Premier is it really worth it at 14U?

[Uncle Rico]

The reality is that the number of teams that qualify for Premier from So Cal will be small. Earn a berth locally or travel to other regions to qualify. Most of the top So Cal teams have already stated their intentions to play at Premier. By limiting the number of teams, Premier will attact the best teams and produce what most will agree is the true national champion. Being that So Cal teams do not have to travel far make Premier worth it in my opinion. If a So Cal team qualified for both Premier and ASA nats, I would bet most teams will pick Premier.

[fastpitchdad05]

And let me point this out...the "National Champion" is a subjective determination based on who goes where. If some or most of the so-called strongest teams go to Roseville or Midland then the champion could conceivably be crowned at one of those tourneys.

The winner at Roseville has no chance at being considered THE National Champion.

How about this...why don't we all meet up at Park City in July? I've heard this is a beautiful place to play a tournament and the weather, although not necessarily as nice as SoCal beats Midland by a mile.

This is quite a change of opinion since your Monster Mash posts in October - viewtopic.php?p=159664#p159664

What I'm saying is...Why put up with ASA or Premier? We have options.

Teams do have options. Teams that want to play against the best competition have to qualify for Midland or Premier. Park City and Roseville are good options for the rest of the teams. JMHO

Your "Humble" opinion is the kind of opinion that will keep travel softball in the dark ages and not only comes off as arrogant elitism, but also reeks of the "old boys network" mentality. Is it really so hard to change one's mind and decide that maybe neither ASA nor Premier is the place to go for a national championship?

I'm guessing that you're saying that Roseville cannot have a national champion because it's a regional tourney. Fair enough.

My opinion during Monster Mash was based on what I knew then vs what I know now. Understand this...I STILL WANT PREMIER TO WORK. But I am questioning whether or not it will with who's in charge. This is a legitimate inquiry. I am very obviously not the only one feeling this way and asking these questions.

[fastpitchdad05]

The reality is that the number of teams that qualify for Premier from So Cal will be small. Earn a berth locally or travel to other regions to qualify. Most of the top So Cal teams have already stated their intentions to play at Premier. By limiting the number of teams, Premier will attact the best teams and produce what most will agree is the true national champion. Being that So Cal teams do not have to travel far make Premier worth it in my opinion. If a So Cal team qualified for both Premier and ASA nats, I would bet most teams will pick Premier.

And that's fine. But let's not fall into the trap we did with ASA and put up with a shoddy product run by dictators.

I'm not asking for perfection from Premier, but I am asking them to run things a hell of a lot better than they do Surf City. I think that's more than a fair request.

[ontheblack]

I, nor Gary, visit this site on a regular basis. I apologize for not responding sooner. We "do" have fields for the 14U level - Premier National Championship. We have always had fields for the 14U division. We would not have promoted a 14U division had we not had fields from the start.

During the actual championship week we will only use four major complexes.

1. Huntington Beach Sports Complex
2. Fountain Valley Sports Complex
3. Bill Barber Park, Irvine
4. Harvard Park, Irvine

The 14U division will most likely be played at the Fountain Valley Sports Complex and Harvard Park. The 14U championship game will be played on Saturday evening at Deanna Manning Stadium, Bill Barber Park. All games, in all divisions, will be covered by iscore or something similar.

Comcast & Fox Sports will jointly televise the 18HS Championship Game and we are looking to webcast the 16U & 14U Championship games if we can come to an agreement with the respective companies. We will have a formal announcement soon concerning the Broadcasts of our events. Not sure who is spreading the rumor that we dont have fields for the 14U division, but those rumors have been untrue.

Best Regards,
Dan Hay

Gee, that wasnt so hard was it? A little communication goes a long way, especially since there has been nothing since Dec 27th. You guys could benefit from a crash course in PR.

As for the "rumors", my info came from those who run two well known SoCal FP orgs.

[ontheblack]

Premier will attact the best teams and produce what most will agree is the true national champion.

Premier will attract 48 teams that qualify. That doesnt mean a National Champion, it means a Premier Champion. PS96 is arguably as good as any team in SoCal, yet they have stated in the past few months that they will be attending Nationals, not Premier. If they, or a solid team from TX or GA team wins ASA, can you really say with a straight face that the winner of Premier is THE national champion?

[PDad]

Teams do have options. Teams that want to play against the best competition have to qualify for Midland or Premier. Park City and Roseville are good options for the rest of the teams. JMHO

Your "Humble" opinion is the kind of opinion that will keep travel softball in the dark ages and not only comes off as arrogant elitism, but also reeks of the "old boys network" mentality. Is it really so hard to change one's mind and decide that maybe neither ASA nor Premier is the place to go for a national championship?

You're sadly mistaken with your cliche' characterizations of me. I'm just a realist that understands not all teams have the same goals, TCS World Series only draws teams from the west and there is tremendous inertia to be overcome in getting eastern teams to travel out west. Actually, it's virtually impossible at this late date to get them to change plans for 2011.

Understand this...I STILL WANT PREMIER TO WORK. But I am questioning whether or not it will with who's in charge. This is a legitimate inquiry. I am very obviously not the only one feeling this way and asking these questions.

