So I was reading this post over on AFDC.com, and it's got me wondering - is goalty dead? There was a goalty tourney in Birmingham 3 years ago and it generated a lot more interest from Atlanta folks. Nobody's really interested in traveling for it anymore.
Goaltimate in Atlanta experienced steady growth through the winter of 2003. It has pretty much leveled off since then. We are able to consistently get 120-130 people for every league now, but there aren't really many new folks coming into the leagues.
The most obvious area of decline in numbers is the elite players. The latest league features only 4 of the 14 players who attended the last national goaltimate in san diego.
A quick google search finds only one competitive goalty league still happening. Johnny Bravo Flatball. To my knowledge, there aren't really any big goalty tourneys on the horizon. So is goalty dead? Are there other leagues out there that I don't know about?
7 comments:
no comments = clearly dead
Thank god
what are the reasons for goalty's "death", if it has occured? i would be curious to hear what you think has caused the elite players to stop participating in the afdc's leagues.
I think part of it is tied to the fact that there aren’t any big national tournaments on the horizon. When big tournies are expected there’s some incentive to play in the leagues to stay in goalty shape (different than ulty shape) and keep the goofy throws sharp. With no big tounies some of the “elite” players decide not to play, which in turn makes it less appealing for other elite players to play etc. I also think that there’s less of an emphasis on bringing in the club players than there used to be. When I was commish I would harass the bejesus out of Chain/Ozone to come out and play. I think in 2003 we had like 14 Chain players sign up. The current leagues just seem to be more geared to a slightly different audience. But in general I think there’s just less interested in competitive goalty. Most winters we try to have competitive goalty pick-up out at East Lake. We really struggled to get that going this year as well.
At a steering committee meeting last year we talked about the attendance problems the summer goaltimate league was having. I think organizing a goaltimate league on top of the traditional summer league and the Saturday league is just too much disc for a community, especially if you have a large portion of club players who are already stretching their schedules preparing for the fall club series.
Additionally, I perceived that the AFDC's interest in organizing year-round goaltimate leagues took away from other pursuits, namely organized pick-up ultimate games. Call me a liberal, but I think that providing regular oppourtunities for pick-up is the responsibility of any ultimate organization. It grows the sport and strengthens the community. I imagine the same portion of the population that is served by week-night goaltimate leagues in the fall and spring could be just as well served by having a regular AFDC-sponsored pick-up game. Keep the winter goaltimate league and get rid of the summer goaltimate league all together.
--He
The AFDC actually did get rid of summer goalty this year. They offer weekly goalty pickup instead.
as goalty commish, i bugged the shit out of the hardcore goalty heads to sign up for the winter league. they signed up and never came out. not sure what else i can do.....i was thinking that making one league tourny a year (probably winter, maybe spring, no way fall) a 2- day event with pool play and such....maybe that will get the big names back involved...
any feedback on that?
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