Winter League 2011-2012
Unless you are new in town, you understand that Houston is currently in the midst of a historic drought. The good news is, we don't need to factor rain outs into the winter league schedule. The bad news is, usable fields are scarce. There were grass fires within a couple of miles of the site in George Bush Park that we used last year and that location is closed. Several other sites are also closed, resulting in increased competition for field reservations between ultimate, soccer and other sports.
More good news: we have managed to secure fields for Saturday mornings, 10:30a - 2:00p starting on December 10th and going through to January 21st with a league tournament the weekend of February 4th. More bad news: we had to go all the way to Zube Park to accomplish this. If you live along 290, you probably think this is great. The rest of us are trying to do the math...(Last year's fields were roughly 25 miles from downtown, including a few miles of stop lights and stripmalls. Zube is 36, but is just off the highway.)
We organizers understand that is a long drive. We understand that there is little more than two weeks before games would start. We hope you understand that we need a certain number of players to make this league worthwhile. So here's the plan : we are going to open registration on the website and start taking payments. If we fail to get 160 registrations (8 teams of 20) by 11:59pm on Sunday Nov 27, we call it off, support our local pickup games and try again in the spring or another creative solution. (If you have any suggestions on fields, a creative league idea or want to help in any way then please email winterleague@houstonultimate.org)
Yes, it makes for a weird plan, but drought, record breaking heat and an already scarce number of viable field sites all have consequences. Oh, and we might need insurance and therefore USA Ultimate sanctioning....more difficulties <sigh>
So, we need people to sign up and we need them to sign up early, rather than the traditional last week rush. That's why we are using the following pricing, with significant early registration discounts
| Player Costs | Base Price | Insurance | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-USAU Member* | $55 | +$10 | $65 |
| USAU Member** | $55 | $0 | $55 |
| Discounts | |||
| Super Early Bird Discount (register by 11/21) | -$15 | $40 or $50 | |
| Early Bird Discount (register between 11/22 and 11/26) | -$10 | $45 or $55 | |
| Student Discount | -$5 | ||
**USUA insurance coverage is one benefit of UPA membership ($40/year). You must be a UPA member for 2012 to be covered for league. Unfortunately, you cannot sign up with the UPA for 2012 until Dec. 1st, so we will send a reminder e-mail.
The registration fee gets you six weeks of games (no game on Christmas day) and a disc. If that seems a little high, let me say again, "fields are a scarce resource and we are lucky to have them."
Wanna know who has signed up and how close to 160 we are? Click here
Wanna sign up? Click here
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