Hey SHL,

Since yesterday, we've been chatting and looking into the NEW Suspension. We wanted to give this a bit of time and get a statement out. With the help of the owners, because it would be weird for HO to punish it self, we have decided on the following.

GoonerBear, who approved the 2nd trade will be fined half his HO pay, $1,500,000.

Head Office is reviewing all systems, in light of this.

Please see the message from the Owners.

"Following the earlier announcement of Ace’s removal as GM of the New England Wolfpack, several members had questions about the accountability of the Head Office and the accuracy of their work in the trade approval process. As SDCore stated in that announcement, the Owners had already begun discussing potential consequences for the Head Office in erroneously approving the trade between New England and San Francisco in which Ace traded the S57 NEW 2nd Round Pick which he did not own.

As a result of being the HO Member who approved the trade, league ownership has found it necessary to fine @”GoonerBear” half of his Head Office salary – a total of $1,500,000.

Gooner is and continues to be a valued member of Head Office. While I am certain the entire HO team would share in the responsibility for this error, this punishment made the most sense, and is in line with previous punishments levied for the same mistake before the pick tracker was brought in-house. With that said, this situation doubtlessly serves as a reminder of the importance for thoroughness in the approval process.

Several members voiced concerns that with Head Office being responsible for approving trades, the firing of Ace was unjust because HO offers this assurance before trades are made official. Let me be clear on this: Ace was on probation, after already previously being removed from his post, due to making this same mistake twice in the past. Ace’s probation meant that any mistake for the length of probation would result in his removal.
There seems to be a disconnect where some members categorize this as an HO mistake alone, and not a GM mistake. This is not the view of the league. General managers who trade a pick that they do not own face punishment from the league whether or not the trade is approved. That means that if HO had caught this before the trade was made public, Ace would still have been removed as GM of the New England Wolfpack. GMs continue to be the ones most responsible for tracking their own picks.

Lastly, I would like to address questions asked in the other announcement thread about how this mistake could be made, how it “continues to happen,” and why Head Office doesn’t shoulder all of the blame. This will hopefully also clarify why there is reason for optimism that the system will work better with fewer mistakes moving forward.

This mistake was a result of the migration from the previous pick tracker to the new, HO-managed one. The initial trade in this case was made under the old system, and the S57 NEW 2nd in question was never removed from New England’s list when they initially traded it. When HO took over and migrated to a new tracker, there was an effort to spot duplicates in the list and correct them. Head Office asked the GMs of each team for help in spotting and correcting such duplicates, which many did. Ace was not one of them. As a result of a shared failure to spot that on the part of Ace and the HO, the error migrated over to the new spreadsheet as well.
This mistake was a result of one that already existed under the old pick tracker – one that has been corrected, and has already led to the spotting and correction of several other duplicates. This gives us hope that the new system will continue to work more efficiently, though we have obviously experienced a growing pain with it initially.

As stated in several replies in the previous thread: it has always been and continues to be the ultimate responsibility of GMs to track their picks and verify that they own any that they trade. The approval process serves to catch these mistakes before the trades themselves are made public and the assets involved switch hands, but does not remove that ultimate responsibility from GMs.

I hope this announcement serves to illustrate a few key things. First, that the HO is not blameless or avoiding any accountability for this mistake, and that the HO and Ownership share the concerns the league has when such a mistake is made. Second, that the approval process and pick tracker are not guarantees to GMs – who are responsible for tracking their own picks – and they do not serve as an absorption of the GM’s liability on the part of Head Office when a mistake is discovered. Thirdly, a clarification of how this mistake occurred and reason for optimism that HO can avoid that mistake moving forward.

Thank you."