Hi BD, There are some very interesting points here. I agree with Aura that, sooner or later, some kind of regional structure of tournaments in the UK will have to be in place, and after a couple of years things will be much better that way. However I don't think we need to start instigating the regional boundaries to get people used to them, especially not by limiting players to only playing for teams in their region. Geo teams are commendable in my opinion because they open up more opportunities to residents in cities for getting into / developing their ultimate, and provide a stronger base for clubs. Extra players coming in from other regions doesn't detract from this positive effect.
If you're curious about the current regional structure in Uni Ultimate, check out http://www.seultimate.org/ull/ and follow the 'Regions' link. For the US see http://www4.upa.org/regional-map/regionalmap.shtml (can anyone find the sectional map?) Tournament wise, we need to consider the difference between Tour and Nationals. It would surely be beneficial to the A Tour teams to continue to have the option of playing A Tour standard ultimate outside of Nationals. However, it is surely unfair to force teams to travel around the entire country several times a year in order to keep their chance of winning a competition. Nationals should be preceeded by Regionals in my opinion, and should be entirely separate from the Tour. FYI here's a breakdown of top 16 2005 Nationals results with the Uni regions the teams currently fall under: SE Clapham N LeedsLeedsLeeds N Chevron SE Fire SCOT Fusion MID B.A.F SW Bristol MID EMO SE Discuits N Sheffield Steal 1 SE Brighton SW Ltd Release N Mild Mannered Janitors SE No-Lo M Flyght Club SE Strange Blue In other words: SE: 6 N: 5 SW: 2 MID: 2 SCOT: 1 If you look at the top 8 then it's remarkably balanced, so I don't think there will be huge problems with unbalanced strengths in different regions. The Tour is unique to the UK, so isn't as easy to break down. Everybody loves getting together at the massive events, but, for example, it must be tough for the Scottish teams to attend all three southern Mixed tournaments this year, so maybe one huge final Tour event can be saved for the end of each tour season, before Regionals & Nationals. SCOT, N, Mid: Regional Tour 1 SE, SW, IRE: Regional Tour 1 - SCOT, N, Mid: RT2 SE, SW, IRE: RT2 - ALL: Tour Finals (top 16 / 24 from each RT) - SE / SW / Mid / N / SCOT: Regionals ALL: Nationals (top 3/6 from each region, plus 1/2 from Ireland) Nationals could even be divided into Division 1 & Division 2, for teams placing 1-3 and 4-6 in their regions respectively - this is how it's done for UK Uni Ultimate (Nationals this weekend - http://web.mac.com/ithackrah/iWeb/ ). I realise that this is a move back to 5 events per mixed / open season, but only two of these events will possibly be the other side of the country, so the net travel is likely to be less. I also believe this would encourage more Geo clubs, and encourage more players to play for their local team. To keep the A tour standard those teams are used to, possibly the Tour finals could be divided into A & B, with some clever schedule to ensure the top A teams all play each other, and the bottom A teams possibly drop down to the B tour on Sunday. Whatever happens, if we choose to move towards a regional structure then we have experience of two years of doing this at a University level to learn from. Felix On 23/04/06, Aura Mackenzie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi Britdisc, > > Well, it's been over 2 weeks since I requested some official word from the > Board about why the Geo rules have been scrapped and so far we've heard > nothing official. Why did we hear about schedule changes for Mixed Tour 1 > and a big long email about kit requirements, but nothing about a fundamental > change to the Tour rules? The most concerning thing is that we didn't hear > about these changes before teams picked their squads for the season. The > mind boggles at both the manner and timing of these changes. > > Anyway, I've been thinking about all of this quite a bit lately and I would > like to share my thoughts. I'm not going to reply to Dave (who I think is > writing from an individual PoV rather than a 'sport' PoV) nor Brummie (who I > think is right in his intentions but hasn't worked out a great solution). > > Basically, these are the good things about the Geo rules: > - it was a written down policy in the UKUA rules that specifically stated > that the UKUA wanted to encourage people to play locally to encourage the > growth and competitiveness of the sport THAT, BY THE BY, WORKED. > - it gave a few good rewards for playing Geo i.e. freedom of movement > between A and B teams, tie-breaker wins. > - people had a choice of who to play for. > > And these are the problems with the Geo rules: > - they are so loosely worded that they can't be enforced and some teams took > advantage. > - it is a two-tier system (different rules for Geo and non-Geo teams) and > leads to bad feeling from the teams who are working their butts off to put a > strong Geo team out (Brummie) and engages automatic defence-mode from > players who want to 'play with their [non-Geo] mates' (Dave). > - the 75 mile radius is hard for some areas of the country but piss easy for > other areas. > - often players who wanted to play Geo only had one team to choose from. > > And these are the things I think have been overlooked: > - how the sport is going to be structured in 10 years' time and what we need > to do between now and then to make it happen. > - what other countries who do better than us internationally, do at the > national level > - how to specifically encourage development of ultimate now that there is no > policy about it. > > This is my solution. Happy for feedback, but please keep it civil. > > Ultimate is growing in the UK and the Open Tour is fast becoming bulky and > unworkable (and the Mixed division, nearly so). In every country where this > has happened before (USA, Canada, Australia) and in every team sport that I > can think of, the country gets divided into Regions and Regional > qualifications are held for qualification to the National events to make > things more manageable. This is surely the way that ultimate will have to > go at some point in the UK and it's my opinion that we should start > instigating these regional boundaries now so that people get used to them. > > Under a Regional rostering structure, we would have maybe 5-6 Regions and > Tour teams would have a roster consisting of only players from their region > (which would obviously be much larger than a 75 mile radius). That way we > would eliminate all the problems from the Geo rules (two-tier system, > unenforcibility, 75-mile radius). Also, there will quickly be a hierarchy > of teams established in a region, which individual players can climb if they > want exposure to top competition (Dave's concern). Plus, if a player didn't > want to play with the team based in their city, they could play with a team > based in another city of their Region and be totally legitimate (Dave's > other concern). > > The only thing that isn't really addressed is people 'who want to play with > their mates who live in other regions'. Well, to that I say, if you want to > play with mates who live far away, the National Tour maybe isn't for you as > it's clearly not club ultimate that you want to play. Go play BritOpen, > Copenhagen, Brugges, Copa Cabana, Kaimana, Potlach, etc. Some of the most > competitive tournaments in the world don't have rostering rules and will let > you play champagne ultimate to your heart's content. And of course, if you > want to play ultimate with your mates but be eligible for the Tour that > badly, just move to their region. Simple. > > Aura > > > > > __________________________________________________ > BritDisc mailing list > [email protected] > http://zion.ranulf.net/mailman/listinfo/britdisc > Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/informed.asp > __________________________________________________ BritDisc mailing list [email protected] http://ai.ranulf.net:8080/mailman/listinfo/britdisc Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/informed.asp
