I just thought I'd give everyone an idea of the issues that will be discussed at the organisational meeting on January 7th. It will give you a chance to prepare your arguments for and against each topic as appropriate. These are all issues that have been brought to the league committee's attention directly or discussed here on the forum.*We will be discussing the seeding system for the divisions.*We will be discussing the merits of a home and away fixture against teams in your divisions.*Proposed changes to the play-off system as seen on the forum.*Offering a soft drink alternative to the pitchers of beer for an away team.*Team fees and ways to increase revenue for the new season as the cost of the banquet will be going up next year.If there are any other ideas you'd like to see included in the meeting sheet please contact me or post in the forum. Your ideas are always welcome.Dominic

forgive me if I chuckle a little at the meeting,increasing revenues cause we can't afford the banquet again?
There's really onlyfive options, increase the number of teams, raise dues, change the way dues are assessed or spend less or last be not least a bikini car wash fund raiser. I have summarized the discussions we as a league have had over the last two years about this topic and the dissenting views.
the first option Increase the number of teams:
consider these facts:
there was one team that completed the season with under 11 players.50% of the league had 15 or more players1 team had 28 players430 players in the league total of which265 qualified for playoffs, 60% (real player ratio)
Every Team that qualified for the playoffs had at least 8 players.
50% of the league Qualified 10 or more players for the playoffs, yet we still had three forfeits.

I think this points to it beinghard for even the good teams to field a 6 man team every week. Changing the league format could make it easier to field teams, but there is a hard limit with the number of bars to play out of, however if you had 36-38 teamsthe league would be ripe with funds. This would be a good option, but got shot down last season.
The Second Option: Raising Dues; Who really wants to shell out 375-400,000 for a team? ouch it's already too much at 350,000. Not a very palatable option, I think when you raise Dues per team, you get more players per team and fewer teams.Increase of 1,400,000 (based on 28 teams)

The Third option: Change the way Dues are assessed, you could add a registered player fee per team.this would be harder to implement since you would have to rely on captains to collect the money if they add someone. If you did this you would be flush with cash to have your banquet and give out lots of door prizes etc... but it's already hard trying to find out who's' name it was who played.Increase of 430*10,000 = 4,300,000or Qualifiers only 265 *10,000= 2,650,000

The Fourth Option: Spend less: You could always look for a cheaper venue. I'm sure one exists, may have to look outside of Itaewon. Or substantially change the banquet in some capacity...
I actually like this option, we could do more of a pool focused party where we actually do pool related things. I'd rather the dues be spent on the players rather than an large expensive banquet.
Hell, We could even doaLeague Bar Crawl: Start at the league champions, and give everyone a token(coin or whatever)and then go to each bar through the strip ending at the best of the rest champion. we could do all or just participating bars. would be a great way to also say thanks to all the bars...at select locations, bars could give out Cool door prizes or drinks or whatever.
Trick shot competition
bank shot competitionbreaking competition etc...Just spit ballin, but could you imagine the Chaos?

Fifth Option: Bikini Car wash;First let me say, Nothing wouldsay Itaewon freedom more than Johnny M, Johan, Mick , Lenny, Jeff V.and you Dom in bikinis doing a car washat the Hamilton.proceeds at least W10,000,000,000,000

We weren't thinking of a bikini (surely that should be mankini) car wash, Mark, more a naked calendar with balls and cues strategically placed to give the whole thing a cheeky edge but of course shot in black and white (We have to stay classy).
In all seriousness, we are going to suggest a few ways to increase revenue without raising team fees.