We figure this is the best way of doing it…
As Ballers prepares to take over the running of the leagues down at Stockport Sports Village, we would like to take this opportunity to give our new teams a little bit of an insight as to how we do things.
We are aware that another operator had, until fairly recently, been running the leagues down there and doing it their way, but the first significant difference between what they were offering compared to us is that ours is being done in partnership with Life Leisure, rather than on a fixed pitch hire agreement. This gives us greater flexibility that we can pass on down to the teams as we don’t have the financial burden of having pitch fees to pay, even if teams don’t play. This means that we are able to:
- Run the leagues without asking teams to sign contracts
- Run the leagues without having to ask the teams to pay for games they don’t play
- Be flexible in how we arrange fixtures based around things like holidays, Champions League, Europa league etc
We’ve always ran our business with the basic idea that if we do our best to look after the teams, the money will take care of itself, so as long as you meet us half way on everything, everything will be just fine!
The key for us is communication. We will send out your kick off time, along with some other general information 3-4 days before your game, and on the day we will ask that all teams confirm by sending through a list of their players for that night’s game. These will be used to prepare the referees score cards so we can record the individual player stats for each game on the website.
WEBSITE
If you register on the website we will assign you your own profile. Once we’ve done that you can keep track of your stats including appearances, goals, MOTM’s, win % etc. You can even add a profile picture, nationality, squad number, position, height and weight (if you really want to).
All fixtures, tables and results, along with top goalscorers and the individual stats from each game will be housed on this website, and there is also a Weekly League Review where we round up each week’s action.
GAME POSTPONEMENTS
If you are ever struggling to field a side we would appreciate as much notice as possible, but a bare minimum of two hours notice if you want to hold out any hope that we can postpone the game and get it replayed. We don’t think that’s too much to ask! The more notice you can give us, the better the chances are of us sorting a game out for your opposition, and if a couple of teams in the same division cancel, our priority will be to pull a league game forward rather than asking teams to play friendlies. The general rule is that teams can postpone a maximum of two games per season, with any more than that being punishable with a forfeit defeat, but again we try and show flexibility depending on what is going on that night. We want leagues to be won or lost through games played, not forfeit wins.
SOCIAL MEDIA
We try and do as much as we can to offer up something different through our social media pages, including featured games, live streaming, individual highlights, competitions etc. Give all three a follow / like if you can! We’ll make sure to get down there for some filming EVERY WEEK!
http://www.facebook.com/skballers
https://www.instagram.com/ballerssk/
NEW LEAGUES
We’re looking forward to getting started with the NEW THURSDAY LEAGUE kicking off on 4th July, and the response we’ve had for that has been encouraging, with at least 4 new teams set to join us at the last count. Our aim is to create that split in standards and go with two divisions of 6, introducing promotion and relegation.
Once the Thursday league is up and running we will be looking to get a BRAND NEW WEDNESDAY LEAGUE on the go, with 7 of the 16 spaces all potentially spoken for before we’ve really lifted a finger to get it going! Our aim is to get the league started before the end of July, with the possibility of a tournament within the next few weeks to try and bring some new teams in.
Whatever you guys can do to help us spread the word would be massively helpful. At the end of the day having full leagues means you guys get a regular game and a greater variety of opposition, so if you see us pop anything on any of our social media sites, give them a little like, share retweet or whatever.
If you’ve got any questions about anything at all, feel free to get in touch.
We can’t wait..!