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 4th.
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
