WPCNR WHITE PLAINS VOICE. December 21, 2004: A WPCNR regular writes in to agree with WPCNR that the Section I directors screwed up big time in putting some boys basketball finals intothe County Center, and no girls games, but defends the County:
John,
As do you, I also have a daughter that participates in the WPHS sports program. I also was a member of the Westchester County Parks, Recreation and Conservation (PRC) Board that, from a policy perspective, oversees the County Center facility.
My understanding is that Section I was told by County Center officials last year that their proposed dates for basketball games for this year (altered from their normal slots due to the timing of holidays) would conflict with longstanding County Center commitments. Instead of addressing the problem then, Section I officials apparently burrowed the problem for the better part of a year and only at the last minute made arrangements for about half of the necessary slots to hold final games at the County Center.
I agree with you that, regardless of the reason why only a more limited number of games can be played at the County Center this year, the available slots should have been split between the men and women athletes, unless the women’s coaches were fully polled by Section I schedulers and expressed a preference to "stick together" at another facility.
If, as it seems more likely, no thought was entertained by Section I officials to play some of the women’s’ finals at the County Center, then you are correct that Section I officials have screwed up in a major way by only scheduling men’s games to play here at the Center, and making the women’s teams play in far away locales. Whether that mistake is a "slam dunk" lawsuit or not is beyond my limited legal abilities. But I agree with you that it stinks.
However, the County has no control over the schedule made up by Section I to fill available court times. Although there is a rudimentary review to filter out obviously undesirable Center uses (for instance, the “Bank Robber’s Exposition”), the County is not (and never has been) in the business of reviewing plans of Center users and offering advice about topics such as the finer points of Title IX compliance.
And aside from the obvious financial revenue loss from cancelling long scheduled revenue generating events, the County Center cannot survive in the long run if it esablishes a reputation in the field as a disreputable business partner that cancels a Circus company engagement because another Center user has a schedule problem. "First come, first served" and "a deal is a deal" are longstanding business practices that are not easily discarded by any business or governmental entity.
Bottom line, this appears to be a Section I gaffe from start to finish and any criticism should be focused solely on them.
Tim Sheehan
