Pulling the Plug... Tuesday, May 12

I said I was going to do it but then I didn't. I'm going to pull the plug on sponsoring Team Nigeria.

No more late night phone calls from Team Nigeria's Coach Victor.

No more struggles to contact the Korean Embassy in Nigeria.

No more edited and revised legal paper work for Team Nigeria's travel visas.

No more meetings or phone calls to local hotels or car rental shops.

No more telling our sponsors they're coming and then discussing the complications.

No more working on putting together a Team Hulk/ Team Nigeria uniform.
No more organizing any kind of events to do with them and our club.
No more typing up of my mini travel book with Cheonan info and translations for them.

No more seeking out legal help from friends of friends and other contacts.

No more asking me when Team Nigeria is going to come.  

They're not going to come and I of all people am surely the most disappointed of all. 

I've been working on this since December 26 of last year and though it has been exhausting I had such high hopes for it.  I was going to pull it off on my own, do the unthinkable, the unexpected -- sponsor a team from the other side of the planet, make it possible for them to come here and train.  I didn't know how I was going to do it but I was going to do it and then, when I found out one of the boxers I was going to sponsor was a female boxer, well that changed everything for me.  Throw in the fact that she was only a few weight classes above me and, well, if only she came here to Korea I would have been ecstatic enough to do all this extra work.

But I can't do it. 

I can't do it anymore and the reason why I can't is because the timing is so off now and there are too many red flags popping up.  They were supposed to come here much earlier, back when Wow was here.  And now that Kato's days are numbered before he heads off to do his 2 years of military service, he's short on time and will be gone by the time Team Nigeria ever shows up.  Moreover, they missed out on being in our KBS documentary.  And then there are the red flags that have started popping up in multiples lately -- the change in boxers, the embassy having concerns about their passports, the piling expected expenses the team fails to confirm whether they can afford, their continual push and short notice with updated arrival dates, and then there is Coach Victor calling me nonstop the past week.  Just this past Saturday, he called me 13 times with the first call being at 1am and him continually calling me throughout the day. 

They're suppose to be coming here in preparation for a big international tournament they're participating it but now it seems as if Hulk's is their ticket out of their country, a means of fleeing whatever bad situation it is that they may be in.  I don't want to stereotype here and assume just because they're from Africa, a country not as well of as perhaps Korea or Canada, but it is a truth that makes me question how they can even afford such a trip -- 7 people = 7 plane tickets, 4 hotel rooms, 1 van rental with gas expenses, and a month's worth of food expenses plus other expenses.  I can't even afford the trip to Canada and I run my own business and am just one person. 

Sponsoring Team Nigeria is a no go.  

As much as I would absolutely love to have a team stay with us for a full month and train them for free, it's a legal liability that I am no longer confident with putting on my business because of the complications and red flags.  I don't know them personally but I know our club and what it means to Snickers and I, and I know I wouldn't want to put it in jeopardy just for the sake of proving I can do something so many think I can't.  It's not worth the risk and I really have nothing to prove.  I did, after all, make Korea's largest professional boxing club out of a pile of people poop and no money.