Dardano’s
Shark Tank Swims Into Rugbytown
Ben Todd’s Business Pitch Scores
by Kirsten Kreiling
Benjamin Todd — a 5-ft., 11-inch, 210 lb. flanker for the Glendale Raptors rugby team — has scored on his first try. Not in a rugby game where grounding the ball in the in-goal area is known as a try, but rather when ABC TV’s hit reality show Shark Tank held a casting call at Infinity Park May 30.
More than 200 entrepreneur hopefuls came to Infinity Park to give their pitch at the site where the rugby playing field is also known as a pitch. To score in this competition contestants were given only 60-seconds to try for a winning pitch to producers. The show that was renewed for a fifth season in 2013 features business pitches from aspiring entrepreneurs to a panel of six multimillionaire “sharks.” The sixth season will start this September.
For an infusion of cash in exchange for a stake in their business, contestants face long odds and multiple screenings to present their business concepts. Nevertheless, a few days after his first attempt at goal, Todd received an
email divulging that he had scampered past 180 others and had made it to the second round. “I am so excited. I had to submit a 5-10 minute video to them by June 13. If the producers of the show like it, I’ll be invited to come and pitch to the Sharks for real,” he tells the Chronicle.
Sharp Shark Skills
“I’ve been watching Shark Tank since 2008. I remember the first time I saw it, I immediately knew that I wanted to pitch ideas to investors. I usually come up with about three new business ideas per week. I’ve had 27 jobs throughout my life,” Todd admits. One of my college mentors often said entrepreneurs have trouble working for other people because they keep coming up with better ways to do things, he recalls, “Some call it being a control freak, some call it marching to the beat of your own drum. I like to call myself terminally entrepreneurial.”
Todd jumped at the chance to participate in pitching his idea to the Shark Tank associate producers, taking the whole day off from work. He even brought donuts to the field for contestants that had arrived earlier than he did. “I was pumped and ready to go. I arrived at 7:30 a.m. and was nervous all morning, practicing my pitch-points. Then the producer came out and told everyone they would only get 60 seconds to give their pitch. We all freaked out. It was time to really hone in on what was important about our ideas.”
His winning pitch is for a business he has started calling Mobile Menu. It’s an iPhone app (Android as well) that allows the user to browse a restaurant’s menu visually with a full-screen professional photo of every single menu item. “It’s been well-received over the last four years,” he reveals. But, he adds, “I’ve decided it’s time to scale the business up and grow exponentially instead of one spot at a time.”
Mix Of Shark Bait
Start-up business contestants at the Infinity Park casting call — one of three locations selected for the nationwide search — presented a full gamut of products, including a disposable cardboard device that women can use to stand up and urinate, to a multi-temperature “barbecue booster,” and a cheerleader-training device. A Colorado Springs couple auditioned for their SALUS Natural Body Care, a business that has opened its first store in Manitou Springs. One enterprising entrepreneur even camped out at Infinity Park selling umbrellas for $20 each to the crowd, many who came unprepared for the light showers that fell in the morning.
“We were delighted to be asked to host the casting call for Shark Tank and looked at it as a wonderful opportunity to show off the Infinity Park campus,” says Infinity Park Event Center General Manager Bobbi Reed. “The ABC casting crew was wowed by the Event Center’s ballroom production technology and loved the Shark Tank logos that were ‘swimming’ around the ballroom.” She adds that the Stadium was the perfect site to stage the applicants as they waited to be called to the tank for their presentation.
Business owners who have appeared on the show say the exposure is invaluable, even without a shark’s offer to invest. Meg and Matt Meyer, owners of The Bear & The Rat in Denver, came away empty after appearing on Shark Tank in 2012. But when the episode about their business selling cool treats for dogs (an alternative to ice cream) aired for the third time in repeats, it caught the attention of some dog-loving investors in New York. After negotiations, the investors put $130,000 into the business to be used for salaries, marketing and distribution of the frozen goodies. “We doubled our sales last year, and I’m anticipating we will at least quadruple this year,” reports Meg Meyer. “The exposure is huge. Every time the episode airs, it’s in front of six to eight million people, which is pretty awesome.”
Rugby 7s Global Popularity Reaches U.S., Glendale
by Michael Husson
Writer for and on behalf of the City of Glendale
Rugby 7s, the quicker variation of traditional 15-a-side rugby union, is on the fast track to popularity in the United States. Long enjoyed by the rest of the world, 24 nations compete annually in tournaments in nine countries in the HSBC Sevens World Series. The USA Sevens tournament in Las Vegas has grown to be the largest rugby event in North America, drawing more than 60,000 fans over three days in February. The debut of rugby 7s at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro should serve as the tipping point for the sport stateside.
