Looking for (2) more Amateur Jai alai Board of Directors Members

Thanks to a few dedicated people we now only need 2 more members. Much progress has been made and I hope that the momentum keeps going.

Buildings like 15 Research Drive in Milford, Connecticut can be put up around the country.

www.visionappraisal.com

No one is defeated until they have accepted defeat as a reality in his own mind.

Skepticism and fear is something that we should not allow to dominate weather or not Jai-alai survives.

Failure to make a move because you are skeptical is fear of the unknown. Even if it's the wrong decision,at least you have made a dicision which gives you an opprotunity to see the wrongness in that discison so that you can correct it and move on.

But, by doing nothing we know what the outcome is FAILURE!

This is to clear up that Amateur Jai-alai,LLC is not going to open the doors in Jan. 2010. We still need 2 more members and are still working on our business plan before we spend a dime. In the meantime we would like for you to come and leave more of you comments http://sportales.com/sports/extreme-sports-2/ which some of you have already done, and we thank you for that.

Here shortly we will be posting some of the feedback on our sites for the rest of you to view as they come in from the survey.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jai-alai Player on July 17, 2009 at 12:13pm: Where are you located and what are your goals? Is it local, national, international?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Christian on July 17, 2009 at 12:25pm: Good idea, and good questions.

I think it is important to decide on an agenda. And it is definitely a good idea to organize the work. Great initiative!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michael on July 17, 2009 at 12:50pm: You have to start out local at this point I think. To answer you question on location "Connecticut".

who better to understand the sport other then guys that have or are playing it. That was my intention when I start the organization a few years back. The only problem was that there was only 2 of us, and I was the only one on the board that understood or knew anything about the sport.

My buddy Was somewhat the web guy. Personal problems in his life and a little in my own, made us put things on hold.

It would be nice to get it up and running again. When we had it going there was an Agenda, by-laws (which I still have) and meetings once a month.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michael on July 17, 2009 at 1:18pm: Here is another thing that I can't understand.

Why hasn't anyone startred a central store (if you will) where you can purchase Jai alai equipment? All the Jai alai stuff has to be purchased on ebay, I think we are little bit better then that. Ebay is for auctions, is that the preception that we want to give the sport?

There should be at least an internet store where you can purchase anything dealing with Jai alai.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Christian on July 17, 2009 at 1:59pm: uhm... I couldn't agree with you more, although it is somewhat problematic given the amount of equipment available.
Nevertheless, I think this is something that should be looked in to more in detail. I'll give it some thought and let's see what we can come up with.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by HOV on July 17, 2009 at 9:11pm: Michael all your thoughts that I have read are wonderful, well thought out ideas. You are an asset to the jai alai community, keep it up!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Christian on July 18, 2009 at 6:40am: If possible, couldn't you upload the statues or the documentation you had from the organizastion. It would be very interesting to read. A strong initiative in Connecticut would be so cool, and the sooner the better I guess since there are still people up there who know the game.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michael on July 20, 2009 at 11:08am: I think that this guy Bill Andrews would be an assett to helping us get the word out with al ready having done a story on Jai alai, and gone to school for journalism. I happen to find him thoughout my looking around.

Getting people involved is KEY!

Thanks Bill Andrew

Mr. Perry,

Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad you liked my article, since I had the usual reporters' fear of not doing the subject justice. Even though I saw lots of signs of decline, much of the former glory of the sport was still obvious, as well as the fans' passion. I'd certainly enjoy it if the sport made a huge comeback.

I can imagine it would be hard to get such a project started as your dream fronton would be, but I wish you luck in getting whatever resources you need for it to become reality. It would not only be a great boost to jai alai itself, but a pretty good story on its own.

Good luck, and thanks again!

