TX Live Mid-Season Survey Responses

We’re halfway through the season, and I want to thank everyone for helping to make it one of the best Fall seasons ever. ESPECIALLY thank all of you who took the time to fill out our mid-season survey and make the league better! WAKA appreciates everything about you guys, and I wanted to take the time to comment on some of the issues that were raised in the survey responses. Please keep bringing your concerns to me by email or through the survey each season, I'm truly dedicated to making WAKA Kickball the best part of your week. I can't wait to get back on the field with you guys, so lets hope the rain holds off!

RE: GIBSON BAR

Drink specials aren't very special. Love the bar.

$4 isn’t a super deep cut on Bacardi prices, but it is for ALL Bacardi products which means there’s a huge range of drinks you can get. If you’re just looking for the cheapest drink possible, the $2 Lone Star and Pearl cans are definitely the way to go! We’ll be going with either Jameson or Dripping Springs as our liquor special next season, and you’ll get to sample a WHOLE LOT of what they’re offering at the end of season party!

The bar chosen for this years league bar has trivia night on Thursday nights as well. I feel this should've been more thoroughly researched and vetted out before they decided to make this the league bar. The service is slow, the place is always packed, and the parking is atrocious. We went the first week and have yet to go back because of this issue.

Having free bingo complete with prizes every week from 8-10 on Thursdays was actually a really big mark in the plus column for me when we were looking at new sponsors for the fall season and discussing what they have to offer our group. Many players have expressed how much they love winning free swag all the time! Having a big crowd is exactly what we’re going for, but be sure to check out the balconies and patios in the side or back and the tables out front if you’re looking for more room! As far as parking goes, you can refer to the diagram on the league website to see where all the parking is available around Gibson Bar outside of their back lot. I’ve spoken to the manager about staffing up for our group and they’ve responded well since the first week, I think they just didn’t believe me when I told them how much fun we are!

Flip cup at the bar or more bar games.

We do have Bingo from 8-10 PM on league nights, but Gibson (like most bars, unfortunately) does not permit flip cup. If flip cup is an absolute must, our Tuesday night league’s sponsor bar does permit it if you bring in your own table and cups, and it’s a whole new group of awesome WAKA people to meet (although I’m pretty partial to Thursday myself). I've also obtained Giant Jenga and washer pits to bring to the bar, I'm just confirming with the manager that they're comfortable with us bringing them in!

RE: GILLIS PARK

Gillis park is too small. Practically at the opposing teams second base while in outfield. Some plays I have missed because I had to make sure I wouldn't collide with a team player on a "different" field. Throws off ma mojo!

Ah the ancient art of finding the middle ground with field sizes. We definitely overlap the outfields a fair amount on the fields when you’re backing up to protect against deep flies, but it’s an opportunity to flirt with cute players on the other team! One of my favorite people in Austin I met at Gillis park 3 years ago when we were playing center field on opposite games. She was dressed as a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, I was in a loin cloth, the rest is history (by which I mean she’s engaged to someone else)! As a social league, I believe that having some overlap in the fields is much more desirable than having spread out fields where you don’t interact with other teams much at all. Go meet those folks you’re in the outfield with!

Would like to better understand how the fields are numbered. It might be easier to just refer to them using cardinal directions.

The fields are numbered in clockwise order starting with the backstop as field #1, you can refer to the diagram on the league website anytime you’re not sure. To clear up any confusion, I’ve also added cardinal directions to the description of each field in the schedule tool, thanks for the idea!

RE: GENERAL

WAKA is too expensive, there are other leagues that are cheaper!

WAKA is never going to be the discount product or organization that cuts corners and makes sacrifices to end up with a price tag lower than its competitors, and we’re proud of that. We have the best kickball experience you can get in Austin or anywhere else, and our social-first philosophy has grown an incredible community of people that make for the best parties, bar crawls, and other events that you’ll go to all year long. Next time you’re out at the fields, or at the huge 80s Prom End of Season Party, or sending each other links to the Power Rankings and a funny GMOT post during a slow hour at work, or running around in a Santa suit with your best friends at WAKA Wonderland raising hell downtown and raising money for underprivileged youths in our city, take a moment to look around and appreciate how awesome what we do is and how fantastic this community is. That’s what you’re paying for.

The games need to be referred by non-players to ensure objective nonbiased calls

I strongly believe we have the best officiated games of any kickball product you can get your hands on outside of high-dollar Circuit tournaments for extremely competitive players, for a number of reasons. Non-players are also going to be for the most part non-kickballers, as there is absolutely no such thing as a professional kickball referee. Outside refs can’t be relied upon to consistently understand the unique rule set that WAKA plays by, as we literally wrote the book on it and there are a number of variations between organizations, and our most knowledgeable resources are our players themselves. Most importantly, our refs are all personally invested in the success and well-being of the league because they are themselves a part of the community! Every ref out there is doing his best to make each call as they saw it, and nobody is out there trying to stick it to someone. Our refs are volunteers that care enough about our community and the quality of your experience to forego heading to the bar with their team to stay back and help make sure everyone else is having a good time as well. We’re ALWAYS looking for more refs that want to learn the more intricate ins and outs of calling a game, and if you’d like to get involved please get in touch with me at stephen@kickball.com!

I apologize for the poor responses, as the season has progressed, I've just realized that this isn't really my cup of tea.

That’s ok, I still love you. If kickball isn’t your thing we still have lots of events that you can get involved with like the East Coast WAKA Cruise, WAKA Wonderland Santa Pub Crawl, and the WAKA Wine Down Hill Country Wine Tour! I’m in the process of proposing a bicycle food truck tour as well, so keep your eyes peeled for announcements on Facebook and league emails!

I absolutely love the no bye weeks. Keep it up.

It’s going to be our objective from now on to only have bye weeks for major holidays where a large percentage of our players will likely have conflicting plans such as SXSW or July 4^th.

Too many outfielders! Also, other leagues I have played in were on softball fields which made the games more enjoyable and organized.

11 players on the field can seem like a lot when you’re not used to it, but WAKA is a social league and we want as many people to play as much as possible. One more person sitting out every inning? No thank you! Similarly, playing on softball fields stretches out the league so much that you only ever really see the folks on your team and the team you’re playing against, limiting the social opportunities at the games. That being said, we ARE looking into having our future tournaments on well groomed softball fields since hey, it’s the playoffs after all.

That's it for now, keep filling out those surveys! I had 22/324 people respond to the midseason which is only a 6.7% response rate, so I know there are more of you out there that have something to say! Do you like what we're doing and want to make sure that a good thing doesn't get shaken up like the bar or the fields or the schedule? Fill out the End of Season Survey and let us know! The squeaky wheel gets greased. Love you all!

-Stephen