I know you have addressed below the home run rules going into next year, but i would like to voice my opinion. You mention that you would think that more teams would move up to Gold just based on the home run rules. I believe that to be a false assumption. Players in this generation do not want to play up for a few reasons. One being they are scared of competition. Secondly, the money is and has been in the lower divisions. lastly, the gold division has been in shambles the last few years. Teams are not going to want to take a chance at gold and be stuck with 4 team tournaments all year that will mess up points for future years if gold does not take off. If you look at your competition, those programs do not have many teams above the "D" classification which, in many cases, would be the equivalent to silver. Those associations offer more home runs, plus the harder balls, and players are still trying to play down. NSA has a unique opportunity to get back in the game in Indiana and take teams back from the other associations. If you read the other guys (USSSA) board. They are complaining about the home run rules in USSSA. It will be near impossible to get a national association to change the rules across the board. Going into next year, NSA will have the harder ball that the players wanted, i think its time to change the home run game as well. If we leave the home run rules the same, it has been proven teams (especially in the indy area) will choose USSSA over NSA when all things considered would be essentially equal. It may not be because they enjoy USSSA more, or they perceive the game as better. It may be only because it is local to them and they dont have a reason to want to travel to play a game they can get 10 miles away.
This is what im proposing.
Bronze, 1 home run inning ending out.
Silver 2 +1 up all home runs that do not count (after 2 that do not go 1 up) are inning ending outs.
I know you would like to see teams jump into Gold or higher, but it just will not happen until the money follows into gold. I do not know what you need to do to make that happen, but i can promise you, if you miss this opportunity to make a change that will give teams a reason to come back to NSA, you will regret it in the long run.
Also, please bring the super worlds back to the region that NSA resides in. Having it in Florida seems like a great idea. How many NSA tournaments were held in Florida before this one. Maybe one day the NSA region will expand far enough to get into warmer climates, until then, you are just alienating some teams that would have traveled to Ohio just to get the experience. Even better yet, have the super worlds in a city that has supported NSA. having it in Kokomo or Warsaw would be a great location and drive the economies of these towns. Your competitors are trying to get these two parks to become a staple to their organization. If they come in and sell the town on bringing more teams and more money to the community, it gives the town something to think about. If NSA locks the towns up by offering these large tournaments, it just solidifies the foothold NSA could have.
I would appreciate some feed back on this post
Thanks
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