Over the last few weeks I have received multiple emails from players and parents complaining about how the photos teams were presenting of housing, dressing rooms, and other team items did not accurately reflect what was being delivered to the customer.
While many of these complaints were truthful, most of them were over reactions to slight differences in amenities the team provided compare to the photos of those amenities actually were.
But some of these photos from teams clearly crossed a line into being false advertising.
The other day I personally ran into an example of extreme dishonesty from a team, and the most disappointing part of this story is that I know the people involved and I know they did it deliberately because they are desperate to paint a picture that does not really exist.
This team has a professional team and an amateur team. What they did was post a video of fans in the stands and fans outside of the building that made it appear as though the amateur team had incredible fan support. While in fact the video’s used were actually taken during the professional game that took place after the amateur game.
It was so misleading and paints such a picture that it made me go through and look at other posts from the league that this team plays in. Again, more misleading published photos and videos in social media.
Now along with negative recruiting taking place, it looks as though all social media claims and advertising claims being made by teams also need to be thoroughly investigated.
If you see a picture of a big crowd at a game, but the teams game sheet report only shows 50 people attending but the video shows a few hundred, something may be suspicious.
When you see fireworks displays going on after a game, you need to check the time the game ended. When the fireworks are taking place during a very dark night, and the game promoted in the video ended at 3:00 pm there may be some deception taking place.
When the player dressing room does not match the photos on your arrival you might have an indication that problems will continue to come up during the season.
Do your investigations players and parents. Do not take the advertising to be accurate until you take the time to look into the details. When it looks too good to be true, it usually is.
Joseph Kolodziej – Adviser
