Thursday, May 29, 2009

 Hello everyone:

To clear up any confusion, Sport Plex Enterprises, LLC, the operating company, had its lease terminated at the sports complex by our landlord.  Leaving us with no building to run programs and with no way to operate, the company is going bankrupt.  The Waller family did not leave the complex, we were kicked out and are devastated and without a way to make a living.

We turned over all keys, contracts, data and files and were under the impression that the landlord would continue to operate the facility and would be honoring all the customer commitments.  We now see that they are not giving the customers what they have paid for and the Waller family is taking action on behalf of all customers that have been shorted.  We are still here and fighting for you.

We left behind some very significant assets to help make honoring the commitments to the customers more than sensible financially and helpful for operations.  In light of this new information, my only hope is that the value of those items is enough to reimburse every patron, referee and vendor that deserves a refund.

We had multiple events that happened and collectively the impact was too much to make it through the slow season and remain current on our rent.  We had tenants not paying rent, electric company security deposits being required out of nowhere, and certainly the economy has not helped.  We got behind and our landlord terminated our lease and he has taken over operations.

Some of you have asked, “Why the landlord did not keep working with you through this economy?”  He did not have too, he was not required too and the failure to pay rent was my companies’ fault.  Yes, there are many reasons for the shortcoming and many contributing factors, but the responsibility to pay rent timely lies squarely on our shoulders.  We have been put out and he has chosen to continue to run the facility.

To many of you, thanks so much for your calls and e-mails of concern.  We are ok; however, this has been a devastating situation to have to go through both financially and mentally.  The last few days, we have just been trying to come to grips with the reality of the situation.  We have lost everything that we built over the last four years.

We did move some of our property out of the complex in the middle of the night, and did so for two reasons.   One, we were required to get our personal belongings out as part of the termination agreement we entered into with the facility owner.  Secondly, we agreed to the terms to keep the disruption to a minimum for the customers and staff; meaning moving out during hours when the building is vacant.  We care very much about all of you, the facility and the customers and we were back in the facility the next day helping the new management team with the transition and giving them all the information to continue to operate.

Some have gone so far as to say we stole money; we did not steal any money, we ran out of money.  As many of you know, I even sold my interest in the gym and every penny of that sale went to my landlord.  Almost every dollar we made went to paying rent payments, our staff’s paychecks and trying to stay in business.  Just to give you an example; our rent had increased to nearly double what the Frederick Keys baseball team pays to the City of Frederick for Harry Grove Stadium.  The overhead just became too much.

This is a very serious situation and many, many people get hurt when a company goes out of business.  This is a large part of why we fought so hard and long to keep things afloat.  Many of you know two of my children have well over two months worth of paychecks that they will never be able to cash.  There are many others that will go without being paid and that kills me. 

As part of our peaceful exit agreement and transitional help, we were under the impression that all customers would be treated fairly.  And now we are seeing our property and web site used for a much different purpose.

We are very sad and disappointed, but not bitter and have even provided access to our personal e-mail accounts, our billing systems and our scheduling systems.  The new management team will benefit greatly from all of the marketing, partnerships and improvements we have made and the facility will continue to grow and prosper because of our efforts.  We are transferring our key systems, phone numbers and literally everything we reasonably can to keep things steady.  Though the harsh reality remains, my business is out of money and going bankrupt.

We handed over our businesses property, our website, in good faith to help with the transition.  The fact that the facility owner is using that site to send all the customers to us, a business that has been kicked out of the building and is broke makes no sense and is disheartening and wrong. To try and get out of giving the customers what they have paid for is never what we thought would happen.

As the managing company for the last four years, we have never missed a rent payment, until recently. And we grew the business by over eighty percent.  We took it over at $600,000 annually and grew it to over one million.  We are leaving the facility owner and new management team a complex with an additional $400,000 in annual revenue and a facility with over $200,000 in assets and improvements.

If you are one of those individuals that have been negatively affected by this situation, I can’t tell you how sorry I am.  Again, almost all of the monies that you did pay went to our landlord in the form of rent and that is where the funds remain.  We will continue to offer our help and assistance and lobby the facility owner and new management team to do what is right and have all the commitments honored.

Sincerely,

Mark Waller

President and Founder

The Sports Plex