ABC7 Investigation: Midwest Wings Soccer Club Recovers $11K from Closed Ho-Chunk Southland Center in Lynwood, IL

CHICAGO (WLS) — Coach Bill Dekker is the director of the Midwest Wings Soccer Club.

“So, we are now fighting to try to get your money back,” Dekker said.

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With the help of the Pullman Community Center, the kids are kicking the balls again after their former sports center shut down in January.

“With no notice or anything, they just close the doors,” Dekker said.

Dekker mentioned the need to delay tournaments scheduled shortly after the Ho-Chunk Southland Center’s closure, where they had been organizing events for over two decades. According to him, this situation triggered a conflict that extended beyond the sports field.

“We’re out $13,000. And I’m still hopeful that we can work that out because at some point, reasonable people are going to prevail,” Dekker said.

Dekker says the Southland Center owed the league $12,742, much of it for time unused on the field.

“We paid for time we didn’t use yet, not anticipating whatsoever that they would just pull the rug out from underneath us,” Dekker said.

He says the money is needed to keep the ball rolling.

“We collect these fees from these parents and the teams that play in our league. And they trust us to do what we say we’re going to do,” Dekker said.

Following exchanges of inquiries and emails, during which Dekker detailed the outstanding payments, the legal representatives of the facility eventually agreed to initiate a refund process. Initially, an offer of $4,200 was put forward, which Dekker declined.

Consequently, ABC7 analyzed the documentation provided by Dekker and forwarded it to the Southland Center. In response, the facility informed the I-Team that they were actively engaged in identifying and reimbursing owed amounts in a transparent and equitable manner, emphasizing their dedication to a fair resolution process.

Southland says Dekker “received a request for necessary information at the same time as everyone else but did not provide the requested details for over a month.” The center saying it had to “follow up multiple times on missing information.”

Dekker disputes that.

“So, I gave them a sheet that said, this is exactly what we’ve used so far in our contract and here’s what we paid,” Dekker said.

Days after sending ABC7 a statement, Southland told Dekker they would change the refund amount. In an email, an attorney offered more, but still disputed Dekker’s $12,742 figure. The attorney said, “I calculate that you paid $11,242.50 for reservations that you could not use because of the facility closure.”

“And we were able to come up to a fair settlement because of your involvement,” Dekker told ABC7’s Jason Knowles.

Dekker shared a refund release showing he will be getting a check for $11,242.

“I think they looked at it harder when, you know, the I- Team was involved in taking a look at it, and I think they realized that it was an honest evaluation of what they owed us. And they, you know, they were able to look at the numbers, probably, better, and more objectively,” Dekker said.

Dekker says that extra money he was seeking was for money he collected from parents to pay for uniforms and coaches for a different a program which he was unable to be finished because of the closure.

The facility says that did not count for time not used on the field.

The coach says he is happy with the outcome, but that there were additional costs when the facility closed, like money spent on marketing events, which had to be canceled.