Saturday League Update

Captains looking to register a Saturday team are strongly encouraged to read “Caution: Register Early” (below) to reduce the likelihood of increased player costs.

Background
The League began offering outdoor soccer on Saturdays in Baltimore County (Summer 2012) and, at one time, the Saturday league topped out at 16 teams (but only once).  The Sunday league, primarily in Baltimore City, has become far more popular — growing from 4 teams (Spring 2013) to a consistent 28-30 teams (present day).  A number of challenges have presented themselves over the years; thus, the League is exploring – and may implement – several changes as early as Spring 2022.  (If all goes well, it may serve as a test run for a Sunday change as well – way too early to tell, and it is certainly not necessary for Sundays at this time).

Venue
The location of Saturday games has been a source of tension for some time with a number of players/teams preferring to play in the County and others preferring the City.  It is certainly understandable, which is why the League has aimed to keep Saturday games in Baltimore County in recent years, particularly since Sunday games are played in Baltimore City.  Unfortunately, securing County fields with consistency on Saturdays has been a challenge in recent years (not only because of the pandemic), and rental fees for County fields have increased, currently higher than rental fees for Baltimore City, which makes pesky things like “profit” more challenging.

While there have been ebbs and flows from 2012 to 2021 for both the Saturday and Sunday leagues, the Saturday league has served as little more than a loss leader,* generally a poor strategy for a small business owner.  As you might imagine, those issues have further clouded the question of location for the Saturday league.  However, after exerting a little brain power, there may be some solutions.

*According to Investopedia, “A loss leader strategy involves selling a product or service at a price that is not profitable but is sold to attract new customers or to sell additional products and services to those customers. Loss leading is a common practice when a business first enters a market. A loss leader introduces new customers to a service or product in the hopes of building a customer base and securing future recurring revenue.”

Possible split field.  A question has been added to registration for teams to indicate their preference for field location.  The question asks that a Captain rank their team’s preference for venue on a scale of 1-10 with “1” being the greatest preference for Baltimore County and “10” being a greater preference for the City.  The League intends to take this information into consideration when scheduling games, should a field-split option be possible.  If that happens, the League will attempt to optimize teams’ preferences, but no guarantees should be taken that a team would get the vast majority of its games at its preferred location.  (This question will also likely be added for FA’s).

Format
Rather than have a more traditional format of regular season and playoffs, each team would still get the traditional eight (8) guaranteed games, but each season would be only those eight games.  At the end of that “season,” another “season” would start, also with eight (8) games.  In effect, the traditional formal of the Saturday league would make way for more of a “Premier League” format.  The “window” between seasons will give teams the opportunity to join, but there would generally be no weeks between seasons.

Caution: Register Early
For reasons that have never been particularly clear, Captains of Saturday league teams tend to register later in the process.  Later registrations generate higher revenues, which is good for the League.  However, the additional revenue is nominal, and have not served as an effective deterrent to later registrations.  The pricing tiers (early, regular, late) have always been intended to incentivize registration earlier in the process.  Earlier registration helps to remove uncertainty about being able to offer a Saturday league, and that uncertainty is considerably higher when there are not a pool of about 30 teams looking to play (Sundays).  Unfortunately, the different registration periods have had little impact on incentivizing Saturday Captains to register earlier, which has prolonged the uncertainty.

New Cost Structure (Saturdays).  In light of the above, there is going to be a change in pricing structure for the Saturday league.  This new pricing structure should marginally affect players, if at all, compared to the existing price structure.  In most cases, players will be in a very similar position and, in some cases, even in a better position compared to the existing price structure.  The significant benefits of this new pricing structure are twofold:

1.  Things should become drastically simpler.  Captains will know exactly how much the team fee will be at the outset.  There will no longer be distinctions made between males/females or new/returning players.

2.  Earlier registration will be much more incentivized.  The League’s considerable uncertainty of having a sufficient number of teams from one season to the next is among the greatest factors weighing on continuing the Saturday league in any capacity.  However, because many players do wish to play, the new pricing structure should help to significantly alleviate this uncertainty or, at the very least, make it slightly more worthwhile to deal with.

New Cost Structure (team cost)

The team fee amounts in the table above are the number the League intends to use for 2022.  Should any change be necessary, Captains will be notified ASAP.  For a cost comparison between the two approaches (and various FAQs), click here.

Additional Season/More Games (schedule permitting)
The League would also plan to add a fourth season to the year, which would offer players the chance for more games.  The League would continue to operate from roughly mid-March through mid-December, but eliminating playoffs would allow for another season.  (New format: 8 games x 4 seasons = 32 total games; traditional format: no more than 30 games in a season (very few teams) with many teams getting closer to 24 games).

Captains will also have the opportunity to get an additional $50.00 discount for prepaying their team’s deposit for additional seasons in that year, if applicable.  See FAQs for complete information.

Conclusion
Without the above changes, there is little likelihood of the Saturday league being able to continue.  The League recognizes that there is some uncertainty baked into things, especially with respect to a mixed-venue approach, but your flexibility is greatly appreciated.  Hopefully some of the above adjustments will help resolve a number of issues that have existed for quite some time, in a way that has little adverse impact on players.  Thank you, in advance, for your understanding.