Tuesday, December 8, 2009

The Cost of Kickball

A month ago I began writing a convoluted post about the cost of kickball... and a "napkin analysis" of the amount money WAKA makes nationally and locally. However, I think it's better to spare you all that and just hit one of the major points:

When I joined the league in 2008, I paid about $55 for one season of 11 guaranteed games (10 weeks and at least one playoff game). In order to keep everything consistent, this was the equivalent of me paying $5 per kickball experience (obviously less if we win a playoff game).

As promised by Ty, WAKA is now forcing us to have an 8-week season. What's disheartening is the fact we're only booked 8 weeks on the PAL fields. There is a 9th week which will be used for rain-outs... or exhibition like we did last season if we get lucky. But you KNOW there will be rain-outs.

So now we're paying $78 ($69 + $9 for parking) for a guaranteed 9 games. Simple math tells us this is $8.67 per game, an increase of 73%.

The loss of 2 guaranteed games bothers me more than the money. Why don't we have pre-season games or something? Does the season HAVE to be shortened? Can't we just count 8 weeks but play 10? WAKA doesn't own PAL... so whatever deal we have with them is mutually exclusive.

All I'm saying is... once PAL bans alcohol (which is inevitable)... there is no reason to keep things the way we have it. Donkey Punch Kickball (a not-for-profit league) will be formed and will cost you fractions of what we pay now.

In the meantime... don't forget to sign up for the upcoming season quickly. The league fills up in record time every year.

30 comments:

Rob said...

10 games indeed. Do we need to recruit Corso and Herbstreit to use their star power for us?

Chandler said...

Maybe. But if they can't get a college football playoff, I doubt they can get us our 2 games back...

Geoff said...

I don't know about preseason games... it really opens up the door for injuries to key players in meaningless games. What we should do instead is try to open up to some international play. Say, we have a a couple of games in mexico?

Seriously though, why do we need to lose two games? how does Waka benefit from this?

Chandler said...

I imagine the benefit from two things:

1) We have to pay PAL for less games thus WAKA gets that difference in money

2) WAKA's insurance covers us for a shorter season.

Seems crazy though. I'm not quite ready to put the effort forth to start a kickball league (it's been interesting watching how large Kickball Society is getting). But if pushed far enough we CAN do all this much cheaper.

Hello Kimmy said...

The only way to get back to the 10 game schedule is for Ty to stand up for us and push for it. He's the league representative. However, WAKA was pressuring him last season to go down to the 8 games schedule... so I doubt he'd put his neck out there to push for a longer season.

I'm sure PAL is probably happy to lose 2 weeks. I think they're getting kind of sick of our shenanigans.

YellowBird said...

I'm willing to bet Wayne at Kickball Society would give us whatever we want if enough peeps would transfer our teams over to him and play at Northdale or Temple Terrace. South Tampa peeps won;t like it, but we could always still go to MacD's after games. Just sayin.

YellowBird said...

With Kickball Society, you're dealing directly with the owner..... no corporate bullshit supposed CSR who never speaks for us when we consistently have things taken from us due to what another league does. Just sayin.

Geoff said...

Does kb society have weird rules like club sports? Plus, I'm a prima donna and I'll only play on thursdays. I don't know this Wayne character, but what's he have on the table? Just asking...

YellowBird said...

If we got enough teams together (18 per limit per team), he would let us have what we want. As in 10 games, drinks allowed and the field is open on thursday nights.

YellowBird said...

the rules are the same as ours almost exactly

Chandler said...

It's an interesting option... but as mentioned I don't think we'd have a mass exodus from WAKA until PAL "officially" bans alcohol on their fields.

Kickball Society's fields are 6 miles (15 minutes) north-east of PAL. So regardless of how silly it may be, that'll be a deal-breaker for many of our core friends.

In any case, it's good to talk options. We can't diminish the power we have as a large social group. But lets not hit the eject button just yet.

Florian said...

I have to agree with Chandler, that distance will be a dealbreaker. If they could find a field closer to our SOHO core, I could see many people moving over to Kickball Society. We do have the power of DPT and the internets to spread the word if it ever came to that.

YellowBird said...

If the bar at the end of the night is still MacDinton's, I don't think there's much for them to complain about.

YellowBird said...

It's a 3.5 mile difference.

From Temple Terrace to MacD's -- 11.53 miles

http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1c=Tampa&1s=FL&1a=405+S+Howard+Ave&1z=33606-2035&1y=US&1l=27.94011&1g=-82.48299&1v=ADDRESS&2c=Tampa&2s=FL&2a=4719+E+Regnas+Ave&2z=33617-6903&2y=US&2l=28.02528&2g=-82.408637&2v=ADDRESS

From PALS to MacD's -- 7.99 miles

http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1c=Tampa&1s=FL&1a=405+S+Howard+Ave&1z=33606-2035&1y=US&1l=27.94011&1g=-82.48299&1v=ADDRESS&2c=Tampa&2s=FL&2a=4719+E+Regnas+Ave&2z=33617-6903&2y=US&2l=28.02528&2g=-82.408637&2v=ADDRESS#b/maps/m:map:9:27.987207:-82.44602::::::1:1::::/l::405+S+Howard+Ave:Tampa:FL:33606-2035:US:27.94011:-82.48299:address::1:::/l::1924+W+Diana+St:Tampa:FL:33604-5816:US:28.00697:-82.47877:address:Hillsborough+County:1:::/io:1:::::f:en_US:M::/bl:/e

Geoff said...

