Michael Vick is a doggone party pooper, says a South Florida promoter, who claims the NFL star left him in the lurch for a Memorial Day bash in Hallandale Beach.
The Philadelphia Eagles quarterback was supposed to have hosted a May 28 party at the Gulfstream Park Racing and Casino for $10,000 plus travel expenses, but ended up being a no-show.
"I don't know what to do," party promoter Darnell Aponte told the Sun-Sentinel. "This was my first full-blown event."
Aponte says he's out a good $20,000 between Vick's costs and advertising, not to mention all the people who left the party at Mi6 at the early hour of 2 a.m., nearly unheard of in South Florida.
"For me to lose $20,000 hurts," Aponte said. "This is like near catastrophic."
When Vick had been announced as the host of the party last month, it drew the ire of local animal rights groups, who showed up to protest.
Waving signs and wearing protest shirts, the animal rights folks, about 20, descended on the outside of the club.
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Vick, 29, spent 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to charges related to running a dog fighting ring in 2007.
Little did the protesters know, Vick was lost in transit. It appears bad weather delayed his flight, or canceled it, if you believe his booking agent.
"We did everything we could to get him there," agent Fred Grant told the Sun-Sentinel. "We're not trying to be shady or stiff anybody."
The first flight, from Newport News, Va., to Charlotte, N.C., was delayed two hours, and Vick missed his connection to Fort Lauderdale. It's unknown whether he was on that flight, because he might have been able to catch a second connecting flight to South Florida.
Aponte doesn't think Vick did enough to get here.
"The flight was not canceled, he breached the contract," he said, adding that when he called Vick that night, he didn't sound to worried about it. "He wasn't apologetic at all, he had a really poor attitude: 'I missed my flight, what the heck do you want me to do about it?'".
Aponte's guest list may have been a bit too ambitious. Also invited were rapper 50 Cent, boxer Floyd Mayweather and the Philadelphia 76ers' Allen Iverson, all no-shows.
Grant said that if another appearance can't be agreed on, Vick will refund the money.
