With spring growing ever closer, and more pickup games being played, inevitably we must find ourselves at some point discussing the possible changes that could be made this year by our kind and benevolent leaders, the KVKL council. I’ve spent some time talking with a few of the people who have been involved in the proceedings and i believe there are some serious decisions to be made (this is the sentence that gives credibility to my reporting, TAKE THAT FOX NEWS!!!).  Of those conversations there were really only a few issues brought up that could really change the KVKL . let’s kick it and hopefully i’ll enlighten the crap out you!

1st point of conversation – Limiting the number of teams that play in the league: There has always been some concern with this in the past, last year we had an astounding 28 teams play, and there are always splinter teams that want to play, along with new teams and old reunions alike. The necessity of capping the league to a certain amount of teams doesn’t seem like a very inclusive policy you say? AGREED, however logistically there just aren’t enough fields in lawrence to take care of the needs of a 40 team league.  What are your thoughts on this? I know that last year some people proposed breaking apart the league but that wasn’t well recieved, Kelly Corcoran, former KVKL Commandant seems to think we need to limit it to 30 teams (along with some other strategy, see link here). I Personally like option 2CV7, which states that instead of only having 4 divisions, we would go with 5 pools, each containing 6 teams. in that scenario your first 5 games would be against your pool, and after week 5 your ranks would be evaluated and the remaining 5 weeks of scheduling would be played against like-talented folks. this not only gets us to that magic 30 number but it ensures that 70% of the games played will be competative (which hasn’t always happened in the past, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!!).

2nd point of conversation – Fields: The previous concern leads very well into the next topic which is fields. as of right now we are among only a very elite group of Kickball leagues that still takes advantage of the grass field. In the past we have been able to strike a very good balance between dirt and grass, however we aren’t the kindest folks to the fields that we play on, and the benefits of leaning more towards the dirt fields are definately there. Some would say this isn’t really in the spirit of how the league started, and to that point I would say that neither is bunt to win, and you all know our teams strategy from last year. We all enjoy the games on grass so I’m not saying we should get rid of them altogether, but we are dealing with a city that is on an extrememly tight budget this year, we have done damage in the past, and we will always be brought up when they talk about park conditions during the summer. With that in mind i ask the following: PLEASE DON’T THINK THAT SOUTH PARK IS THE ONLY PLACE TO PRACTICE! I know it is a fun convenient and great place all around to have a kickball game, but if we keep running it into the ground we will most likely lose the ability to use it for real games at some point. Speaking of parks, did you hear they are going to charge us the real price for them this year because Lawrence is on a really tight budget…

This leads me to my third and final point, Price: In the past we have been able to see the league offered for near rock bottom pricing (especially if you’ve seen what you get/pay for when playing in a city league). In the past, Lawrence has greatly discounted the fields for our use, which isn’t an option fo them anymore, we simply put too much wear and tear etc… that being said i think we should raise the entry fee to $200 per team, and i’ve campaigned for this extensively throughout Iowa and Massachusets. It really is an average of $10 a person and even though i know people are going to have mixed feelings about this… i really think it is necessary to maintain the integrity of the league.

i know i know, i couldn't help it.

Sorry for the long blog.

hope to see your thoughts back at me.

Mike