Back in Glendale, Raptors Head Coach Andre Snyman, himself a former 7s star for his native South Africa’s national team, has already moved on from Glendale’s stinging one-point loss in the Pacific Rugby Premiership (the top U.S. rugby 15s competition) final in May, and is looking forward to the Raptors 7s summer tournament season. “We’re already practicing with the focus of finishing strong at all three qualifiers,” says Snyman. Glendale will compete regionally at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City on June 21, in Kansas City, Mo. on July 12, and in Omaha, Neb. on July 26. The top two clubs will move on to the national Men’s Club 7s Championship tournament Aug. 9 and 10, site to be determined.
Snyman joined the Glendale staff in 2011 in time to coach the 7s squad and has since assumed head coaching duties of the 15s side (PRP), in addition to a recent appointment as the USA Men’s Eagles Sevens defense coach.
7s rugby is played seven-a-side on the same size field as 15s (approximately 100 meters — or 109 yards — from goal-line to goal-line) in seven-minute halves (one-minute halftimes). Snyman knows, “You need to be very fit, fast and skilled. If you’re lacking any skill on offense or defense, you’ll stand out and the other team will take advantage of that.” The Raptors may play up to six matches in each regional qualifying tournament, making for a dramatic day of stops and starts, 15-minute bursts of energy followed by short periods of recovery.
Last year, the Raptors went into the third regional qualifier needing to come out on top to advance to the national championships in Pittsburgh. They ran off five straight wins, including three versus clubs who had beaten Glendale earlier in the season. The final was against crosstown rival the Denver Barbarians, also needing the win to advance. The Barbos squeaked by on a late try, 14-17, ending the Raptors’ club season but not their 7s summer.
Glendale has hosted August’s annual Serevi RugbyTown Sevens international invitational tournament since 2012, and the Raptors have fielded a team each year. In 2013, the Raptors went 2-1 in pool play, and beat the Northeast Rugby Union and French Armed Forces to advance to the Cup Final, but fell to the USA All-Americans collegiate all-star squad. It was, however, the top finish for a club team in SRS history and a jumping-off point for this season.
The 2014 Serevi RugbyTown Sevens, Aug. 15-17, promises to be the best yet. Seventeen teams from eight countries will be competing for the winner-take-all $10,000 purse, including four national teams looking to break onto rugby’s big stage. All five U.S. military branches will participate again, as will the 2012 champion USA Falcons, made up from the USA Men’s Eagles player pool, and the aforementioned USA All-Americans.
The Saturday beerfest will take place again this year. “Bruises and Brews” will feature unlimited tastings from 15 craft breweries (mostly local) and three Colorado distilleries, all adjacent to the rugby action for a perfect view with your perfect pour. This year, attendees may purchase larger pours in order to explore the stadium and enjoy the live music up close.
Friday will conclude Serevi’s youth camp in the morning and lead in to the tournament’s kickoff and a Friday Afternoon Club with discounted admission before 3 p.m.
Sunday debuts “A Taste of Glendale,” where more than 10 local eateries will offer meals priced at $5 or less. Diners will be able to enjoy the tournament’s playoffs from the Festival Plaza overlooking the rugby pitch.
In addition to the cash prize, the Serevi RugbyTown Sevens champion will receive an automatic bid to the 2014 Bayleys Fiji Coral Coast Sevens, in the homeland of Serevi founder and rugby legend Waisale Serevi, the “King of 7s.”
Rugby 7s, a variation of the game invented more than 100 years ago, appears tailor-made for the modern sports fan’s tastes. From New Zealand to Hong Kong, the newest Olympic sport has never been hotter, and Glendale and the entire Denver metro area are in for a treat this summer as the Raptors pursue a national championship, and national recognition in the three-day celebration known as the Serevi RugbyTown Sevens.
Federal Judge Kane Goes After Denver Government
Calls City’s Actions A ‘Sham, Disgraceful’
Will A Federal Investigation Reach Up Into The City Attorney’s Office?
In Courtroom A802 in the Alfred A. Arraj Federal Courthouse an amazing battle is taking place in which longtime federal district court judge John L. Kane is taking on large portions of the government of the City and County of Denver. His actions make it abundantly clear that he believes that the Denver’s Sheriff’s Office is corrupt along with the Internal Affairs Bureau of the Police Department. He also appears to believe little that is told to him by the City Attorney’s Office of Scott Martinez and he clearly plans to do something about it.
The case before Judge Kane was brought by Jamal Hunter, a former inmate in the city jail against the city and two sheriff’s deputies he claims brutalized him and incited other inmates to beat and torture him. Hunter was in the city jail on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge when he was placed in a pod with a group of gang members from the Bloods organization. They decided that he must be a snitch and with the help of a shockingly corrupt sheriff’s deputy, Gaynel Rumer, they decided to viciously retaliate against him by beating and scalding his genitals with hot water. Hunter brought suit against the city and taped interviews by Hunter’s attorneys brought shocking, additional allegations against Sheriff’s Deputy Gaynel Rumer who it was alleged to be drunk on the job and helped gang members run a black market involving drugs and porn at the jail.