-Bill Andrews

On Mon, Jun 22, 2009 at 3:54 PM, Don Hecker wrote:

Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:16:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: Michael Perry
Subject: Amateur Jai alai article Please forward to Bill Andrews
To: hecker@nytimes.com

Bill Andrews:

Thank you for doing an article on the SPORT of Jai alai, something that I have been attempting to promote for years. Jai alai has 2 sides, one the gaming side where you gamble and the other is the sport itself, that a lot of people are not aware of as you found out.

I just happen to be looking around and ran in to your article that you did on the sport, and had to get in contact with you to say thank you for shedding some light on the sport.

Miami is not the only place around the country where the amateur side of the sport grew. At one point Milford, Connecticut was the home of another amateur court for 20 years were people could come and learn to play the sport. Some graduated from good enough to go on to play professionally, and a few of them are still currently playing in some of the Florida Frontons today.

I have been working on bringing back amateur play back to Connecticut for years now, but without a facility, and of course MONEY, its hard.

The Milford facility was sold for 1.5 million a few years, back when the owners decided to retire in the sunshine state.

As business owners the deal was a good one for them due to its location to the interstate I-95, and the passing of one of them. But for the 20 years or so that the facility was open it made the owners a lot of money, and created unique market where average people could come and learn to play the sport.

Nevertheless, my dream of someday building/owning a facility goes on so that this great sport doesn't disappear.

Glad to see that you had a chance to put on a cesta and give it a try. A few more hours of playing and you would have been hooked on playing (smile).

Please keep in touch and get back to me on this at your earliest, and once again thank you for writing the article.

Michael Perry
South Windsor, CT; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Arthur on July 21, 2009 at 2:05am: Count me in for whatever capacity I can lend a hand. I work on the on Amateur venue website still in action americanjaialai.com in North Miami.

Opening a fronton is a hefty goal but one that I beleive is achievable if the right people sign on to the project. Promote, promote, promote.

I can see someone like a Trump dumping a couple million into it if he loved the game. Rebuilding professional/amateur Jai Alai up north somewhere would be a great step. NYC greater area, maybe even in north NJ somewhere.

With no existing facility there now, constructions costs would seem to be the most prohibitive. Liek I said, anyway I can help, just shout.

Arthur; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michael on July 22, 2009 at 12:39pm: Thanks, I have been a Jai alai fan for many years now, and hate to see it go into the dark age. We have to keep that from happening.

HOV said:
Michael all your thoughts that I have read are wonderful, well thought out ideas. You are an asset to the jai alai community, keep it up!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michael on July 22, 2009 at 12:55pm: I will see what I can do. In the meantime check out some of the other sites that are out there that I don't see on posted up here.

www.sportscapitaloftexas.com

Christian said:
If possible, couldn't you upload the statues or the documentation you had from the organizastion. It would be very interesting to read. A strong initiative in Connecticut would be so cool, and the sooner the better I guess since there are still people up there who know the game.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tiger on July 22, 2009 at 1:40pm: It would only take one such person to make it go. In the past, we've mentioned wealthy sports owners like Turner, Steinbrenner, Cuban, etc., assuming they would be logical sources.

I like to kid about Oprah Winfrey, for example. If she got hooked on jai-alai, it would move so fast it would be a blur.

Pro athletes, Hollywood, entertainers - any one could develop an interest and the rest would take care of itself. All those people should be lobbied.

Not exactly relevant now (past history), but Joey Cornblit came very close to opening a fronton on an Indian reservation in Arizona.

Arthur said:
Count me in for whatever capacity I can lend a hand. I work on the on Amateur venue website still in action americanjaialai.com in North Miami.

Opening a fronton is a hefty goal but one that I beleive is achievable if the right people sign on to the project. Promote, promote, promote.

I can see someone like a Trump dumping a couple million into it if he loved the game. Rebuilding professional/amateur Jai Alai up north somewhere would be a great step. NYC greater area, maybe even in north NJ somewhere.

With no existing facility there now, constructions costs would seem to be the most prohibitive. Liek I said, anyway I can help, just shout.

Arthur; ▶ Reply to This