Carl –
I think what Brett is saying is if we ever saw Karl yelling at you or Victor like he did Cheyenne – we would be all over him for that too.
I have met Karl. Can’t say I’m a big fan – but until now had no direct problems with him. What I DON’T like is when I hear TMs bad mouth other teams and TMs, and I HAVE heard that more than once from Karl. When you bad mouth another team, especially in order to recruit someone to your team, you are hurting the sport, period.
I am sure there are several kids and parents who are turned off by over-the-top sports moms and dads that find there way into Baseball, Soccer & Football. This is why some of them like our sport. But, when you start seeing this type of bullshit going on at the track – well guess what? Little Johnny’s mom or dad will say “gee, I travelled an hour just hear the same bullshit I could have heard in my back yard at Baseball? Forget this then, lets go home.” Unfortunately its called human nature. Luckily the BMX culture doesn’t seem to attract as many of these idiots!
As far as sponsors go – Karl is KB. So if Karl goes the team probably goes, right?
If enough witnesses support the claim that Karl did indeed intimidate Cheyenne IN EVEN THE SLIGHTEST way, then her dad is justified to some degree to get upset. If Karl did this, and I believe he did, he has no business on the track. If that means the end of KB – so be it – I am sure someone on that team could take over, keep the sponsors, rename it, and probably do even better. So will the riders get hurt? Not if they can think for themselves.
Sometimes its good when poop like this happens. It brings to light a problem, and hopefully now it gets corrected. If that means all these riders need to find new teams (or as stated above – form a new one) its not a bad thing. Karl is not the only TM on the planet, and will not be the last.