On 19/07/06, M Rose <mrose15784@...> wrote:
> We get plenty of open competition by playing Mixed and Open Tour and
> London Summer League in the summer and London Winter League in the winter.

The LL concentrates on the Autumn and Spring terms, when all the open
teams have are four LWL events. The LWL is changing rapidly and will
soon limit entrants to just London, and is possibly require teams to
commit to all 4/5 events or not enter the league at all. As it moves
in this direction it will get harder for open geo teams to get any of
their new players involved, as going away for a whole Sunday is
already a big commitment, but guaranteeing they will go to all of them
before they have played their first one is asking too much.

> Having a separate student league is brilliant for bringing student ultimate
together - we love travelling around, playing some ultimate then getting toasted
in a student union. Furthermore, I can't see what any open team would gain from
playing student teams when there are plenty of open options for them to pursue.

Incorporating open teams would not stop you from doing all that (open
teams won't even be involved on Wednesdays). Most open teams would
gain something from playing against most student teams, and there is
no guarantee that an Open league on its own would support itself well
enough to give them any other options.

> One improvement I would suggest for Ladder League would be to try and organise
regular events, rather than random events throughout the year - last year there
were clearly teams that played many more games than others, which showed in the
final standings.

Sounds like you're suggesting the league should be structured into
monthly weekend events and should reward only performance, giving no
reward to teams who organise themselves to play as many games as
possible. Have you forgotten the whole point of the ladder league?
Don't you remember the failure of the SE Student Winter League?

> All in all, student ultimate for student teams. If a student team wants more
open experience/competition, then they should enter London Winter League or
similar.

I'm not saying the ladder league wouldn't work without open teams -
far from it, last year proved that it can thrive, but rather - and
this is a very important point - an Open/Club/Geo Ladder League would
not work without the support of the student teams.

Maybe after a year, and after the SE leads the way once again in
showing that a regional ladder league system can work, the Uni & Open
Ladder Leagues can be separated and there will be enough interest from
the Open teams to support their own league, but for the time being,
having open teams playing some kind of ladder league would be hugely
beneficial to their clubs and players, but I cannot see it being
achieved without the help and good example set by you, the students.

There are plenty of potential benefits to students if the leagues are
combined, including better connections/communications between open &
uni teams (imagine what could happen with Reading Dragons &
Discuits?), raising the profile of UU and awareness of the regional
uni teams, raising the skill level of the top teams in our region
(something we have been looking for a solution to for years), and the
opportunity to meet, play against, and hang out with some awesome
ultimate players.

Wouldn't it be worth a trial year at least?

Felix

ps. If the open teams can't be bothered to participate then we will
still get a new website and the ability to submit scores in an online
form & see the table update within seconds anyway, making the whole
league much easier to administrate for years to come.