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Online now: 2 members: 9 ball, Bobby B; 119 anonymousDiscussion: SPA Montgomery
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| March 18, 2012 Tater50 Men's 60 336 posts | SPA Montgomery Participated in this tourney this past weekend; I am not "promoting" the SPA on this site, just wanting to give a couple of observations about SSBall. Columbus, Ga has a 60 & a 55 team; when we got to Mont. we found out there were only 2/55 teams in the tourney, I immediately felt bad about that number cause I do not remember in 12 years of that number being that low. Someone later informed me that there were 15/50 teams (great turnout) so that gave me a renewed hope that we have fresh seniors coming up & maybe the reason that the 55 tally was so low was due to other reasons. Someone in the upper ages maybe able to comment on the number of teams in that age group. Tater50 |
| March 18, 2012 Ho 301 posts | Have to agree and I'm not promoting our tourney either because we area filled. The 55's division last year was the toughest to fill and again this year (only eight teams, remember we are only a AA/AAA tournament) The 50's we had to close off at ten teams. A lot easier to get the older teams (22 70's; 18 65's, 20 60's and 14 75's). I think the problem with the 55's may be two-fold. (1. a work issue and (2 tournaments them selves. The 55's really have to play Saturday and Sunday beacuse they are still working and even to go to some tournaments they have to take a Friday off. In the economy we have now, those are a lot of days of work players are losing to play five-or-six tournaments. That coupled with their own expenses takes a huge bite out of the wallet especially for the non-sponsored teams. They have to be choosy as to where they play..probably Huntsman; SSUSA Phoenix/Vegas; SPA Dalton; maybe Rock n' Reno; SSUSA Fort Myers..it doesn't leve them many options for other tournaments. Probably may not effect the Majors and super-majors but it does reduce attendance for AA and AAA 55's. The other factor is having 55 AA and AAA teams attend a tournament and throwing them to the dogs against Majors and 50's and/or 60's teams. Who wants to travel 300 miles to play out-of-class teams or the same ones over-and-over. It seems TD's are just happy to get betwen TWENTY teams and pat themselves on the back if they get TWENTY-FIVE. If you figure six divisions and all ratings that is about three-or-four teams a group (some tournament). I really believe the reason for the low turnout in the 55's is the economics of attending tournaments where the competition is limited and the attendance is bare minimum. Ho |
| March 18, 2012 Tater50 Men's 60 336 posts | Ho: what area are you in reference to? Also, would like to give a thanks to the officials; they finished our tourney on Sat & could have easily pulled us into another day; saved us a lot of time & money. Tater50 |
| March 18, 2012 Ho 301 posts | Our tournament is in Ohio,probably the easiest place to draw. Since we can draw into Ill and to the east coast, into Canada and to the Carolina's. Are not limited by coasts, I would figure east coast tournaments are the most difficult to draw teams...nobody to their east. Granted Cal has no teams to the west but they have more teams in the area from which to draw. Ho |
| March 18, 2012 GaCMan 86 posts | Don't understand the part about the 55s having to work, don't the 50s have to work also?????? I think that a lot of players are holding on to a later age in the 50s because there are no teams in the 55s maybe????? I a lot of the older guys in the 50s would go on and move up there would be plenty of 55s, I think. Seems to me they stay there untill they make one jump to the 60s. JMO Who knows just wish there were more teams in that group. Guess I will have to wait till I turn 60 to get enought teams to play. CMAN |
| March 18, 2012 Ho 301 posts | The 50's also work but they are new to senior softball and just seem more ready and willing to attend a tournament if it is within a few hundred miles that they can drive to and drive back. I really don't know the main reason there is a shortage of 55's attending qualifiers and the smaller "just to make a buck, we call them" Nationals, but you are right that does seem to be happening. Ho |
