SPOKANE, Wash. — KREM 2 has confirmed that Spokane Shock owner Sam Adams did not provide the Public Facilities District (PFD), which manages the Spokane Arena, with the $128,000 security bond needed to play at the arena this season.
This comes after the PFD gave Adams a 24-hour extension to make the payment on Wednesday.
Because Adams missed the 5 p.m. deadline to supply the security bond, the PFD says the Shock contract at the Spokane Arena will be terminated.
The Indoor Football League (IFL) season is set to start on March 12, 2022, with the first Shock game slated for March 18.
On Feb. 14, Adams still had not signed an official contract with the PFD to play home games for the 2022 season at the Spokane Arena. KREM 2 spoke with PFD CEO Stephanie Curran following this discovery, and she said this situation is unusual.
“It concerns us,” Curran told KREM 2. “Are we going to have a season or are we not?”
At that time, Adams still had not provided the $128,000 security bond to the PFD, which Curran said is essentially proof of collateral to cover rent costs at the arena through the upcoming season. The security bond is in addition to the $153,000 Adams has already paid to secure the arena for the upcoming season.
Curran told KREM 2 that Adams had a history of paying those expenses late in 2021; therefore, the PFD required payment from him upfront.
“[PFD] sent him his contract in November [2021] and then the payment was due Dec. 31. And he missed that deadline,” Curran said. “And so we sent him a default letter, and then he gets five days to cure. He wired us money that did not clear the bank. Then we sent him a second default letter that he then sent us a check [for], but he told us to hold the check."
Curran said she explained to Adams that the PFD cannot hold the check and that the money needs to be in the bank.
"I'm a steward of public funds. I can't extend credit like a private business could, so everything has to be upfront," she explained. "He missed that deadline. And so we terminated his agreement.”
After KREM 2 aired our initial investigation on Feb. 14, Adams did sign a contract with the PFD on Feb. 15 but did not provide the security bond. Because of his failure to pay, the PFD issued a default letter, giving Adams five business days to issue the security bond.
KREM 2 also spoke with Todd Tyron, the commissioner of the IFL, who said it is “unprecedented” to be this late in the season and not have a lease in place. Tyron also said the IFL has opened its own investigation into the Spokane Shock and Adams based on KREM 2’s investigation.
In a statement, Tryon said:
"Spokane, Washington is an outstanding city and market for indoor football and the Shock have a special history. As we continue to sort through the details of this situation, our league's expectations are professionalism at all levels of an organization. We will have no more comments until our investigation is complete."