Godfather Media, Inc. has announced that the start-up American West Baseball League has awarded the San Diego (CA) territory to James Hoynes. This brings the claimed founding members of the league to four, including Orange County Flyers, Yuma Panthers, Long Beach-South Bay, and San Diego. Read more here.
Godfather Media/AWBL Adds San Diego
Filed under League & Franchise, Market & Location
ballparkbiz.wordpress.com 
Whatever it may be, I read the one about the UFL team although I am not sure what the point of it is, nothing about Desrosiers and a UFL team, someone on that blog decided to write further about AC. They were in talks regarding a NY Penn League Team he has documentation, and again “swindler” no swindling, and it was send money buy into the holding company not a team, and the point of it was to prove there would be true support for the franchise moving forward. Regardless to each is own I suppose, I just find it odd the amount of bs being spread when not a single person has a clue what went on or what is going on.
I don’t typically police comments around here, but let’s try to be respectful and avoid making accusations of “fraud” and the like. Present facts and let people decide for themselves. Let’s also try to keep it clean and professional by avoiding the use of profanity. Now, below are a few immediate thoughts:
(1) Don’t go to the public (via Facebook or silly surveys) to gauge potential fan support for a potential franchise. It’s imperfect and you’ll always get naysayers. Instead, do you homework and know your market. If you have concerns about the market and don’t have full confidence in your ability to make it work, look elsewhere.
(2) If you need partners, go to your friends, family members, colleagues, and industry contacts. Going public with some stock option scheme (in a team, holding company, or whatever) only harms your credibility in the minor-league arena. The average fan and people within the industry will perceive that you either don’t have your own money, or you’re unwilling to spend your own money. If this is not the case, there is absolutely no reason to do it. If you feel some burning desire to connect with the community via local ownership opportunities, get the franchise off the ground and be successful at the gate and on the bottom line before providing the opportunity.
(3) Work directly with all the relevant parties (e.g., league officials, franchise seller, city) quietly and cooperatively behind the scenes. And be patient. Do not try to use public opinion or legal action to force your way into a market. You will lose. Think the Omaha Flame.
(4) If you can’t find professional uniforms for far below $50,000, you need to find a different vendor.
(5) Before offering stock or units to anyone, seek legal advice. You don’t want to run afoul of the SEC or state Blue Sky laws. For criteria for the Rule 506 of Regulation D exemption, go to http://www.sec.gov/answers/rule506.htm.
Alan
Hey, Alan. Okay, my mistake, I perhaps shouldn’t have said fraudulent. The whole situation seemed mismanaged. But maybe they just tried a different approach and failed, and hopefully they can use this failure as a learning experience for future success.
Dan, nope I met him in October 2011 and to this day continue to build a relationship with him and his people. The bottom line is you spread lies, you publicly defame his character without fact! There was no lies on his part, there was a very misinformed kid running the facebook site who went into panic mode when shit hit the fan, and for many upset people it was you and maybe a dozen more who was writing all of the comments. He backed away because the mess showed him that there would never truly be any real support for the team, you are from Brooklyn, and probably would have done very little in terms of supporting the franchise by means of purchasing tickets, merchandise, concessions etc. so why was there such an interest by you to spread crap everywhere? I have been watching you for months and months spread garbage, you all sit here and talk like you have insider information, like you are involved in any league. By the way general rule of thumb is if you are in negotiation for any team you are bound by what is called a Mutual Non Disclosure Agreement, that means even if he did have a team or was in negotiation to purchase a team (which is what he stated) both parties are bound by that agreement, as well as any potential league involved. Again, people pretending they know business without actually having any business experience. From his point of view, I completely understand where he was coming from in deciding to sell parts of the company to prove that you all are vested and again its $50k if every single person bought a $25 unit, so you can quit thinking you guys were burdened and played into “financing” this program and that you were his only means of financing. He clearly has money, he bought a membership territory which I do not know what in the end it cost for Long Beach (South Bay) as I really know nothing about the area, but I do know the league was soliciting memberships between $500k-$1m which is pretty standard, Can-Am is $500k (not sure why), frontier is between $750-$1m, American Association $1m, Atlantic League $3m, North American League was $750k, so again if logic is present in your thought process he has already spent several hundred thousand dollars, plus I know he has branding in the works in the form of Logos, Web Design, and is using very reputable groups in this industry. You keep speaking “fraud” but he was investigated per people on the sites request and everything was dropped because those same people had no clue what was going on. I apologize and I do not mean to hit you hard with this, but you don’t have to be his friend to understand and be frustrated by the continuous lies you spread. Let the kid be, he has the resources to get it done and I believe the league although to early to tell has had a nice approach thus far. I think they are going to run into issues due in part by the mismanaged NAL, GBL and I think they will have to do a lot for the local communities to buy into their product, but again who am I to doubt or defame without knowing whats going on behind closed doors. And its funny how your still backing Lorenzo after I clearly told you and have proof that he knew everything, permitting this group to go in and assess the park on several occasions. Frank is a great man, a great businessman, and what he said in his brief statement is that he knows Desrosiers and that they had discussed a sale of BP but that the two sides didn’t come to an agreement, and when asked if he owned the rights to the Atlantic City Surf Name, he said he would have to check and nothing ever came of that in the public, I never said anything bad about Frank, because he is one of the few operators in this business that does things the right way. I would just be careful how many lies you spread via public blogs, i was told last night that several people associated with Desrosiers and the League are advising legal action to put an end to it all, just a thought.
