ontheblack wrote:AI - I think people are just surprised to see PGF have to give away berths to fill in a 60 team field.
IMO PGF jumped the gun with the 14U invites and increasing the field from the original 48 teams. They didnt need to do that. Im sure they realize that now.
To me 60-70 teams in a national tournament seems about right.
Yeah, east coast is going to take a while to win them over. You can kinda count on the fact that ASA will resist change and the 'ASA system' is setup to extract over 3x as much from teams as PGF. You have to pay 2x as much in flights, 3x as much in hotels and miss 3x as much time from work. To get the glory of going to ASA and playing a weakened field. I say eventually teams do the math and make the
smart decision.
Additionally the 'ASA system' really only makes any additional monies if they get in the 140 team range. Johnson City, Midland and others will have to make their profit off of 90 or 100 teams. At that point they have two choices, raise fees and prices or, I believe, you will see them exit the system. They will move onto other goofy sports that allow their voting boards to be taken over by those that only seek to maximize profit from families. At that point ASA and Premier can and should start to work together.
For me, PGF vs ASA is like Apple vs Microsoft. Right now they both seem to be making each other better, and that is great for the sport.