Wah!.. we have to drive ALL THE WAY to north Tampa... boo hoo. I live in North Tampa, so I'd be up for doing it closer to home. I enjoy playing and will play where the game is... but I do understand there are a lot of "those types" in the league

Florian said...

Ahh, see I didn't know where the field was. Its close to 40th street, I was thinking 56th. That's closer than I thought. Let's all switch. Sadly, I am an orphan and do not have a definate team yet.

Griff said...

- KB Society also gives you TWO tournaments..your league-night tourny (CURRENTLY Sun, Tues, & Weds) then the champions tourny (top 4-5 teams from each night) to determine the Grand Champion. **but currently they only have a 7 game season, so technically you're only guaranteed 8 games also if you're bumped in the 1st round of your night's tourny.

- All members of Grand Champ. team gets their own trophy.

- Their flip-cup tourny follows the same format as stated above. Oh and it's FREE (not sure about individual trophies though).

- You actually get rewarded for being the best dressed up team in their league-wide theme-night (costume night) ($$ bar tab at sponsor bar)

- Other contests to win bar tabs (men's and women's field-goal kicking contest using kickballs this past season...but a little birdie told me a HR derby may be in the works for next season)

- FREE parking at fields

- Paid refs

- No need for elected PLAYERS to be field marshalls (to set up bases, etc).

- 18-player CAP on team size (big plus!)


You seem to get a lot more for your money....just sayin'

Rob said...

I like the paid refs part

Geoff said...

Griff.. are you getting kb society kickbacks? Because that sounds MIGHTY enticing!

bull said...

As long as they allow Ligers I'm in!

trinihic said...

Hey.. you can have a couple pre-season games in Trinidad.. You can dance your pants off with alcohol ANYWHERE!!!!... plus play some KickBall as well... By the way, no one has a clue what Kick Ball is down here.. Cricket though... It's all the rave...

Chris said...

And Trinidad played the Mighty Ducks, I mean team USA, when Emilio Estevez was coaching.

Rob said...

How about a week off at midseason for a all-star game / exhibition game and mid-season party in Cancuun? It'll be the same time Spring Break is going on. Put away $20 a week now for Bail money...

YellowBird said...

I was at the KB Society EOS party last night. Never seen so many awards to give out. Rubs took some pics. He needs to post them. The leagues are owned and run by some very cool, fun people.

SarahB said...

RED ROCKETS RELOADED!!!

SmileyDrunk said...

Griff,
I played in the KB society last season in Temple terrace and it might be a lil different from the ND league, such as...

We had to pay a lil less than WAKA flip cup...5 person team @ $3 a person. Its not free. Also the winner didnt get a trophy last season the winner got a $50 bar tab @ Gaspar's on 50th Street.
We also didnt have any extra games other than Karaoke night to win extra $$ bar tab. We also had this rule implemented..."PITCHING:All pitches must roll on the ground in a straight line from pitcher release to home plate and cross home plate rolling. Fast bouncing pitches will be called a ball. Any curveball type pitches will also be called a ball. If the ball does bounce slightly above home plate (less than 3”) and the referee feels the pitch was slow enough that the pitcher’s intent was not for it to bounce, it will still be called a strike. As a guide, the referee should feel the ball bounced at least five times or more as it rolls across home plate. Kickball Society’s intention is not to take away fast, straight, rolling pitches but rather not allow bouncy, laser beam and curveball type pitching. Remember…it’s kickball!
And according to the email I just got they added the Interleague Champions Tournament, as quoted here...Based on requests from you all, we've put together an "Interleague
Champions" tournament. The winners of our league tournaments plus the five
teams with the top records in regular season have been invited to play on
Tuesday evening, December 1. We'll play at the Northdale fields and start
at 7 pm. It's a single elminiatin tournament and when it's over, we'll
have our Kickball Society Champion. Come on out, cheer on the teams from
your league, and celebrate with the champs at the Ale House after the games
are finished.
So it might be a lil different as you might have had it in the ND league. Besides I think the Temple Terrace League just started a season before last so there might be some differences, from the ND league.

YellowBird said...

The real key is this. Collectively, we have power and would get pretty much what we want from Kickball Soceity. That would mean bringing over several teams and possibly setting up a custom league with our own ruling options.

Also, all members of the team that won the Temple Terrace league this past season, the Royal Pains, along with all other division tournament winners, received medals.

barflett said...

jeebus Kevin seems hung up about trophies and medals.

isn't the beerjam belt enough?

YellowBird said...

LOL... I still have your underwear framed on my wall. Skidmarks and all.

Jigsaw said...

They took the whole Bayshore Nation
Put us on this reservation
Took away our ways of playing our games
The Ligers keg and our 10 season games
Took away our free parking lot
And made us pay a dollar for what?
And all the games we played for fun
Are nowadays made only for some

Kickball People, Bayshore tribe
So much to pay, Why Waka Why

They took the whole Bayshore nation
Locked us on this reservation
Though I wear a shirt and cry
I'm still a kickballer deep inside

Kickball People, Bayshore tribe
So much to pay, Why Waka Why

But maybe someday when they learn
Bayshore nation will return, will return, will return, will return, will return