While I’m impressed/creeped out that you’ve been “following” me for months, I think you have mistaken. I don’t care so much about this that I’d go to blogs. I have a family, a life, I’m not too concerned about swindlers’ actions. I’ll comment on articles on this site, but that’s the extent of my caring. File a lawsuit? Come on, dude.
Look, you obviously are seriously misguided, so this is the last I’ll say because this such a silly non-issue: they said, and I quote, we are close to acquiring a team in the New York-Penn League, but will make a major announcement at noon tomorrow. The big announcement ended up being, hey, send us money for a team we don’t have, a team that doesn’t even have a website. Again, that is lying, my friend, to go along with serious incompetence, either way I would not invest in that.
Don’t give me that victim act. Before this was exposed I pledged full support. Buy tickets? For what team, dude? Would you buy tickets for a team that doesn’t exist? You are very naive then.
Hey, whatever they’re working on out there, good luck. Maybe they can learn from their AC debacle but you don’t have to worry about me because I don’t care. This is the last thing I’ll ever say about this. Such a waste of time. But that name needs serious scrubbing as there are a lot of inflammatory remarks online under that name Desrosiers, including scams involving a UFL team and other businesses. So you have a lot of blogging to do, buddy. Peace.
Frank Boulton on Desrosiers: “He could be very substantial but he wasn’t able to prove that to me.”
Baseball Fan I forgot to add, stop lying, just stop! I know for a fact, that Desrosiers hasn’t spoken to anyone about selling any part of the team and for obvious reason being its not AC has no reason to, and godfather media being publicly traded is obligated under there operating agreement to make certain parts of the organization available for purchase, I think anyone should grab a piece its under $1 lol they are so going to get rich from your buck!
Okay where do I even start….Dan I am not sure about your sources because I was also a fan member on the AC Surf facebook in which I was very excited to see baseball return to the city, I used to live in Toms River and now work and live and Morristown, NJ, when it all started I was skeptical but after doing my own due diligence, and by due diligence, I do not mean googling his name or reading bullshit, I called him directly which he made clear to everyone to do so as they please with anything. I spent a good amount of time getting to know him as well as checking true sources. You and your friends Mr. Rodriguez, have ZERO facts you read stories from a news paper we all knew was backwards and we once again got fed the same crap as usual from Lorenzo and his people, when they knew of every intention that kid had down there, even opening the doors to them several times for walk through of the ballpark. Your very own Eddie Lax made arrangements for Nick his partners, Karin Deveney (who helped the group), and a former City counsel member who is now managing the ballpark, to tour the park several times. So for them to say they knew nothing about him was complete bs! Secondly for once in the past year I want some logic associated with this mess…you all seem to be experts of this matter and continuously defame his character as an individual and businessman when he was on this for more then 3 years, he tried buying the team from Schuster and Christoph in the year they ceased operation, and they instead tried to woo him into buying into El Paso, Grand Prairie and Brockton, often trying to blindside him into over paying, ignoring his wishes for Atlantic City, then when he felt enough time had passed and he had amassed enough support to try again he decided to create a facebook page to see if we were really into supporting him, because quite honestly AC didn’t deserve a team, we hadn’t supported any of the professional sports team as a community or government. After several individuals throughout minor league baseball telling him to back out it would never work, he decided to get everyone vested in the team so individuals would continue to support the new organization and think about it he was not looking for anyone to finance the team nor could any of you down there! He had close to 2,000 individuals on that page and was asking $25 a unit (for those of you that had the SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission)) investigate a kid that worked on Wall Street, must know that a membership interest (or “Unit”) of a Limited Liability Company is considered a Regulation D 506 Exemption through the SEC and is not a registered security (stock for those lacking knowledge) therefore it is completely legal, and common for him to ask for a substantial investment or the financing of $50,000 which couldn’t even supply uniforms for the team, come on guys common logic, use your heads. I apologize for the lengthy message but I watch this shit constantly and the kid had every right to file suit against you and the few friends you had excited causing a mess for this kid, his identity and that poor 18 year old kid that ran the facebook for him, what you guys did and continue to do is preposterous. And by the way the only reason he even announced the offering on Facebook was because Matt Snyder a so called sports professional from Atlantic City told him he should and that us all following