First when does a county dictate a uniform brand to every school? What if a school wants nike or warrior etc.?
Anyway the county made a deal with a sporting goods dealer to sell under armour into the schools. The Sporting goods dealer and their owner was convicted of embezzlement and price fixing of athletic bids down in Virginia a few years ago.
The owner price fixed school bids in order to win sports uniform businesses and got caught by the feds. There was a lot of radio, internet and newspaper coverage of the embezzling and how they made fake bids and over charged schools for additional fake charges to iron on numbers on jersey's and passed the charges onto unsuspecting parents.
I know you have juice and reach to people and like to uncover how government make bad deals with crooks. This is one. Roll with it if you want, I'm sure someone will bring it up eventually once a school or a coach actually does a background check on who the school board is doing business with good or bad.
Thanks for listening.
Here is a simple link: one of many as this case made the news, the papers, talk radio. Team Distributors Couldn't sell a sock on the Western shore and Virginia and had taking advantage of Wico in my simple opinion.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdva/pr/athletic-director-two-others-plead-guilty-embezzlement
Roll with it if you want', I'll send the message to the daily times eventually but like your website better and thought you could run with it.
Shame on Wicomico County
15 comments:
THis is an awesome opportunity that will give uniforms etc for extremely cheap prices--the kids are excited!
Such a shame that you have to beware of scams in our schools now too! Is anything off limits anymore?!
Here's an idea:
Decrease cost by partnering with Walmart or a more cost effective brand; making it affordable for parents as well as removing the "name brand" factor associated. It's not what you wear, it's how you play the game!
The agreement in Wicomico County bears no semblance to what is referenced to the linked article. The writer of this published comment is not well versed on the county's agreement it appears.
Joe, on a further note - posting comments like this one is why you are not taken as seriously as you might be. You have the potential to do great things (and I mean beyond just get a huge number of hits on your blog). When you publish comments like this, many people read the first few paragraphs and jump to the conclusion that something illegal is occurring. I understand this is the "blog" portion of what you do - allowing opinions to be voiced. It is not responsible journalism. What we truly need is responsible journalism to uncover and report local stories. Perhaps by stating in the headline "a comment from" it is your intention to alert us that we need to read carefully and make our own decisions. Unfortunately, many of your readers take what they read here as having your endorsement when in actuality none is implied. You do a good job with many local stories. Thank you for reading this comment and understanding it is truly meant with good intentions.
We don't know if it's a good deal for the schools, what is the savings to the schools? That is a dumb statement that the schools will get cheap uniforms.
Under Armour is expensive what are the county schools receiving for the allegiance to buying one name brand? Sounds dirty like back door dirty with a company across the bridge that was guilty of doing illegal business with schools. It's not what you wear it is how you play.
You can bet that someone in the BOE woodwork received some kind of kick back for this sweetheart of a deal. No corruption in Wicomico County (just the good old boy system at work).
9:44, Unlike other news outlets, we do not censor your First Amendment Right and the opportunity to be heard.
Agree or disagree, at least it gets out there for HEALTHY DEBATE.
One of the key problems today with the Main Stream Media is, they only tell you what THEY want you to hear.
The reason SBYNews has grown so much is simply based on the fact that we put it out there and concerned citizens have the freedom to express their thoughts without forcing you to use your name through Facebook.
So with all due respect, I have had many people attempt to tell me what I should or shouldn't do, including other experienced Bloggers. Funny, I did things my way and they, (for the most part) closed down their Blogs because of the lack of traffic, or should I say people being engaged through comments.
The only other local Blogs out there are only there for spite. They serve no substantial purpose and that is a fact.
I appreciate what you suggest but I will continue to give people the opportunity to express their opinions.
The deal is the county schools will have JOINT partnership and will allow all the students to have nice uniforms the cost will be less than any others the prices is based on the orders for each division of sport and required gear. The schools will get a percent of what is ordered threw parents and staff buying things as well and allow them to match there school. Such as for example your child plays football you will be able to purchase there jersey and support the school by doing so as well as supporting your child. There are no back door games or secrets . This is first hand knowledge and I will reply to any questions about this post. As far a Joe reporting on it ... That's his job people he is the only reporting news things most don't find out till way later.. Many of you would not even have a clue this was in the works if not for him posting it . Get more involved with the schools . Wicomico schools had this opportunity a year and a half ago but they were unsure . Change is not always a bad thing . And some things actually help our students.
Must be a substantial kickback to the WCBOE because the Board, in general, does not give one hoot about athletics. Their only focus is feeding the bureaucracy.
The kids are excited I can confirm that comment. I believe this will be a good deal for the schools. This is a county partnership and everyone had to agree for this to move forward. As for the Walmart supplying equipment - lets be honest with ourselves. Anything through Walmart will not be durable enough and we would purchase the same product multiple times. Often times the cheapest price is not the best product.
I think the whole thing is ridiculous. Put the money in education instead of sports uniforms. Again the average good student gets nothing. You have to have one foot in the jail, be in sports or an above average student. What happens to the average student that is good and works very hard to get the grades. They can't even get special education help because they don't meet that criteria for extra help.
That other local blog just removed most of the comment section so welcome more traffic to yours. I get what this person is saying, but let the kids enjoy something that is really nice. It is about the kids right?
The kids get cheap equipment from the best sports clothing manufacturer that exists. Not only that, it's a Maryland company. People will always find something to complain about, SMH...
This is similar to the prince George's county under Armour deal with the exception that the schools can chose who they buy their under Armour uniforms from.
The pg county discount is 40% off of retail on any under Armour uniform or practice item.
It sounds as though wicomico county schools can only purchase through one uniform supplier mentioned above.
I did Google team outfitters embezzlement and about three pages of articles came up.
I'd bet that no REquest for proposals were sent out and that the posts above don't know what the special discount
Is for teams or schools. I do know that prince George's county gets 40% off under Armour with their county deal. However;
There are also a few other brands that the county schools gets the same 40% off deal. (Nike, adidas, warrior, stx etc)
All schools. All brands. 40% off.
So everyone tooting the horn about how great the county got of a deal you may want to find out what the deal actually is first.
I just moved from pg county and was a varsity coach so I am speaking from experience. If you want to see the deal you can find it under the pg county procurement office. I also can tell you that our school received $15,000 a year in promotional support from Under Armour.
Yes $15K a year and 40% off retail. Some schools get more depending on their size and football team but $15,000 is what most schools get.
So I hope that wicomico county schools did their homework (yes I used the proper their ....see above post for there vs their usage)
It sounds as though at the very least the team distriubor got in trouble in the past for rigging school bids. It also sounds like a lot of people chirping on here think their schools are getting as great of a deal as the PG county schools. I hope so.
Has anyone found where the discount for schools is posted?
Thanks
To anonymous that would reply to all questions
1. What is the discount to each school?
2. How much return $$ are the schools getting back from under Armour ?
3. If a coach in year 2 of the deal wants to buy Nike can they?
agreed Joe, a healthy debate.
Many people want questions to be answered. Accountability at every level is a central theme of today's political windstorm.
I must submit Under Armor is Maryland enterprise founded by University of Maryland graduates.
I have read of their efforts to be good citizens and their investments in education.
I feel the onus should be upon scrutinizing the Public Sector ..not labeling their purveyors crooks.
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