Starting a new league

tonov12

tonov12

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Okay, I know most of you have been around for awhile so I wanted to get some advice on starting a new league. I live in a small town and there are a few decent players in the area. A local bar owner and I are working on getting a "real" league started and wanted to tap the wealth of info on this forum. We are going with a BCA setup and 4 man teams. Is there a simple program out there to compute handicaps? Do you have any advice for a couple of clueless guys hoping to bring some life to this little town? Thanks a ton guys/gals.
 
League

Do a search with Google for 'Billiard league software'. It runs about $200.
Many league operators just develop Excel worksheets and reports to do it for them, especially if the league is small. (< 12 teams).

You will, mostly likely need a computer, to maintain the proper records and history of the league. Are you going to get this league sanctioned by the BCA main office, so your people can go to Nationals, etc.?

I could do it in Excel or Access database, but of course, not for free. I am a retired Sr. Software Engineer. Excel is the fastest, Access is the most complete and best looking.
 
tonov12 said:
Okay, I know most of you have been around for awhile so I wanted to get some advice on starting a new league. I live in a small town and there are a few decent players in the area. A local bar owner and I are working on getting a "real" league started and wanted to tap the wealth of info on this forum. We are going with a BCA setup and 4 man teams. Is there a simple program out there to compute handicaps? Do you have any advice for a couple of clueless guys hoping to bring some life to this little town? Thanks a ton guys/gals.
Click to expand...


Your needs are going to run along-side the size of your league. If you only have half a dozen teams, you're not going to need to invest in software since you'll have a fairly good read on most players. The things that you're going to need to work out are as follows:

1. Match format - How will it be determined which two players face off?
2. Standings - Which score will be used to determine a win? Will it be the total number of games, the number of matches or a combination of both?
3. When players cannot show - Are teams allowed to carry alternates? How many? What happens when a team cannot field a full squad?
4. Fees - How much will it cost? How much will be used toward the prize fund?
5. Prizes - Which places will get paid out? Are there awards given to individuals as well?
 
accountability!!!!!!

In addition to the things already mentioned, you're going to want to have some governance put in place.

Who's in charge of bookkeeping and accountability

are you going to have a constitution

prize structures

the more you get on paper and the more players that have input and by-in from the start the easier your life will be later on.
 
Standards and Guidelines?

Are their any standards or guidelines already in existence for the governance of these leagues? So that a new person wanting to start a league doesn't have to reproduce everything from scratch. Seems like this sort of basic criteria and support system would be vital and eliminate many unnecessary conflicts and growing pains.
 
League software

If you sanction with the BCA leagues, Leaguesys software is free. It's a web based software that will take care of everything you need to do. Go to www.playbca.com for info. They can get you whatever you need to sanction with them.

The league I run here in Richmond has just gone to a dual sanctioning system. We are now ACS and BCA as my folks want to go to Nationals. PM me if you need any more info.

Brian in VA - known around town as The Commish
 
I guess that's part of the issue here. We are really not sure how many teams we can field or how many players we will have. This is a fairly small town with just a couple of bars, no pool halls. It seems like there are quite a few people around here that would play but it's a matter of getting them to consistently play. There was a small league that one bar just threw together that had no structure. We were in the middle of the season when the bar owners team decided they didn't want to play anymore so they just dropped the whole league. This action is what made us decide to start a real league. We are going to pay the fees to be sanctioned. For the first year, we're going to keep the fees fairly small and hopefully get that to grow as the years go on. Thanks to all of you for your input, every bit helps.:D
 
Our local league with 21 five person teams uses an excel spreadsheet. It is very simple to use and is very accurate. If you want more info on it, email or pm me, and I could try to help you out. It uses the basic excel formulas for total points divided by total games played to get the players handicaps. If you are going to sanction yours with BCA, then the BCA's program sounds like the best one to use.

Good luck with whatever you decide.
 
tonov12 said:
I guess that's part of the issue here. We are really not sure how many teams we can field or how many players we will have. This is a fairly small town with just a couple of bars, no pool halls. It seems like there are quite a few people around here that would play but it's a matter of getting them to consistently play. There was a small league that one bar just threw together that had no structure. We were in the middle of the season when the bar owners team decided they didn't want to play anymore so they just dropped the whole league. This action is what made us decide to start a real league. We are going to pay the fees to be sanctioned. For the first year, we're going to keep the fees fairly small and hopefully get that to grow as the years go on. Thanks to all of you for your input, every bit helps.:D
Click to expand...
Here is the league system that I operate, not sanctioned by anyone but ourselves. www.zimsrack.com

Get in touch with me, I can probably offer you something!
Zim
 
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