Who Audits a Hockey Franchise?

Am I the crazy one here? My landlord, the local hockey franchise, bullies me, steals from me, and sabotages my business. My so-called partner, Pierre, lies to me, bullies me, and sides with my landlord against me. Yet when I object to these things, everyone acts like I’m the one who’s lost my mind. Like all these things are ok and I’m just overreacting. How can that be? Doesn’t anyone else see that this is wrong? Very Wrong!

These were all things going through my mind after that email from Pierre; the intervention last summer and then the email at Thanksgiving. The idea that Pierre was in collusion with Todd to sabotage the cafe was becoming more real. After all, Pierre used to work at corporate before we started the restaurant. Was this standard operating procedure for franchise employees and that’s why no one saw anything wrong?

Surely, a hockey franchise would have internal and external auditors. There must be billions of dollars funneling through that company, so wouldn’t they have a Big Five auditor like Deloitte or KPMG? Wouldn’t there be somebody concerned about guarding the keys to the kingdom? Or does everyone steal until they retire, so they have an auditor like Enron had with Arthur Andersen? You know if the employees were stealing from me, they were robbing the hockey franchise blind. And considering Operations and Corporate employees had master keys that opened every door in every building, there was a lot of opportunity for ill-gotten gain. Maybe to them, bringing home a little extra was just a perk of employment. Obviously, no one was telling them it was wrong. Just me, the crazy one, telling them it’s wrong. Now, what do I do???

So Much for Starting Over

About a month after The Intervention and Todd’s promise to work together, I got to see Todd’s idea of working together. It was a Monday. I had some business to attend to, so I arrived to open the cafe a little later than usual. The parking lot was packed. I was shocked because Mondays were never that busy, even on school holidays. I went in the rink and there were people everywhere. I had no idea what was going on, but I was pissed. I saw people leaving when I was pulling in, so I knew the unknown event was about over. Someone should have told us there was an event that day so we could plan to be open.

As I was opening the cafe, one of the nice parents came over and warned me that we were about to get very busy. I thanked him, but I figured we had already missed out on most of the business as people were leaving. We had missed out for sure, but the next thing I knew I was slammed with lunch orders. If I had known ahead of time, I would have opened about 3 or 4 hours earlier and had Kyle come in to help – and we would have had the bar open, too.

One of the really nice women that worked at the front desk came over later and told me she would be glad to open the cafe for events if I couldn’t make it. I told her I would have been there if I had known there was an event. She was shocked no one had told us. Turns out, the hockey franchise players were holding a practice at our rink and signing autographs. All these hockey stars were in the building and we knew nothing about it. And why didn’t corporate order food from us? You know the locker room had snacks for all those athletes and the crew. If the local hockey team is going to rent out space in their arenas, they should support their tenants’ businesses.

The next day, Todd walked into my kitchen to inform me he had talked to Damon and they had decided it wasn’t Todd’s job to inform us of upcoming events at the arena. So much for starting over and partnering. So much for our success is good for the arena. So much for me being nicer so they would be good to us and treat us right. I told Pierre what Todd had said and pointed out the betrayal of Todd’s words from our meeting. This was definitely a time for Pierre to go to corporate to discuss the meaning of support and business partners, but he did nothing.

I Need a Lawyer

How did this happen? How did I get here? My landlord organization, the employees of the local hockey team, is fraught with thieves and persecutors. The general manager of our facility and our contact at corporate act like I’ve lost my mind when I tell them stealing/sabotage is not acceptable behavior. The man who was supposed to be my partner and help me build this restaurant and bar into a viable business has thrown me to the wolves. He, too, acts like all this bad behavior is my fault. It’s clear from the intervention, no one is listening when I talk.

It’s time to talk to an attorney. And it’s got to be a high powered one. It’s time to take what little money I have left and seek out a downtown Dallas firm. If I have to go up against a hockey franchise, I’m going to need big guns. It’s expensive to ask legal questions and research options. At this point, I’m just trying to figure out where I stand and what’s going to happen in our ‘starting over’ phase. Time to smile, lay low, and turn on all the spidey senses.

Looking back now, I have so many questions about what was going on here. Were Pierre and Todd in cahoots? Did they plan to squeeze me out from the beginning? Did Pierre use me to front his new business with my retirement fund and all my hard work so he could swoop in after a couple years and just take over? Am I a victim of theft by deception? Is Pierre truly a con man, or just a bad partner? Has he done this to others? I have begun investigating some of Pierre’s other business dealings to see if there is a pattern to his actions. If I don’t look into it, no one will. Is the local hockey team so narcissistic and misogynistic that they don’t care about employees stealing from their company and their tenants and persecuting their female tenants? Will Todd have to look up these words to see what they mean? If you have any information on any of these people, please let me know. Thanks.

The Intervention

After 18 months in business, Pierre, Todd, Kyle, and I were meeting to air out our differences and ‘start over’. Little did I know, I was walking into an intervention. First, Pierre and Todd talked about how important it was to have a good relationship. As usual, Todd went into his little speech about our success was good for the rink. I just smiled, swallowed my skepticism, and tried to overlook the fact that he had been saying that the whole time he was sabotaging our business. I didn’t want to undermine the chance to make things better. I needed the stress of bad landlords and bad rink management to dissolve into dust and blow away.

Next, we talked about Max telling all the parents not to buy from our cafe and bar. Todd’s response was that Max was very loyal to him. What does that mean? Max only badmouthed us because he liked Todd? Was it Todd’s idea? How does that fit into ‘our success is Todd’s success’? Does that mean Todd is not going to make it stop?

Kyle brought up a few points about the bar. Each time I tried to talk, either Pierre or Todd would cut me off and go on with something else. Here I am, the one with the most to say, not getting to talk at all. I’ve been robbed, threatened, and sabotaged and I don’t get to let any of it out before we start over?

At one point, Todd brought up our hours so I explained how our open hours came about. Todd decided to be offended at what I said – I don’t know how anyone could be offended at our choice of hours. So Kyle jumped in and explained that Todd’s reaction wasn’t what I was saying and went on to talk about our hours. Todd was then ok with our explanation. It’s ok if Kyle says it, but not ok if I say it. Kyle was the only one who defended me during the entire meeting. The rest of the time, Pierre and Todd just cut me off.

Todd needed to leave but he wanted to clear the air on some things that really ‘bothered him’. Once again, he repeated his same petty grievances. After 18 months, can he not just get over it? That’s what they’re asking of me, after all. Todd reiterated our huge business mistake of not listening to him and frying our French fries. Todd, the food service expert, who allows his employees to stick their dirty hands in the ice machine to get ice for ice packs. The same ice we use to serve beverages. We’re supposed to hang on his every word and do his bidding? How in the world can someone hold a grudge against you for not frying French fries? Does it get any more petty than that? Is that the biggest control freak move on the planet? And then Todd had to hurry out for another commitment. I guess we have wiped the slate clean and are starting over. Really? One good thing did come from this meeting. Before Todd left, he assured us our success was important to the rink and he intended to partner with us to keep us informed of events and make things better.

I was devastated. The air was perfectly clear to me. No one was going to listen to me, ever. Nothing was going to change. Pierre, my partner, was not truly a partner and did not have my back. My retirement money was almost gone and there was no light at the end of the tunnel, not even an oncoming train to put me out of my misery quickly. I went home and cried.