling through sections of the field was impossible. The only thing that made it just a little fair was that we switched ends and both had to deal with the same conditions in different halves. The other field we warmed up on was a bit of a bog, and I watched another match on Field 5(?), the last of Saturday before the cancellation, and it turned into more of a mud wrestling contest than a soccer match.

Also, someone said there was no more rain. I can't say for sure about Mt. P., but it rained on and off pretty much all night in the North Charleston/Goose Creek area. Now, I have no affiliation with MPSC (I work for CUSC), I don't have a daughter who plays there, and I really could care less whether anyone "likes" my opinions, but I think there was some justification for closing at least some of those fields.

Am I really disappointed at not being able to play full matches? Heck yeah. Do I think the tournament results based on 20-minute "lightning rounds" on Sunday were representative of the relative abilities of the teams involved? Heck no. Do I agree with everything about the way the revised schedule and "Sunday rules" were executed? No.

Do I think that player safety may have been a factor as well as "bending a blade of grass"? Ask my player who was on crutches today after yesterday's match in the swamp.