PGF vs Alliance (provocative but sincere questions)

[LEsoftballdad]

I'd rather not go to California for PGF this summer. Why our coach feels the need to drag a NE team to California for 10 days is beyond me.

 

[torpedo #8]

I'd rather not go to California for PGF this summer. Why our coach feels the need to drag a NE team to California for 10 days is beyond me.

I agree totally. I'm glad our coaches decided not too.

 

[benjey]

Why our coach feels the need to drag a NE team to California for 10 days is beyond me.

Can't speak for your coach but DD's team (from the northeast) did Alliance Tier 1 at 16u in 2021and PGF Premier at 18u in 2022. PGF was way more convenient and enjoyable despite being further away. The Alliance locations have been terrible. We were in Oklahoma city and that was awful. Difficult to get to with terrible weather. I heard similar about Indiana this year.

The one thing I would give the edge to Alliance is in competition level. DD's team had somewhat similar finishes in both (9th vs 7th) but I thought the competition at Alliance overall was stronger.

 

[_MIA_]

Can't speak for your coach but DD's team (from the northeast) did Alliance Tier 1 at 16u in 2021and PGF Premier at 18u in 2022. PGF was way more convenient and enjoyable despite being further away. The Alliance locations have been terrible. We were in Oklahoma city and that was awful. Difficult to get to with terrible weather. I heard similar about Indiana this year.

The one thing I would give the edge to Alliance is in competition level. DD's team had somewhat similar finishes in both (9th vs 7th) but I thought the competition at Alliance overall was stronger.

Yeah, there are no direct flights to OKC...ask me how I know . I am not sure it will be there again anytime soon though..issues with insurance caused it to be moved out of there (for 14's) this year. Obviously sucks for us but I don't mind driving to IN.

They have had the various championships in CA,OKC,FL and IN. Not sure if there are any other locations they are looking at. Weather wise putting it up in your neck of the woods in Aug. would be a decent idea but I am not sure how many Alliance teams there are in the NE. If 3/4 of the teams playing in it have to fly in I think that would be tough sell..

 

[LEsoftballdad]

Can't speak for your coach but DD's team (from the northeast) did Alliance Tier 1 at 16u in 2021and PGF Premier at 18u in 2022. PGF was way more convenient and enjoyable despite being further away. The Alliance locations have been terrible. We were in Oklahoma city and that was awful. Difficult to get to with terrible weather. I heard similar about Indiana this year.

The one thing I would give the edge to Alliance is in competition level. DD's team had somewhat similar finishes in both (9th vs 7th) but I thought the competition at Alliance overall was stronger.

My issue is with the cost of traveling to California for 7-10 days with stay-to-play. At $237 per night, I'm at nearly $2,500 without airfare, rental car, or food. All of this, and I can assure you not one girl will go to school west of the Mississippi river. Heck, I'd be surprised if anyone went to college west of the Appalachian mountains.

I agree that the weather will be better. The weather at the Atlanta Legacy event last summer was untenable. It rained every day, and we lost four games from our schedule out of twelve guaranteed between two teams.

 

[kibadbo]

You are correct not Surf City,
My mistake misread text in phone.
too many tournaments at the same time. Following last blast also.

There was a Surf City event in AZ two weeks ago.

 

[benjey]

My issue is with the cost of traveling to California for 7-10 days with stay-to-play. At $237 per night, I'm at nearly $2,500 without airfare, rental car, or food. All of this, and I can assure you not one girl will go to school west of the Mississippi river. Heck, I'd be surprised if anyone went to college west of the Appalachian mountains.

I agree that the weather will be better. The weather at the Atlanta Legacy event last summer was untenable. It rained every day, and we lost four games from our schedule out of twelve guaranteed between two teams.

I can't argue with you about cost as it is quite expensive and very difficult/impossible for many families but being from the northeast and having to get on a plane almost guarantees it won't be inexpensive wherever you go and don't even get me started on stay to play, so happy I will never have to deal with Traveling Teams again in my life.

The two points I think are important are weather and colleges. You mentioned Atlanta Legacy and your experience last summer, we were there also, in my experience was the norm. In fact my DD started going to Atlanta at 11u and typically went for veterans in fall and legacy in summer every year through 18u and the weather was terrible almost every time. So it is hard to put a monetary value on a near certain guarantee of good weather but it's something.

Your point about colleges is where I think you miss the mark. I wish this wasn't the case but the reality is college coaches, even from northeast schools, do a relatively small amount of their recruiting at events in the northeast. This varies by school but traveling to the southeast, Colorado, and California dramatically increases your ability to be watched playing games by college coaches. An important impact of this reality is the college coaches draw the talent so if you want to consistently play against high level competition you need to go where they are.

There is one other level to this from the perspective of northeast travel organizations. It has become very difficult to attract the top players to your team if you are not attending these major events. Will be interesting to see if changes to the fall recruiting calendar will reduce the required travel for northeast teams.

 

[benjey]

Yeah, there are no direct flights to OKC...ask me how I know

This was a big problem as well as the seemingly daily thunderstorms which all but guaranteed flight delays. We had families stuck in all different cities when their connecting flights were delayed/cancelled.

 

[_MIA_]

This was a big problem as well as the seemingly daily thunderstorms which all but guaranteed flight delays. We had families stuck in all different cities when their connecting flights were delayed/cancelled.

Daily thunderstorms would be rare in early August, hot yes, but not thunderstorms. April/May would be a different story..

 

[benjey]

Daily thunderstorms would be rare in early August

I guess we were just lucky