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Online now: 1 member: Oldballs; 9 anonymousDiscussion: Western Nationals or is it the West Coast Nationals?
| Posted | Discussion |
| July 27 Brock Men's 80 89 posts | Just looked at the teams attending the Western Nationals. I added up all of the teams attending from the West Coast or teams that border California, Oregon and Washington. If I counted correctly there are only four out of 148 teams outside the states I indicated. One from Utah, one Scrap Iron team from Colorado and two teams from Texas. Since the Western Nationals is supposed to attract all teams that are west of the Mississippi River it appears to me that this tournament needs to move further east if it should be called a true Western Nationals. We had it at the Aurora Sports Complex one year and it attracted teams from many other states but very few from CA, WA or OR or states bordering those states. We still had almost 90 teams which is about what the Rocky Mountain Championships now attracts. A number of our Scrap Iron teams used to attend but now it's down to one team. I wonder why.... |
| July 27 Dbax Men's 65 2116 posts | Totally agree with you. And its way too hot! Denver, Salt Lake or Albuquerque makes way more sense. |
| July 28 DaveDowell Men's 70 4415 posts | The criteria for a potential change to be considered would be a minimum of 17 tournament-quality lighted 300' fields with adequate civic incentives to move ... We have run the Western's in Salt Lake City once (63 teams) and Aurora once (89 teams) ... We haven't had the Western Championships in Albuquerque ... The northern California venue averages nearly 150 teams ... We would have to have a reasonable expectation that moving would not have an adverse impact on the number of participating teams by gaining 10-15 "closer teams" in the new location at the loss of 70± teams that normally attend in NorCal ... |
| July 29 txnighttrain 120 posts | 70% of the teams at Western Championships are out of California. I have looked at the different senior organizations and they cater to the area in and around where their headquarters are located. The real question is how many of the teams playing in the Western Championships will show up at Worlds, especially the northern teams. It's too expensive for teams to travel to the Western and then Worlds, so most of the teams outside of California don't attend the Western. The bottom line is the dollar, but if you want to expand outside the two coastal area's you need teams from the whole country. The best way to resolve this is with a Central Champiomships or rotating the Western and Eastern Championships inwards. Softball is looking at a shortened lifespan. Around 2000, an other national organization that does the younger teams had 66,000 registered teams, in 2020, just before the big Covid thing hit, they were down to 13,000. These are the future senior players. Fewer players at younger ages, means fewer senior players. To attract and keep future players, compromises will have to be made, or eventually it will die out. Maybe not in my lifetime, but it will end. |
| July 31 Brock Men's 80 89 posts | Regarding Dave's criteria for making a change. Besides the 12 field complex at the Aurora Sports Park there are a number of other 300 feet fields in the Aurora area. It's hard for me to believe that using fields in Sacramento, Elk Grove, Roseville and Lincoln makes teams relish going to the Western Nationals, especially when you don't know until a couple weeks ahead of time what fields they might be playing on. There are so many teams in CA that won't travel if they have to fly somewhere because it's too far to drive that it hurts teams in the rest of the country that have to fly to get to most tournaments. We have 17 Scrap Iron teams. Most will attend at least five or more SSUSA tournaments on average and have to fly to most tournaments. As the previous poster indicates it gets expensive paying for flights, hotels, rental cars and meals when a team has to fly to most tournaments. If SSUSA appreciates that teams are paying their staff salaries they would move it to another location off the coasts from time to time to show that appreciation and give other teams the chance to win a triple crown. Enough said. |
| July 31 Full Count 59 posts | I don't think the CA teams even like playing in the Sacramento area. Typically hot and the fields are nothing to brag about. I wouldn't be surprised if the fields were less expensive in the Sac. area. |
| Aug. 1 Brock Men's 80 89 posts | Full Count, I'm sure the fields are cheaper. The Aurora Sports Park is expensive but the fields are some of the best grass fields in the country. They take really good care of them. That's why the # of teams attending the Rocky Mountain Championships seems to grow some almost every year even with the higher entry fee. Teams like the fields and the fact the 12 fields are in one spot so they can watch other teams from their area play without having to drive to other fields to do so. They can't do that in the Sacramento area with fields in four different areas. |
| Aug. 1 DaveDowell Men's 70 4415 posts | Brock ... I'm going to be the Tournament Director for this year's Rocky Mountain Championships ... Let's try to get some time together so I can dispel some of the misinformation that's permeating this thread ... I'm really looking forward to my initial trip back to the Denver area since we moved from Aurora to Sacramento in 1986 ... I'm guessing a lot has changed over the years!... |
| Aug. 1 Brock Men's 80 89 posts | Dave, I would like to do that. I'm no longer the President of the SI Club as I was when we had the Western Nationals at the Aurora Sports Park in 2012 but I'd be glad to meet with you about the tournament and we might be able to include the current president also. I'll be playing with the combined 80 and 85 team playing as an 80's team in exhibition status. |
| Aug. 14 Brock Men's 80 89 posts | Dave Dowell, as you know our 80s Exhibition team had to drop out of the Rocky Mountain Championships tournament due to injuries and COVID issues. I live in Colorado Springs so will not be attending the tournament even though I am one of the healthy ones. Maybe we can do this with a phone call sometime. We were in Columbus Ohio last week for the SPA World Tournament playing at a 32 field complex called Berliner Park with all turf infields and grass outfields. Might be an alternative for the Eastern Nationals to get it off the East Coast. Just an example. I'm not suggesting the Westerns be in Aurora again but I'm sure there are other cities with better field availability in cities west of the Mississippi River. The problem is getting the west Coast teams to travel east but the field situation around Sacramento is not ideal either except for the captive West Coast audience. |
