Agreed.
Many many pages ago, a few of us started commenting with a certain amount of ironic humor about the terms “BATNA” “WATNA” and “ZOPA”
I thinking you were in on those posts :winkgrin:
I also mentioned the “Walk Away”
I’m bringing it back up again, but will drop sarcastic humor, and advise everyone that didn’t bother to look these terms up on Google, or… who doesn’t already know what they refer to because you have a legal or professional occupation and/or experience, and have been involved in negotiations at one pint or another, and learned about negotiation tactics and strategy…
They refer to
“Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement”
”Worst Alternative To Negotiated Agreement”
”Zone Of Possible Agreement”
and
Walking Away from negotiating altogether.
So if we apply these terms to this situation…
- There were two general sides when it came to the issue of the name “Plantation Field” and if or when the name should be changed to any extent.
*We will leave the “why” of the whole matter alone. For both sides.
-
One side (EN, and possibly some folks with USEF and USEA) approached the other side (PFEE ), and voiced their opinion. The other side said, “We don’t agree with your opinion.”
-
At this point, both parties COULD have tried to commence negotiating, to see if they could find common ground. But the fact is, as has widely been reported, that neither USEF nor USEA has an administrative means of FORCING PFEE to change the name of this licensed competition as of summer and fall of 2020. Nor did EN actually have a means of forcing it. And obviously, Mr. Walker was the sole owner of the property, and he and Mr. Glaccum (who is President of PFEE) had chosen the name “Plantation Field” 20 years earlier.
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Some sort of communication by and between EN, USEF, USEA, PFEE and Mr. Walker swirled around from late June of 2020 up until early September of 2020. No agreements were reached and everyone involved began to get upset.
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By late August of 2020, as was reported on September 17th in the COTH article on this topic, Boyd Martin informed multiple parties that if they continued to push for a name change, they were at great risk of ending up with a result that he considered a WATNA… specifically… they were at grave risk of offending and upsetting the property owner to such a degree, that he would indeed exercise his option of assuming a “Walk Away” position with respect to not only the discussion about the name of the venue, but with respect to the eventing community in general, and the lease that PFEE needed in order to hold USEF licensed competitions on Mr. Walker’s property might be revoked, and Mr. Walker might decide to withdraw his support of USEA eventing altogether.
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John Thier responded to Boyd Martin that he was of the opinion that if this was the outcome, and Mr. Walker exercised his option to “Walk Away,” it actually wasn’t a WATNA. John Thier apparently felt that not achieving a name change of this venue with only about 3 weeks to go until the scheduled competition date was the actual WATNA. And if others disagreed on the necessity of negotiating a name change or anything else with only three weeks to go until Plantation Field International 2020 competition, and were offended, and decided to quit supporting the USEA, and terminate the lease… that was a preferable to John Thier and the others involved, than the option Mr. Thier a d others had to just BE QUIET for the next few weeks, let tensions die down, and allow PFEE and those directly involved as organizers and participants focus on…
wait for it…
actually holding or participating in Plantation Field International in three weeks.
THINK ABOUT THAT FOLKS.
Sidenote Mr. Walker is one of the owners who supports Boyd. I can’t remember the specific horse. Maybe someone else can jump in. Did that horse compete? I would imagine it did. How did Boyd and the horse finish? Oh well. At least the actual horse wasn’t distracted and upset by the name of the competition. :rolleyes: And yes… that’s very snarky. But in some respects this whole thing is so remarkable, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone tried to make an argument that horses actually care about the names of different competitions at this point.***
- On September 13th, for some reason, Rob Burk (the CEO of USEA) sent a letter to EN (presumably it went to Leslie Wiley and John Thier) informing them that the USEA would remove the word “plantation” from all its media and marketing materials going forward, and Rob Burk would reach out to all key “stakeholders” and inform them as well.
At this point, I’m going to insert my opinion on this very specific component of the whole string of events. I think this amounted to Rob Burk and USEA DESPERATELY trying to find a BATNA with EN. But the fact of the matter is that Rob and USEA had already been informed, just like everyone else involved in this mess, that if they kept on pushing this issue at this time this way, they were at grave risk of achieving not a “BATNA” but a “WATNA.” Because Mr. Walker could always simply “walk away.“
Soooo… with respect to the September 14th decision on the part of Mr. Walker to take the “walk away” position to this whole thing? Well… I will state my opinion that it is clearly the fault of other parties involved in this mess that this was the outcome. The only public information I can point to is that response from John Thier in late August to Boyd’s warning, and that September 13th letter authored and signed by Rob Burk, that was then sent to John Thier, essentially OFFERING him a ZOPA.
The ZOPA should never have been offered to John Thier without first checking with PFEE and Mr. Walker to ensure they were not offended by this option. Obviously, folks at the USEA and Rob Burk went to EN first though with this “solution” and then attempted to tell key stakeholders involved with PFEE about it second. And that indicates that folks at USEA were more concerned with satisfying the folks at EN, than with showing respect for the clear feelings and concerns of those involved directly with organizing and holding Plantation Field International in less than 4 days. And it also indicates that Rob Burk and the USEA were willing to risk upsetting a major sponsor and property owner who had supported the USEA over the better part of 20 years, in order to satisfy the publisher of a very popular social media platform directly tied to the sport.
In her interview with Major League Eventing in August of 2020, (listen to the linked podcast that Jealoushe posted) Leslie Wiley describes John Thier as the “Zuckerberg” of social media when it comes to the sport of eventing. I know nothing about John Thier’s net worth, nor do I know about the true worth and reach of Eventing Nation as a SoMe platform to the sport.
But I do know that you need wealthy sponsors and land owners in places like Unionville PA for eventing to even just survive as a sport. And USEA miscalculated in a GRAVE manner on this issue on a purely strategic and business level.
If anyone wishes to disagree with my analysis… or add on to it… I’m curious and all ears. 
I tried to consciously skip talking about politics, racial sensitivity, etc etc, in this post. And just focus on the known facts of what happened, and technical terms with respect to negotiating tactics, and the actual positions and leverage various parties held on this issue, and the timing of it all.
And it seems fair to say to the folks that STILL feel as though there should have been some sort of negotiation and agreement reached by all parties involved so that the venue wasn’t lost but the name was modified… eventually…
you guys should be asking WHY John said what he said to Boyd in late August, and why Rob Burk and USEA sent that letter on September 13. Both of those things are important puzzle pieces… even if you believe the name should have been changed. If everyone had gone quiet from late August until now, then keeping the venue but changing the name for the whole 2021 season might still be an option. Negotiations and discussions might still be an option.
That’s just my take on it.