That's fine as long as you judge PGF by what they've done (or not done) rather than what some anonymous posters speculate will happen. These guys aren't dumb and know this year is critical to the long term viability of Premier. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt while I watch closely. The only criticism I have this year is requiring VTD insurance for the championship. Other than that, I'm very impressed by the expansion of the qualifiers to get more teams from around the country here and encouraged by what they're working on to get video coverage of the championship games.

[fastpitchdad05]

Teams do have options. Teams that want to play against the best competition have to qualify for Midland or Premier. Park City and Roseville are good options for the rest of the teams. JMHO

Your "Humble" opinion is the kind of opinion that will keep travel softball in the dark ages and not only comes off as arrogant elitism, but also reeks of the "old boys network" mentality. Is it really so hard to change one's mind and decide that maybe neither ASA nor Premier is the place to go for a national championship?

You're sadly mistaken with your cliche' characterizations of me. I'm just a realist that understands not all teams have the same goals, TCS World Series only draws teams from the west and there is tremendous inertia to be overcome in getting eastern teams to travel out west. Actually, it's virtually impossible at this late date to get them to change plans for 2011.

Understand this...I STILL WANT PREMIER TO WORK. But I am questioning whether or not it will with who's in charge. This is a legitimate inquiry. I am very obviously not the only one feeling this way and asking these questions.

That's fine as long as you judge PGF by what they've done (or not done) rather than what some anonymous posters speculate will happen. These guys aren't dumb and know this year is critical to the long term viability of Premier. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt while I watch closely. The only criticism I have this year is requiring VTD insurance for the championship. Other than that, I'm very impressed by the expansion of the qualifiers to get more teams from around the country here and encouraged by what they're working on to get video coverage of the championship games.

I have and will continue to judge PGF exactly as who they are and what they do.

Here's part of who they are:

Dan Hay - A TD that is barely responsive to a lot of his customers.
Gary Haning - See above. According to some he wasn't always this way, but has been increasingly evasive since partnering with Hay.

The real responsibility though relies on us as customers to look elsewhere for service. If they treat us like crap and we keep running back then that is on us.

Ok, you say it can't happen in 2011 and that may be true (although I don't think it's so cut and dry). So let's closely watch what happens over the next few months with PGF and if need be, let's push for something better in 2012 or 2013.

A realist? What a full-blown cop-out that is. You keep your "reality" and I'll keep pushing for an alternate reality where despots don't rule the softball landscape and there's some hope for other possibilities.

The girls should hope for better. We should hope and strive for better.

[Uncle Rico]

The reality is that the number of teams that qualify for Premier from So Cal will be small. Earn a berth locally or travel to other regions to qualify. Most of the top So Cal teams have already stated their intentions to play at Premier. By limiting the number of teams, Premier will attact the best teams and produce what most will agree is the true national champion. Being that So Cal teams do not have to travel far make Premier worth it in my opinion. If a So Cal team qualified for both Premier and ASA nats, I would bet most teams will pick Premier.

And that's fine. But let's not fall into the trap we did with ASA and put up with a shoddy product run by dictators.

I'm not asking for perfection from Premier, but I am asking them to run things a hell of a lot better than they do Surf City. I think that's more than a fair request.

What have they done at Premier that causes you to condemn them already? Last years tourney was well run and organized. Games were not dragged out over more days than necessary. Location was good. Level of competition was good. I expect this year to be even better since we have regional qualifiers and also the 14u division.
Is it because you just had a terrible experience at a Surf City event and now you want everyone to boycott Premier?

[fastpitchdad05]

The reality is that the number of teams that qualify for Premier from So Cal will be small. Earn a berth locally or travel to other regions to qualify. Most of the top So Cal teams have already stated their intentions to play at Premier. By limiting the number of teams, Premier will attact the best teams and produce what most will agree is the true national champion. Being that So Cal teams do not have to travel far make Premier worth it in my opinion. If a So Cal team qualified for both Premier and ASA nats, I would bet most teams will pick Premier.

And that's fine. But let's not fall into the trap we did with ASA and put up with a shoddy product run by dictators.

I'm not asking for perfection from Premier, but I am asking them to run things a hell of a lot better than they do Surf City. I think that's more than a fair request.

What have they done at Premier that causes you to condemn them already? Last years tourney was well run and organized. Games were not dragged out over more days than necessary. Location was good. Level of competition was good. I expect this year to be even better since we have regional qualifiers and also the 14u division.
Is it because you just had a terrible experience at a Surf City event and now you want everyone to boycott Premier?

Where did I say boycott Premier? I said lets ask that Premier be better run than Surf City and if it's not then let's look into alternatives. Preferably an alternative that has someone running it who listens and responds to its clientele.

[FatSBDaddy]

... Being that So Cal teams do not have to travel far make Premier worth it in my opinion.

As I live in SoCal, I have to selfishly agree with Uncle Rico that Premier is better for me personally.
But is having an alternate "national champion", always hosted in SoCal, with SoCal teams never having to travel, and everyone else in the country does, really the best approach to fostering the sport's growth on a national level ? Then again, it's best for Rico & me, so who cares?