Organizers I feel you. "Bailers" do not consider what you go through to organize hockey for the community. They send you that last minute text with a totally acceptable reason to bail on you, and then they don't consider at all to pay for the spot they signed up for, and you have to eat the loss.
I'm very sorry Steve, Adam and Mike!
I used to be a bailer. I am ashamed of it. For all you hockey organizers that I have bailed on last minute... I'm so very sorry. I can't really remember who I've bailed on, but let me know and I owe you a beer or two. My karma has come back full circle.
There is always 1 Bailer
If you don't know what I am talking about, you have never organized hockey. I have organized hundreds of games, practices, training sessions and there is always one bailer, usually two... well last Monday, I had 8 people bail last minute because of "COVID numbers increasing". Lucky me, I had a couple of friends that helped rally up some subs from their teams. Thank you so much Jamil and Benny! I think I would have just cancelled the rest of these sessions if you guys didn't have my back.
But it's time we all start talking about this. Some bailers are just oblivious and they honestly have no idea they are being rude. In my defense, I was oblivious. I wish somebody had told me that I was being a douchebag. I wish the organizer had told me to pay up. If you agree, then you should start talking about it. It will support me, it will support my business, it will support other hockey organizers and eventually it will come back to you with more hockey available to play.
It's OK to bail, just make sure you pay
It's good to be committed to hockey, but obviously it is not a number one priority in life. It's totally understandable to bail if you got work to do, a sick kid at home, a "pandemic" with rising numbers etc etc. But this is about money. When you bail, you should be paying your share of the fee to the organizer... or at least offer if your organizer has no subs to take your place.
Organizers rarely talk about this. They don't want to look like a complainer. And it's very difficult for an organizer to confront a bailer. The ongoing bailing usually just grinds the organizers down until they stop organizing. Of course, there are the Superstar-Organizers that have a spare list of dozens of subs and it doesn't really sweat them, and my hat is off to you folks. Throughout my hockey career, almost all the hockey organizers I have known before myself got burnt out and quit.
So let's rally a conversation together and educate the bailers. Let's make organizing hockey thrive so more people will step up to the plate and lay down the cash for the ice or the team which can be a big risk to some organizers if they are surrounded by flaky people. If I had money to burn, I would love to start the LPL again (which was a drop-in 4-team hockey league), or the Wednesday Night 3 on 3. I stopped both of those awesome programs because of the stress and I hated the fact that I was getting annoyed with good people who bailed on me consistently.
So if you didn't know, now you do. Support this movement. Talk about it with your hockey buddies #youbailyoupay