the site would love the opportunity to own a piece. This is sickening since this and because of you and several individuals on the site he has had the SEC, IRS as well as Federal Agencies come barging in on him demanding information, and when they got their information it was wiped clean. He was trying to do us a favor, the city cared nothing for the ballpark or the residents and fans, so when Desrosiers conducted all his diligence he decided it was best to make the City see how bad everyone wanted it back! Now because he went out and bought a territory and is building this thing from the ground up, it is your responsibility to continue to defame him. I wish him all the best, I took the time to find the real information, not assume or pretend I am involved or know anything about this business. Thats all for me guys, lets see how this turns out, none of us know, but so far everything has been done right. Oh and Godfather Media, Inc being Publicly Traded and releasing all information coast to coast is illegal too because you all know every detail that went in behind the scenes in Hawaii, right? I am sure James Denton would want to be part of that and Alan Mintz. Ron Bailey and the almost 400 out of 2000 that left to start a team petition are doing an impeccable job, I see its gotten far…And Frank Boulton if you look up the national trademark register owns nothing, in fact the trademark was cancelled in 2010! Get your facts right! And Desrosiers said anyone can contact him so if you want answers I urge you to meet up with him seeing that hes in Manhattan, your in Brooklyn, I am almost positive he would jump at the opportunity to meet up with you.
Quite a lengthy and slanted response. While I’ve never sat down and had tea and cookies with this dude, i know professionalism and something didn’t smell right. When they announced they had a team and were gonna join a league, then the next day said they didnt have a team and were actually soliciting funds from potential investors, that’s either fraudulent or incompetent. I actually hope it’s fraudulent as I would never invest in the amateurish approach offered.
The fact that there was no info beyond the Facebook page is another giveaway, and the mayor nor the heads of any leagues knew about this plan is yet another clue something isn’t right. I may not know about Boulton’s clout, but I think “founder of Atlantic League” speaks for itself. And the way this whole idea fell apart because of what was said on Facebook. Was the plan that flimsy? What would have happened once attendance started sagging? Pack up? Again, this is either fraudulent or very incompetent. I really hope it’s fraudulent.
This whole operation reeked of amateurism. If it’s real, I wish him the best of luck and hope they can learn from their mistakes. Step 1, hire proper PR personnel. The right PR staff could make Eskimos buy ice. You don’t start off lying to folks then whine when they get upset. And it wasnt just me on Facebook, there were many upset people.
You’re obviously some friend of his, if not him. Have a team first then offer stock in the team. Don’t ask for investments for something that you don’t have. Anyone would be foolish to invest in that. So don’t give me the victim act. That’s just bad business. Again, a real businessman, not one in a boiler room, would invest in PR.
Really, San Diego?? Dont support their mlb team, so lets bring an indy team there!!
That is what they are asking for, people to invest in stock. In my mind if you don’t have the money from the start, why even start. I don’t know anything about the owner of the San Diego team, but the owners of Yuma, OC, and Long Beach want people to invest in stock. They think they can get rich off of independent baseball. It just goes to show what kind of league they are running, if you want a team you can have it. It’s pretty obivous they don’t do background checks on owners, that’s what screwd the GBL/NAL. The Atlantic league wanted nothing to do with the guy who owns long beach now. I heard he tried to put a team in Atlantic City, but little did he know Frank Boulton who started up the Atlantic League and owns the Long Island Ducks & Bridgeport Bluefish also owns the right to Atlantic City. So that guy he pretty much tried to go behind his back. Gotta love indy baseball haha
This league is not going to work. They expect people to invest money into there product, it’s not the Green Bay Packers of the NFL. Just looking at the owner in Long Beach, and he seems to run the same operation as the owner of Yuma & Orange County. Asking people to invest money in there stock….. it’s independent baseball, not going to work. So far everything is done on paper, I wanna see it take to the field next season, and when bills, players, and coaches don’t get paid they will be in the same situation the GBL/NAL was in. If you don’t have the money in the first place why even start.
Is that what they’re asking, for public financial support? This dude tried the same thing in Atlantic City, asked for public financial support and claimed to have a team in a league ready, yet city officials never heard of him. I think it’s time for authorities to investigate this character here
If this mess gets off the ground, at least they’re starting off right in terms of naming teams WAY before the season and not a day before. They have a looooooooong way to go to show they know how to do this after their other screw ups.