Gulf Coast United soccer club must scramble to make up $114,000

Gulf Coast United soccer club board members got a shocking call three days before Christmas: Nearly $114,000 in club funding was gone. The money was supposed to come from a company called Count Me In, a Bellevue, Wash., firm that provides online registration for youth leagues across the country.

Count Me In, which works with about 220 clubs, stopped making payments to Gulf Coast United and other clubs in June. Now Gulf Coast is left scrambling to make up the deficit or face losing the league.

"We've basically come to the conclusion that we can kiss the money away from CMI,'' Gulf Coast United vice president Nigel Witsey said. "We're trying to come up with ways we can raise the money. We're taking donations, we're coming up with ideas for fundraisers. If we don't get some serious fundraising going, the club will fold.''

Gulf Coast United, which has about 1,100 players between two sites in Seminole and Belleair, has used Count Me In since June 2006. The company sets up a league's Web site and allows players to register online. The registration money is collected by Count Me In, and $3.50 per registrant is taken by CMI. If the signup is done by credit card, another 2 percent is taken by the company. The money remaining from each transaction was supposed to go into an escrow fund and paid back to each club.

Payment to Gulf Coast United stopped in June. John Hockin, a coach and adviser, said Count Me In had been late on payments before but always eventually paid. June, July and August are heavy registration times, and because of Count Me In's history of late payment, it wasn't until December that the club realized the money was gone.

"They had always been remiss in making payments but they always paid in the end,'' Hockin said. "But because of the timing of our league, roughly 95 percent of that $114,000 came in during a three-month period."

East Lake Arsenal in Pinellas County also used CMI and is out an estimated $30,000.

Getting any money back from CMI looks like a long shot. Three leagues in Alaska are suing the company to force it into bankruptcy. If the suit is successful, CMI would be forced to liquidate all its assets and pay its creditors a percentage of money owed.

Calls and e-mails to CMI have gone unanswered, but the company did release a general statement about its status.

"CMI made a series of errors over the past eight years, largely around having the right staff and developing the appropriate procedures, adequate systems and financial oversight in place," Terry Drayton, founder and chief executive of Count Me In, said in the statement. "We could talk about that, or poor advice we received, but at the end of the day, I am now in charge so it is my responsibility to fix the problem."

Gulf Coast United likely will not sue CMI.

"There are two options that you would have, either litigation or bankruptcy,'' said Clearwater lawyer and Gulf Coast United parent Peter Rivellini. "Either way, the likelihood of seeing any money from that is not very good. This is a company that knew it was in trouble, but instead took that money and paid for things like salaries, furniture and equipment, things that really have no value to the business. I don't see a whole lot of chance of getting anything.

"It's irritating more than anything else. It's another thing that I have to stroke a check for after spending hundreds of dollars in the first place. But I know that the league will survive.''

Gulf Coast has to come up with about $10,000 a month to make expenses. Field maintenance per quarter is $2,300 at the Seminole Junior Warhawk complex and $2,500 at the Brewster Complex in Belleair. The league pays $2,800 a month in referee fees, but that sum will go down now that the league is using volunteers to ref most games. Training and coaching fees are $5,000 a month, although Hockin said some of the coaches have deferred their monthly fees for the time being.

The league has a coaches clinic for kids scheduled today at the Belleair fields. Trainers are volunteering their time for the clinic to help raise money.

"We have to get to June,'' Witsey said. "That's when our new year starts. We have a spring league going on, so we're trying to get to the summer so we can keep the club going.''

Gulf Coast United plans to hold coaching clinics, car washes, bake sales and other fundraisers during the spring to keep the league going. It has already received donations from local businesses and individuals.

"When I got the phone call on Dec. 22 I thought, 'That's it. We're done,' '' Witsey said. "But after seeing the response from the parents and how the whole club has come together to try to get through this, I'm probably 70 percent more optimistic than I was in the beginning.''