In response, the Denver Police internal affairs started an investigation ostensibly about the deputy’s misconduct although it is unclear why the Sheriff’s Department’s own internal investigation unit was not used. The tapes of the interviews of witnesses eventually made public appear to show that the police investigators were attempting to silence and intimidate the witnesses from testifying in the civil case and not to investigate wrongdoing by the deputies.
The City Attorney’s office and private attorneys hired by t
he city fought furiously to keep the jailhouse tapes and the taped interviews by Denver internal affairs officers from going public. Legal experts indicated that Denver’s legal pleadings to the court on the matter verged on the incoherent. The city also sought to go on a public relations gambit relating to the actions of its employees.
Police Chief Robert White told Channel 31 KDVR prior to any tapes being made public that “I feel very comfortable in saying I don’t think that there’s any improprieties on the part of our investigators as it relates to this particular incident.” It was widely assumed that he could only make such a statement from reviewing the tapes which were readily available to him for months. The statement would appear to imply, if not outright declare, that witness intimidation and witness tampering are a regular part of the pattern and practices of the Denver Police Department. His statement may in the end cost Denver large monetary judgments in the Hunter case and cases to come in the future.
Judge Kane swiftly brushed aside the legal arguments by Denver against public disclosure and quickly ordered the release to the public the tapes and other evidence. Judge Kane was evidently shocked by what he heard on the investigators’ tapes. He called the city’s investigation a “sham” and the police officers’ conduct “egregious.” He declared: “The recording and the transcript of it show a deliberate process of intimidation. …”
He strongly requested that U.S. Attorney for Colorado John Walsh start “an investigation of the pattern and practice of the Denver Police Department and the Denver Sheriff’s Office.” He noted that whether Walsh does so is not “entirely within his discretion” and he would require Walsh to appear before him in public on his decision.
He also took the extraordinary step of ordering all of the city’s depositions of inmates and former inmates to be taken in his courtroom which he would attend, to be sure the city did not again attempt to intimidate or tamper with witnesses.
Kane has had run-ins with the Denver City Attorney’s Office before as he noted “the measures I take to put a stop to this are certainly influenced by previous conduct of the City and County in other cases.”
In 2011 the City Attorney’s Office repeatedly claimed it was unable to provide excessive force complaints against the Denver Police Department pursuant to discovery requests. The city settled one case for $225,000 rather than produce all the records after Kane threatened to fine the city $5,000 a day. Another excessive force lawsuit was brought by a different plaintiff and the City Attorney’s office obstruction continued. In this subsequent case Judge Kane threatened to send federal marshals over to the Internal Affairs Bureau to seize all of its files on excessive force complaints. That case was also settled for purportedly a large sum.
Lawyers from the City Attorney’s Office are reportedly fearful of appearing before Judge Kane with arguments that are to many observers at best specious. The City Attorney’s Office now hires outside attorneys in cases before Kane at an enormous cost to the city based on dubious assertions of conflict of interest.
What is next? Many feel the city will now attempt to settle the Hunter case at almost any cost. It is said that both the City Attorney’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office fear the United States Attorney will look into their lawyers’ conduct in the Hunter case. Both offices were well aware of the criminal conduct of both the Sheriff’s Deputies and Denver police officers yet did nothing and repeatedly refused to bring charges against anyone or take any action whatsoever. Many believe that the corruption at the law enforcement agencies in Denver will never end until the city attorneys are investigated and brought to justice.
While the nexus of corruption may lie at the City Attorney’s Office most believe a whitewash will occur. They point to the 1960s “Robbers in Blue” scandal where over 50 Denver officers were convicted and incarcerated for robbing stores throughout Denver. Not a single ranking officer was brought to justice nor was the City Attorney’s role ever disclosed or even brought up. Historian David Johnson stated: “All the higher ups were protected which is what will likely occur once again and the corruption will continue on unabated.” Other observers note that the plaintiff’s attorneys firm, Rathod, Mohamedbhai, LLC, must negotiate with the City Attorney’s Office for settlements so they make sure that they treat those lawyers with kid gloves.
Jeri Jones, a local historian, declared that: “This is ‘High Noon’ meets ‘Shawshank Redemption.’ In High Noon, Sheriff Kane had to face the bad guys alone as the mayor and town officials leave town. That brings to mind if anybody has seen Mayor Hancock anywhere or making any input on the corruption of his Police and Sheriff’s Departments. In Shawshank Redemption the corrupt jailers beat and allowed prisoners to be tortured just like the Hunter case. Hopefully Judge Kane will bring to justice the many bad guys in this case including the higher ups.”
Judge Kane finished the June 6 hearing with a stirring declaration:
“All I want from them [the inmates and former inmates] is the truth. And I realize that many of them do not trust this institution any more than they do the others, but the fact of the matter is, is that this Court has done nothing to deserve the trust that they should have in it. So if they’ve got any place at all to be, this is it.”
