Rant about NCS failure to relocate playoff games

[scobserver]

Incredibly poor decision making by NCS, displaying zero problem-solving skills. Plenty of time to relocate last weekend's games.

Fort Bragg has an excellent stadium, and practically could have hosted a Friday night/two on Saturday. If not there, then Fortuna and Ferndale (no lights at Ferndale) have fine facilities, Eureka, St. Bernards (no lights), McKinleyville, and doesn't College of the Redwoods have a nice stadium? Even South Fork HS is good enough to host the smaller schools. I am sure the playoff teams would have been fine with most any facility that has fresh air and isn't a complete dump. Not sure Humboldt State would have agreed to rent their stadium (did the NCS even inquire?), and as Mendocino and Anderson Valley did not have football teams this year, they probably were not ready to host, but c'mon, not rocket science. Probably have to schedule double headers, but there are plenty of venues.

And didn't DLS host Pittsburg despite the air quality--is that because all the other schools are afraid of lawsuits and so refused to let their teams play?

What is the reason?

a) the east bay schools don't want to travel all the way to Humboldt, because they have a phobia of long bus rides, don't know how to drive unless there are traffic jams, and are just generally snooty about anything north of the Carquinez Bridge
b) few schools felt they had the money to travel all the way there (though I thought the NCS reimburses playoff travel)
c) the NCS did not want all those teams traveling to Humboldt, expect the NCS to reimburse them for travel expenses, have smaller crowds because teams are playing away from their fan base, and the NCS fears that they would not meet their (bloated) payroll because of increased payments for school playoff travel and reduced income from football. (Though I bet the crowds would have been decent size anyway, cuz HDNL peeps love their HS football).

All three? A combination, with (c) being the most important?

Who will join my rant?

[mustangpride]

While as fans it would’ve been nice for the NCS to just have the games played up north, but logistically it’s not realistic to have multiple teams travel 4 hours each way to play games. Would you expect the teams to drive back and forth for the games? Do those towns have the capacity to lodge teams for the nights or families that travel? You were proposing double header games so that’s 4 full teams trying to get lodging.

I don’t know what the NCS could’ve done realistically.

[bella]

I know the NCS was not going to remimbburse teams for the travel, which they normally do. I believe that was a big hang up for a lot of the schools.

And as mustangfan pointed out there is some logistics to wok out hosting all these games (last minute lodging availability etc). CCS had a good contingency plan, but it is a much smaller section and the travel and logistics to say Salinas from the schools was not as big as an issue as the NCS was facing

[footballfan]

So.... if those above mentioned schools were higher seeds and hosting games those schools that complained about travelling would forfeit and not go? I don't think so! Simply put the NCS should have made the ruling and schools go or forfeit.

[humboldtfan]

Humboldt has the capacity for hosting the teams especially since two of the teams needing to play are from Humboldt County. Here is the link to an article covering some of the things that were done to make the move to have the games here.

humboldtsports.com/2018/11/17/local-boosters-offer-ncs-an-alternative-but-games-remain-on-hold/

[Ben Herrington]

It all comes down to money for the NCS. They didn't want to pay to bus teams up north.

[scobserver]

humboldtfan, thanks for those great links. It shows that people in Humboldt were working to make things happen--and would have been successful--but the NCS leadership--staff and the representatives--are inert duds. I suspect they are simply lazy and did not want to put any added work.

It was virtually certain after week one that the skies were not going to clear up for the next weekend. Starting the Monday of the second week, they should have at least tried to arrange a provisional plan for the scenario that the second weekend would be smoked out down south again.

The NCS finances should not be so tight that they can't afford an unexpected bill for about eight teams to travel to Humboldt. It means they are paying staff too much money. It's bad for staff, but the salaries they pay are more than decent, and there is no other place to cut. There should always be a decent reserve exactly for these circumstances.

The ironic part is, I bet those games in Humboldt would have had almost or more attendance up there than the most recently completed round down here. How many people went to the Rancho game? Were at CN or all the other unattractive matchups?

The articles that Humboldt fan posted tell the truth--if roles were reversed, and it was Humboldt schools that had to shoulder the unexpected cost to travel, they would have done it.