IFA, USA, USSSA in Kansas

[marriard]

1. this isnt Florida, we dont have have anywhere close to the number of people/teams to even compare. If I felt the market here could take the change then yes I agree, however people are choosing sides based on regions and who they connected with. If anything I see both USA and IFA folding due to lack of funding allowing UTRIP to take over completely.

Would you believe they said the same thing in Florida. That there wasn't room for PGF and that USA/ASA had a stranglehold on the top teams and they would never go away from USA/ASA. Took less than 18 months before PGF was dominant. Same with our travel league - the other league had 'all the teams' and there wasn't enough for a rival league... 3 leagues later and they effectively no longer existed - 5 years in and they gave up.

Having only one choice and lack of competition - especially long term - leads to complacency and drop in customer experience because people have 'no choice'. Change is scary. Someone will come out the winner and with a bit of luck that will benefit everyone but the loser organization.

 

[radness]

1. this isnt Florida, we dont have have anywhere close to the number of people/teams to even compare. If I felt the market here could take the change then yes I agree, however people are choosing sides based on regions and who they connected with. If anything I see both USA and IFA folding due to lack of funding allowing UTRIP to take over completely.

Is 'stay to play' effecting those choices playing in either region?
What is the logistics on the 'stay to play' how many miles out?

 

[_MIA_]

I can't even imagine how hot the fields will be at the Genesis Sports Complex in Goddard KS. No thanks, it's bad in Florida I don't need that extra heat for the players on our team.

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DD's (12U) coach signed them up for a Mother's day tournament at Genesis. Secretly hoping it doesn't make because there is a local tournament here in OK which in all likelihood will have better competition....

 

[SESwildfire]

Is 'stay to play' effecting those choices playing in either region?
What is the logistics on the 'stay to play' how many miles out?

no stay to play is only MSP and Genesis in Kansas..... Seans utrip, IFA, and USA are no stay regulation.

Play MSP has a 60 mile radius for stay to play. Which is crazy. I commute farther to work each day.

 

[SESwildfire]

DD's (12U) coach signed them up for a Mother's day tournament at Genesis. Secretly hoping it doesn't make because there is a local tournament here in OK which in all likelihood will have better competition....

with only one team reg at 14u so far... its anyones call if it makes. For some reason USA ball in Wichita has always had low turn outs. Now the top gun even Memorial at 14U for UTRIP usa elite select is almost full already.

 

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

Oh, and we are doing the Goddard league at the new Genesis complex. It’s going to be a long drive for us and two other girls in different leagues.

DD's team is doing a league this year as well. I assumed TRYC and didnt even realize they were doing on. So we'll see.

 

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

with only one team reg at 14u so far... its anyones call if it makes. For some reason USA ball in Wichita has always had low turn outs. Now the top gun even Memorial at 14U for UTRIP usa elite select is almost full already.

Does Genesis have a 'Who's Coming" list? For mothers Day.

 

[inumpire]

Do we have any other Kansas teams on here?

Because Directors of USA softball in Kansas (not metro areas here) couldnt agree and a power struggle happened last season a new association was born in Kansas. Two of the directors decided to split from USA and form IFA. Softball in Kansas was already pretty divided as is with the central, Northern and West portions of the State playing USA ball and the metro and eastern areas playing Utrip and USA metro. Kansas isnt large enough for three associations and all that will come of this move is now tournaments will be even more diluted team wise and the umpire shortage our state faced now became even worse. We are fortunate that we played both USA and USSSA. However most teams in central Kansas do not do the same and will be forced to make a choice between the two associations in order to play locally. The problem is they both book tournaments the same weekends all summer long and chose to overlap their State level tournaments all to try and push the other out. These tournaments and associations cant survive when their entry counts are halved. There is going to be some money lost this year or tournaments canceled due to low entry numbers.

At this point in the year the past decade most tournaments have numerous teams entered. This year aside from a free tournament USA runs the most teams in any one tournament at any age level is 1 team registered. UTRIP on the other hand still has the normal entries for this time of year. Most teams I have spoken with are waiting to see what happens. Several teams that have reached out to us to get an idea of what we are doing have declared they are avoiding IFA. I know UTRIP is making a push to move more towards Salina, and Hays area and we feel this is a good move. However local rec directors are fighting it since they have an alliance to IFA. By that i mean not allowing UTRIP to host tournaments during the May/June/July time frames. Then they claim no one wants to play UTRIP when all they allow is a March tournament to be hosted by UTRIP.

THe point of this is its a sad time for softball in Kansas when disagreements between money hungry people will cause associations to fold and local area teams will lose the option of playing tournaments they have played in the past several years. We have always traveled to play UTRIP, or KC Metro USA ball and have played quite a few local USA tournaments to round out our schedule. This year aside from two USA tournaments we have decided to play the rest UTRIP and travel every weekend. It makes zero sense to play locally when tournaments in the past with one association choice could only manage 8-12 entries per age division. Add in a second association and multiple tournaments within 30 mins drive each weekend and those counts will only go down. New teams are not forming each year its going the other direction. Something will have to give and those teams that are not willing to drive will fold or be left with local leagues only.

Welcome to the changing world of youth softball, where TD‘s only care about how much money they can make, don’t care about the kids as long as they make $$$$.
It has happened in our area and the level of play usually falls off dramatically. Not always, and not is all areas, but it sure has here........it is all about the MONEY!!!!!

 

[SESwildfire]

Does Genesis have a 'Who's Coming" list? For mothers Day.

TournamentUSA Softball

TournamentASA - Official Tournament Management System of ASA

gfp.tournamentusasoftball.com

 

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

TournamentUSA Softball

TournamentASA - Official Tournament Management System of ASA

gfp.tournamentusasoftball.com

Yikes. @pattar. You're better off telling DDs' coach to play here instead http://www.usssa.com/fastpitch/event_home/?eventID=332800.
You won't get to play in a new fancy complex but you'll save hundreds in hotel costs.

Of course the alternative is to stay home and play. Which I'm sure wouldnt be a problem