Reply to Bethesda Premier Cup

Forum Index » Soccer

Reply to "Bethesda Premier Cup - What a joke"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The people who complain at length about the shortcomings of the tournaments are the same people who would be the first to complain if there weren't a fall tournament for Johnny and Sally to play in the seventh division at U11. I'd venture to guess than most of the same people have never volunteered for one of these tournaments.  They can't comprehend what actually goes into the organization of a successful tournament.

As for the field conditions, has anyone noticed that this area has experienced one of the wettest autumns on record?  Soccer is an outdoor sport and there are only so many turf fields to go around.  Do people really think that there are dozens of turf fields just sitting unused on any given weekend?

One of my boys is scheduled to play in Bethesda Tournament this weekend and hope they cancel.  I'd enjoy the weekend off and keeping my core temperature above the hypothermic state, unlike last weekend.[/quote]

Give me a break.  First, a lot of these complaints are coming from BSC parents, and BSC requires all of its parents to volunteer for the tournaments for each team your kid plays for, so if you have multiple kids, your volunteer time is greater.  Some may spend only 90 minutes or so volunteering per kid, others spend multiple hours per kid.

Second, the complaints about field quality have nothing to do with which team your kid plays for.  All U14 and U13 teams played on the crappy grass fields that people are complaining about, and that is true for parents of girls on ECNL teams, as well as parents of girls on non-ECNL teams.  The same was true for the teams at U12 and below, as the "top" teams from Loudoun, SAC, MD United, BSC, etc. had to play on poor grass fields, just the same as girls on the other teams from those clubs.

Third, the primary complaints about the fields at issue -- Polo Grounds, Summer Hill, Muldoons, etc. -- is that they are not designed for soccer or other sports played by kids.  Their primary purpose is for polo.  Soccer should not be played on these fields.  Full stop.

Lastly, your statement about the lack of fields for this tournament is simply not true.  There are dozens of grass fields designed for soccer (or other sports) and turf fields that could have been available for a tournament at this time of year.  Most club and school teams are done with their seasons at this time of year, and their fields were available for use.  I literally drove by 4 of them on the way back from one of our daughter's games this past weekend, and all of those fields were empty.  And that is not even counting the fields in VA.  BSC scrambled to get access to some of the VA fields (e.g., Nike Park), but I am guessing with a little more legwork, they might have been able to get access to some of the numerous turf fields in Arlington.  And did anyone at BSC think to ask some of the other clubs who were attending the Premier Cup whether, given the bad weather, BSC could play some of the games at their respective fields?  MD United, SAC, Loudoun, etc. all had multiple teams in this tournament at the U14 and younger years, and all of them have access to real soccer fields that, I am guessing, were available for games given that most of the club teams were participating in the Premier Cup.

I get the logistics and cost of getting access to fields, and how hard it is to schedule and re-schedule games as bad weather arrives.  However, as you have said, this has been the wettest Fall on record, so it is not like this should have caught anyone unprepared.  And everyone at BSC knew that the fields at issue were in very poor shape in late October.  Yet it seems like, instead of developing a contingency plan for this year's Premier Cup, the people in charge at BSC just crossed their fingers and prayed that the fields would miraculously dry out.

Given that this was the second year in a row that the fields at issue have been unplayable for this tournament, what is most disappointing is not the cancellation of games this past weekend (and, I am guessing, this coming weekend for the boys), but rather the fact that nobody at BSC has tried to secure better fields for the U14 and under boys and girls who participate in this tournament.  As has been said by others on this thread, clubs will not come back to the Premier Cup as a result of their experience this year and last year, and BSC will lose the revenue previously generated from those teams.  BSC needs to make a decision about whether they are content to continue to offer a substandard product or whether they are willing to make some changes and make this tournament a "premier" one. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics