Motel 6, Room 25

Apr 3, 1999... Steve Tucker

From the office of the Sioux City Salsa

Motel 6 room 25

Words with THE win.

I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to all the teams visiting the "Pepper Palace". As you probably noticed it is nothing more than the McBubble that is on loan to the city. Seating is limited to the scattered benches around the laminated pressed particleboard court. The city claims it is an advanced state of the art floor imported from Russia and they are in compliance with the agreements signed to bring the Salsa to Iowa. Although you have to cross the Missouri River into South Dakota to actually reach the "Pepper Palace", the office and team facilities (Motel 6 at an attractive 15% discount) are located on the Iowa side of the city.

The whole situation is probably headed to litigation. The city claims it has supplied a place to play with floor, seating and parking. (Again I should apologize for any inconveniences suffered due to parking. I probably should have issued some type of cow pie warning. Those who fell did not seem very consoled by the fact that at least it wasn't hard blacktop. The ground is soft and no sustained physical injuries have been proven.) City officials claim they are surprised and offended by our lack of enthusiasm toward the team facilities arrangement. They claim our standards are too high and they went out of their way to acquire the McBubble. Bob's cousin, Dave took his own rig and drove to Chicago to get it and only claimed fuel expense and a lunch at (ironically) McDonalds which was paid by the city. If things can't get resolved the Salsa will be looking for a new home, if we can get out of the multi-year lease agreement. The city seems committed to making us honor the agreement in court. Stay tuned. Updates may trickle out as negotiations intensify although not to anyone with any kind of xxx filters installed.

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

I could make the excuses of injuries, bad GM moves by the NBA or local distractions for the poor performance of the team but hey, we kicked some Bolingbrook ass! We aren't the worst (for the moment)!

A Salsa victory sliders and chips buffet follows the final whistle.