Albuquerque’s newest professional sports franchise held their inaugural home game last weekend. Suffice to say it is now the most publicized opener any local team has ever had. Do you remember the Isotopes first game? The Slam? Scorpions? Of course you don’t. If the old saying that “no publicity is bad publicity” is true, the Duke City Gladiators got one heck of a bang for their buck. A bench clearing brawl in what ended up being an exhibition game against a team made up of “Mexico All-Stars” ended the game before halftime. No second half. The announced crowd of 800-or-so fans went home. At least they saw something they will never forget. I want the Gladiators to succeed. Things that work and are successful here are good for all of us. The Gladiators claim that the other team and the refs were to blame for not playing a second half. They said that “football is emotional, and these things happen.” That these are “modern day gladiators going to war…”, and these things happen. These things don’t happen; at least they shouldn’t The Gladiators, I believe, should apologize for the mess, say this is not acceptable and will never happen again. Offer the fans who were there a free ticket to the next game and put on a great show. The Gladiators got so much publicity from this…. people know they are there who would not have known otherwise. Now they have a chance to turn a negative into a positive and I hope they do so. They have something very few others get; they have a second chance to make a first impression and I wish them luck.
