Brookfield Indoor is #2

By: Matt Drago
CheeseAthletics Staff
07/12/2008
Brookfield Indoor Will Always be #2
Poorly ran companies are all over the Milwaukee area. You can see them in downtown Waukesha, on the East side of Milwaukee, even at the corporate head quarters of some of the large area banks. The one company that I view as almost laughable is Brookfield Indoor Soccer (BIS).
Normally when a company has short comings it starts at the top. This company is no different.

At some of the most prime times for soccer to be played there are empty fields. When a referee doesn't show up, or is never actually scheduled, they pull an employee out of the concession stands to be the referee. Not only is the employee not a certified referee, they aren't even wearing basic referee attire. The attire of choice seems to be a solid colored T-shirt and jeans. Generally what happens is they will come down, use the whistle that was left from games before, stumble over the scorer's table and proceed to strike up conversation with whichever team will talk the most.

I can understand not having certified referees; I can even understand using an employee on short notice to fill a game. What I cannot understand is why BIS seems so content with nearly every game getting out of control before cards (cautions) are issued?

It's not as though they have a monopoly on the market. What they do have is an influx of all the talented teams taking the extra 20 minutes to drive to Uihlein Soccer Park. I have been playing for the CheeseAthletics indoor team for two 2008 winter sessions. Most of the games we participated in were blow outs in our favor, there were usually two other teams posting the same kind of numbers. The good games would be when we actually played one of the other two quality teams. Unfortunately for us, we had to put up with getting our ankles swiped and shins scrapped for the other 6 weeks. It's a good thing we continually had 2 week breaks between games so we could heal and be ready to get injured during the next game.

The great part about BIS, is that it looks after family. By family I mean anyone that is related to an employee or owner. I recall watching an indoor game in which David Peplinski (brother of the General Manager, Dan Peplinski) received 5 blue cards in a Co-ed game. Blue cards are almost exactly like a penalty box in hockey. They are issued for flagrant fouls and the player is removed from play for 2 minutes, while their team is forced to play short one player. I wish I could say the fouls were only hard tackles or maybe getting too lippy towards one of the employees, I'm sorry; referee, but they weren't. The fouls were reckless tackles from behind in which one player was bleeding from above his eye.
Another foul was a blatant elbow to another player's face, the punishment the employee issued was a blue card for the elbow and a blue card for the other team's player for getting elbowed in the face. The best part about Peplinski's team? They were all BIS employees! One of the actual referees in the building told me that they are the hardest team to keep under control due to all of the fouling and back talk. Great example BIS, I would love to see your sportsmanship in a men's league.

If it's not total disregard to the games that are actually going on, it is disregard to the games that they miss-schedule. In two separate games that I know of, BIS had the teams showing up at one time on the website and another time on the schedule. Needless to say the employee/referee had the early time and both teams had the late time. It's bad enough we have to play these games at 11:00pm, is it too much to ask that BIS be prepared for us? Despite the official not showing up we played the game anyway. Afterwards players from both teams were laughing about this being the best officiated game either side had ever played at BIS.

Brookfield is losing business in mass. I haven't seen a legitimate men's club play at Brookfield in two years. They have all gone to Uihlein which is not as good of a facility. Uihlein does it right, they are an indoor complex ran by one of the more professional soccer clubs in the area, the Milwaukee Kickers. You would be hard pressed to see a game get out of hand from the two licensed officials on each field. The officials pay attention and more importantly are flat out great referees. When I asked one official if he ever refereed at BIS, he just laughed and said that he "would rather not get crucified and am more than happy with the Kickers." Strong statement from a referee that has been reffing for more than a decade at all levels including college.

One thing Brookfield does have going for them is that they are closer to Waukesha, Brookfield, Sussex and the Lake Country area. These are teams that have good to very good youth programs and BIS is simply closer. Once the kids in those clubs grow older, they slowly migrate to Uihlein where their ankles are safe and the competition is high.

Very nice article! We need somemore to read around here. Get on that boss man

Well written Matt, but some sarcasm has a hard time without tone inflection.

Even with the poor referee situation, I don't think I would be willing to drive the extra 20-30 minutes to go to Euline, even though I do like the two referee system. That's probably something to do with living in Lake Mills. I think the BISC could use two certified referee's(Any certification, WIAA, FIFA). The certification is as much for our protection as it is the BISC's. There is simply to much that one referee cannot see, and to ask one referee to cover 1-4 games at 50 minutes a piece is a bit extreme.

Another issue I have with BISC is scheduling. To add onto the "unscheduled" game (that was posted), that we played without referee's is the issue of multiple bye weeks and empty fields. BISC's scheduling has to be some of the most incompetent that I've ever seen. In a league with 10+teams, there should never be more than 1 bye week, and there should never really be empty fields. People are paying to play! Let them.

I'd also like to note that Dan Pep's little brother is a dousch.
-Chris

that was a good read. I have only played there a few times but they have all been rather forgetable. I don't know what the issue is but the atmosphere is much different in Brookfield than in Euhlein. It seems like all the teams play their game and try and get out as quickly as possible, no one ever stays for a beer. You'd think if you had a liquor license you would want to use it.

thanks guys, there are a few things i should have gotten in there, like what chris said about all the bye weeks and things of that nature. I am curious who the owner is because if he lets this continue i could see them getting bought out for cheap.

You should be able to find out who the owner is by just calling Brookfield. I'm not sure what you have in mind to talk to him about but I'm sure it will be very exciting for both of you.

Anyway, that's what I would do, good luck with that.

i spoke with a lady that used to work there, she said she would only get his number by calling BISC. Not sure how that would go over..."hey dan, can i get the owner's name and number?"

as with most businesses like this, money does the talking. Hopefully people will see that there is a better product out there, and then when people start leaving, then maybe they will start running a better business.

Brookfield's day is coming. The foot traffic is substantially less than at Uhlein. They have to know they are being outdone as a business model, in all facets of the word.

I got an email the other day from Mobley that he passed on from Dan Peplinski saying that he was looking to fill 5 positions at Brookfield Indoor. Maybe Peplinski is coming to the realization that he needs better workers....but probably not. He probably just wants to get new employees so that he can pay them dirt cheap.

Dwight Schrute wrote:I got an email the other day from Mobley that he passed on from Dan Peplinski saying that he was looking to fill 5 positions at Brookfield Indoor. Maybe Peplinski is coming to the realization that he needs better workers....but probably not. He probably just wants to get new employees so that he can pay them dirt cheap.

Dan and I have gotten along recently, wasn't always that way in school but I don't fully understand what he's going for at Brookfield. I would never assume that company would fail but putting up with that kind of mediocrity would drive me nuts.

It's making money... it really depends on your standards. I don't think I've seen Dan at any of the late games so perhaps he doesn't have an idea of how frustrated people are.

And when was the last time he was at Euline to compare?