The Increasing Move to Early Friday Play: the Implications

Our family is making some tough decisions when it comes to early Friday games. Grandparents are a godsend, hotel bills are rising, and we are having to drive two cars to some tournaments because we can't leave at the same time.... BUT.... I feel that our coach and org. director gave us a heads up on all of this last fall. We signed on knowing what we were in for....

LADY_KNIGHTS said:

I have to agree with Jack. You signup for these tourneys as early as October of the year before and then the expenses just keeping adding up, it's getting out of hand.

This coming weekend we play at 8 am, 3:30, then 6:30. Talk about a long day on Friday!!! Glad I told my parents through an email or there may have been one less person on OFC!!!

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You think thats bad, i have game times on the fourth of July weekend of 8:00 am & and my next game isnt until 8:00 pm that night !!! And this is 2 1/2 hrs away also, so theres ANOTHER night in a hotel to pay for.

HITTER23 said:

You think thats bad, i have game times on the fourth of July weekend of 8:00 am & and my next game isnt until 8:00 pm that night !!! And this is 2 1/2 hrs away also, so theres ANOTHER night in a hotel to pay for.

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Ouch! I feel a better about 1:00 pm and then 8:30 pm games on Friday the 25th. Only an hour away so no hotel needed and it's in a nice big park so I'm bringing the grill so I can eat good then nap good between games.

I agree with you cgs, it sukks!! My husband and I are coaches and we miss more work than we should to make it to all these Friday games. Sometimes I think they forget people still need to work, you have to miss a days pay and then pay for hotels, gas, food, parking, admission, etc...

@Sammy and Purplejack: Thanks for joining with me to confirm that the tradition of Friday play in Ohio did not necessarily mean early Friday play. Purplejack, I can't believe your DD is old enough to be ending her travel ball career. Seems like just yesterday that we were "talking" about her nascent high school experience. Send me a PM to let me know whether she is playing ball in college.

@quaker: no one is suggesting that organizations and/or TD's shouldn't make a dime on their tournaments. What I AM suggesting is that, as economists would say, on the margin (that is, after it has been determined that the tourney can make money at "x" number of teams) there is a decision to be made whether to add more teams to the field and that I believe this marginal decision should not be made solely with an eye to the tournament's bottom line. Middle class families should not be made to miss a day of work for a tournament that doesn't return any of the "showcase" benefits such as the attendance of college coaches or the "name recognition" for player profiles.

@all those frustrated by creeping expenses of travel ball: I'm going to start a poll asking whether you would be in favor of an OFC requirement that to post on the OFC tournament list the TD's will have to include the following in addition to the information on the current list format: 1) whether Friday play will be early; 2) the amount of the gate fee; and 3) whether coolers/food are allowed. If that information is required in the tournament listing, then if we sign up for the tournament, we essentially have agreed to those terms.

Shucks, on this issue my dear friend JoeA and I, despite our political differences, might find common ground. :cap:

I would like to add the thought of, why do we have early play on Friday's prior to the second week of June? Many players are still in school and personally I would not want any player to miss a day of school for a ball game. Perhaps we should remind ourselves that acadmics should always come first. . .
JMHO

I don't think it has anything to do about who is a "team" parent and who is not. Some people just simply cannot get off work and that does not mean they are not a "team" parent.

I agree that being able to miss work does not make a parent more dedicated than others. It means that they are more fortunate. My husband will probably use all of his vacation days for this year on softball if our team goes to Nationals. That would be the 1st time it has happened - our dd is 16U and they travel a lot more now to play in showcases. There are always parents available to help the players whose parents have to be at work. We had an early Friday morning game at ASA States and we play early this Thursday morning in South Carolina.

CGS ... good thread ... and yes, this has definitely got out of hand, having been at the travel experience for the last 12 years now.

We're playing in a relatively small tournament this weekend and were told beforehand that we need to be prepared to play on Friday, but was suprised to find out we play at 3:00 (which means I have to ask the girls and families to be there by 2:00 to warm up) and some teams in other divisions are playing as early as noon. I am fortunate to have some flexibility in my work schedule, but I know that many of our parents are not going to be able to make it and are scrambling to find their kids' rides. There are several options for TD's/organizations including less teams and/or more fields.

CGS ... I also really like your recommendation around having TD's stating all the details up front in order to post tourneys on here.

coachjwb:

see my poll thread on what the TD should be required to describe and make your choices!

I saw that after ... all yes's for me, except the dog one ... I love my dog and all, but not that much I want to take him to a tourney!

we play at 9;00am this friday. yuk. MD

Great post Carol,I don't see any reason why a TD can't post start times for Fridays. I've been around this for 20years and have seen alot of changes mostley for greed.

I suggest that before signing up, ask when the earliest game may be... if they can't give it to you, move on to the next tournament!!! Actually, I would like to see the tournament format before signing up; time length, pool and bracket formats, refund policy, walking taco availability.

