A look behind the curtain

I was at the Captain's meeting for the NAKID league the other night, and was struck by some observations. What I saw and heard made me think about all the leagues I do or have played in. Generally, these leagues are the same - play kickball, drink beer, meet people. However, the look behind the curtain at NAKID is, I think, what sets it apart from the others.

First, the league is fairly new having just started this year but is well run. They have expanded from 11 teams to 23 and play on two nights during the week (Sunday and Tuesday). In addition, they got a bar to open JUST FOR US on Sundays which is a major thing for kickballers. As a group, we are pretty annoying, loud, and disruptive to other people in places and they annoy us too. (How come they don't bust into a game a flip cup while waiting for their check?)

Second, it seems that many of the new teams came over after being "fed up with the crap" (as I was told) with WAKA. It seems that people who have to actually do all the work in WAKA (ie the board members) get more and more angry the longer they stay there. This doesn't bode well for organization that relies on a volunteer (read uncompensated) customer workforce to help it make millions. Generally speaking it's fair to say that the board members are the biggest kickball dorks, so angering them seems to be the wrong way to go.

Third, I want to be clear here - I WANT TO MAKE A LOT OF MONEY WHEN I GROW UP. I do, and most of the people I know do too. Certainly so do the people running WAKA and the guy in charge of DC Kickball. Good for them, if they can make it while people enjoy kickball I salute them. Here's my problem though: people pay a decent amount to play this game in DC for those two organizations; anywhere from $50-65 per season. The divisions in each get a budget of roughly $5-6,000 to throw three parties with. That means the organizers keep 80 percent of the money paid in, $15-19,000 per division per season. Wow.

With that $5-6K the division board has to throw the parties and purchase any awards for the players. I even saw one division contemplating buying new bases because the ones they are supplied are too small! Just so we're clear, that $5-6,000 goes pretty fast when bars want $20 a head for party goers. These board members do a helluva job with what they are given. But it's not right.

In NAKID, they use the money for stuff like this: at the captain's meeting we all got food and beer - no charge. There was a raffle for two pairs of movie tickets, one for each chapter. Then an overall raffle for an Ipod Nano! Free! They have some raffles (free again) for the Kickoff Parties. All of the parties are free. They have swag throughout the season that is handed out. We were told there would be a Beer in Hand kickball game, scavenger hunt, paintball, Beer Olympics, and some other social things that I can't remember that would be free or almost free.

Oh yeah, and one more thing: THE LEAGUE CHAMPION GETS FREE REGISTRATION FOR THE WHOLE TEAM NEXT SEASON!

Many (especially the upper echelon) teams in WAKA have had this on their wish list for a while. It only makes sense, especially if you expect teams to fly across the country to be named champion. Yet neither WAKA nor DC kickball has proposed this. I guess they want to keep their money. I don't begrudge them that, but we're talking about $1,000 roughly. And really, it's more of an investment because the teams will love you forever if you do this.

What's funny is that DC Kickball and WAKA are both businesses and the NAKID league is just a group of people playing kickball but seems to operate as a better business. As they grow they are certainly setting a nice precedent. Hopefully the others will follow.