FLINT JOURNAL - JUNE 05 2005
|
|
Thrown for a loss
Minor-league football team seeks temporary home while
construction shuts down high school field
CLIO
THE CLIO MESSENGER
Sunday, June 05, 2005
By Greg Chrapek
COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The Genesee County Patriots were sacked before taking a snap, and it
was a team with yellow helmets that came in on the blitz.
No, the sack didn't come on the field and the "players" in yellow helmets
are construction workers who are repairing the parking lots at Clio High
School and around Pride Stadium.
That construction, which forced Clio to move the district softball and
baseball tournaments it was supposed to host last weekend, has also
forced the Patriots to make a move. With construction slated for several
weeks, the Patriots need to find a football field for Saturday's preseason
game against Southern Michigan Storm and for some of their
early-season league games in the North American
Football League.
"It definitely caught us by surprise," said Patriots vice-president Brad
Lyons. "We didn't find out about it until last week. Up to the
previous week everything was good to go."
While there is no construction taking place on the football field, the
adjacent parking lots are under construction and fans would not be able
to enter the stadium due to the construction site. Fans would also be
unable to park further away and walk through the construction zone due
to liability issues.
The big problem now is finding a temporary home while the construction is
completed.
"The major problem for us now is finding a new field to play the exhibition
game and the first few home games of the season," said Lyons. "While we
may be able to find some fields, you have to get approval from a school
district and they normally meet once a month, so we have little time to
work with."
The Patriots are working on options to get the first preseason game
played. They might be able to find a new field or they might play the
contest at Southern Michigan or even reschedule the game.
If all options are exhausted, they might be forced to cancel the game and
reimburse Southern Michigan for traveling expenses that are already
incurred.
The Patriots hope to find a field they can play their regular-season games
on, but even that would present some new problems. For one, the team
will have to reimburse local sponsors in Clio who purchased advertising
with the intention of the team playing in Clio. If the team plays at a new
location, new sponsors would have to be signed up for that portion of the
season.
Another potential problem is the number of local fans that might be lost
while the team plays away from Clio.
Although the team might be playing some home games away from Clio for
several weeks, it does not deter the commitment the team has made to
the community.
"Our plans are to stay in the Clio community," said Lyons. "The
community of Clio has been great to us and the school system has been
phenomenal.
"The maintenance staff at the school has also done a great job. They
have bent over backwards for us and worked with us.
"One of the reasons we decided to come to Clio was the passion of the
school and the community to bring us here. When we were looking for a
new home, Clio came in and basically said to do whatever it takes to make
it happen."
The construction also took the school by surprise as both the varsity
softball and baseball teams were eagerly looking forward to hosting the
district tournaments when the spring sports season began.
The stadium issue hits at a bad time for the Patriots, who are expecting a
highly successful season on the football field. The team has signed
several talented new players and upgraded the roster significantly.
"We definitely upgraded our roster," said Lyons. "At every single position
we have brought in talented new players. The stadium issue is a
temporary setback. We want to set our roots in Clio and build the team in
the community we are at."
If there is a silver lining in the construction problem, it's that the team has
four games scheduled for the end of the year in September. Only two
regular-season games are scheduled for July, along with the preseason
game in June.
If the Patriots can make it past the few early-season games, it will be back
to football as normal at Pride Stadium.
***
© 2005 Flint Journal. Used with permission
|
|