MD: we are scheduled for the 8:00 am game. I guess you guys ticked off PCABA less than we did. (j/k Bruce, you know we love you).

Was talking with my team's parents last evening at practice about this subject, and wanted to resurrect it here. I know we are now 3 for 3 in getting Friday games, and this week's is the earliest one yet, and parents are scrambling to figure out how they and their girls are going to get there. Somehow, the requirement to play Friday evening games has turned into Friday afternoons. And then throwing in having to drive to the tournament, possibly checking into a hotel, and getting to the field in time to warm up, and that original Friday night requirement turns into an all day Friday thing. I know I will be much more selective next year, and would like to hear more TD's address the issue here.

I have been doing this for over 12 years and the Fridays use to be rare. If you played you played late and the TD took the local teams. It is now out of hand. Kids have summer school in June. My dd now has 1 hour left or she flunks the course. Now we find out Sluggerfest is Friday and we are 3 hours away and still have no idea when we play. 9 days to plan a vacation day! I feel its greed and this will back fire on those that demand early Friday play. I understand a tourney like the ASA State or Sting Rays, but they give you dates way in advance so you can plan. .

It would help if the Showcase type tournaments did not have the younger age groups(10U and 12U) or have the Braket Play. In talking with players that play with DD in college they think it is strange that we play for a "winner" unless it is a qualifier. When we go to the Cardinal Classic we play a set amount of games(5 to 8 depending on how many you want) so everyone gets the same chance to showcase their players.

eagleone:

Excellent post. If it is a true Showcase, maybe it doesn't have to be played down to a winner, and that could reduce the playing days. If it ISN'T a Showcase, then does the extended play period do any significant good for the girls or is the extended play simply about adding teams for revenue?

For now I would simply settle for getting "regular" tournaments back to a Friday evening format, but ideally we can eventually establish Ohio fastpitch quality enough for college coaches that the Showcases don't have to result in a winner, or the Showcases could adopt something similar to the Showdowns, where results matter for championship play but very few teams are funneled into that bracket.

cgs said:

@all those frustrated by creeping expenses of travel ball: I'm going to start a poll asking whether you would be in favor of an OFC requirement that to post on the OFC tournament list the TD's will have to include the following in addition to the information on the current list format: 1) whether Friday play will be early; 2) the amount of the gate fee; and 3) whether coolers/food are allowed. If that information is required in the tournament listing, then if we sign up for the tournament, we essentially have agreed to those terms.

Shucks, on this issue my dear friend JoeA and I, despite our political differences, might find common ground. :cap:

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We have a similar site to this in MN and a few years ago that is exactly what the administrator did. Tourney's must list

#1, Days of play (no one in MN has started a game earlier than 4:30 on a Friday, so we haven't dealt with the early Friday issue.

#2 Pay for parking (Yes/No)
#3 Gate fee (Yes/No)
#4 Park entry fee for spectators
#5 If NQ specify which tournament NQ for ( i.e. Regional ASA vs National ASA)

If a tourney violates this he will not allow them to list on the website the following year, and this is the main place everyone goes to find tourney info.

People still complain about playing Friday Night, which is fine because about half the tourney's list no Friday play and if you don't want to play Friday night choose a tourney that doesn't have Friday play.

I wouldn't mind Friday play if it meant that you were going to get 2 games Friday, 2 to 3 Saturday and 2 to 4 Sunday. But having friday play because you have an 8:1 team to field ratio is greedy and by nature limits the number of games you can play over the weekend.

Some one mentioned never having more than 8 teams per division. More than 8 is fine but you need to have the fields to pull it off. No one wants to play pool Friday night then wait until Sunday morning to start bracket play.

I don't have a problem with the no cooler rules. They need to be able to make a dime somewhere and the people on a tight budget (which usually includes me) can picnic out of their tailgate if they really need to save a few more bucks. Over priced or poor quality concessions are a self correcting problem, as more people will join the tailgate picnic, but for those that have reasonable prices and good quality concessions, most people won't bother to pack a cooler if they know they can get a reasonable meal at the park.

IMO it's a weird reverse discrimination that makes softball expensive for families. Boys travel teams here( Baseball, Hockey, Basketball) do lots of weekend tournaments where they find one or two chaperones and maybe 1 of 5 parents show up to watch all the games, usually only coaches and players are there for an early friday game(we have early Friday starts in boys sports, but not in girls). Girls sports are so far skewed in the other direction that I think if you told the parents that there was a tournament that they weren't allowed to come watch they might yank their kid out of the sport. IF your kid really likes the sport, you do NOT have to witness every single minute of every single game. Every kid (boys and girls) wants their parents to see every game, but if you see most and miss a few (like say the Friday games) you don't need to feel like a horrible parent and your kid's love for the game will get them through.