Educate me on the NPF

So I asked some questions on the Akron Racers Facebook page and suddenly the comments were gone later. Can someone help me understand the NPF?

1. Define MLB development partner and what benefits the league gets from it. I'm not seeing much except the MLB avoids someone yelling Title 9 at them.

2. Why doesn't the NPF market themselves during the WCWS effectively bridging the gap between college and their little known pro league? Why don't they market themselves during their "development partner's" (MLB) games?? I know they are tiny with no money but market a turd just right and people will buy it. With the WCWS growing in popularity yearly, there's no excuse not to be tapping into that well.

3. Why don't they have a team that plays out of ASA Hall of Fame Stadium since that's probably the most well known softball stadium in the common household because of the WCWS? Is it an ASA/USSSA issue since the USSSA owns the Pride? This would be a huge source of easy publicity for the ASA team during the WCWS even if all they did was setup a booth, sign autographs, and take selfies with college fans. Throw in some exhibition games and clinics and you'd have a great turn out.

4. Why are we charging $29.99/mo or $49.99/season to stream the 2017 season? MLB TV costs like $10.99/mo and they have WAY more available teams and games to watch. I'm a cheapo. Mr Krabbs might be my spirit animal, and it pains me too much to pay that much to watch two months of softball when the WCWS and every other major men's sport can be found for free on network television.

Sorry sometimes I get stuck on random things, but the failure of professional women's softball really bothers me. I feel like there's potential, it's just untapped. I try to keep up with it, but it's too hard with an app that doesn't work well, to too many annoying email updates, and the nonexistent presence outside of Facebook.


And I realize this makes me sound hateful and like a jerk fan. Not trying to be that way. I just don't understand why the NPF is so secretive or hush hush about stuff. I want to see a professional women's sport thrive, especially softball where there are so many greats playing overseas or not playing at all after college because the opportunity just isn't there.

Well, I cant answer any of you questions, but I will agree with you. I think the MLB partnership is a joke. It pretty much does nothing for them. Maybe if they played in the MLB stadiums and each MLB team started their own NPF team? There are more then enough players. Even if they went down to MiLB teams/stadiums. If you went down to the MiLB stadiums, tickets could be cheaper, more people would probably come that are baseball fans just to see, you would have more people just going for something to do and then they would get interested once they see its a lot better then baseball, LOL.

I think the problem is there aren't enough teams and there isn't enough coverage on mainstream TV. The college games are getting more play on TV now, especially with the expansion of the sports networks that come with TV packages today. I remember a few years back when it was way expensive to get channels like the SEC Network, but now its included in most midrange packages. ESPNU, BigTen Network, etc.

No matter what happens, how its marketed, coverage, etc I think it will be very hard and a long time before the NPF is more popular then what it is now.

As for the ASA/USA/USSSA issue. I think each sanctioning body could go in with the MLB team in the home state (or closest to) of the organization for a team, USSSA Florida Marlinettes or something. It might increase interest for those organizations also.

I do hope that the NPF, or even another Pro level softball league takes off. With the amount of growth that College has had in the last few years, I think it is doable.

My husband thinks that the NPF should look at being a winter league and work out an agreement where they play in the domes that the MLB wouldn't be using since it was their off season. He thinks there is too much competition with the MLB during the summer. Playing exhibition games before MLB/MiLB games that were included in the regular ticket costs would be an option too.
I've also thought that while they need to get more teams, the ones they have are too far apart. They have teams in Florida, Texas, Chicago, and Akron. For a league who struggles with paying players, I think if their teams were located a little closer they could cut both travel costs and pick up momentum as a regional phenomenon then start expanding outward.
I live in Oklahoma so I don't know how much support the teams have locally. Does Abbot's playing generate a large crowd in Texas? Right now some film makers put together a pretty cool looking documentary over the Akron Racers that's generating some interest in Akron its self but does that interest reach farther? Honest questions because I seriously don't know what they average in attendance or merchandise sales from their home crowds.

cantletitgo said:

My husband thinks that the NPF should look at being a winter league and work out an agreement where they play in the domes that the MLB wouldn't be using since it was their off season. He thinks there is too much competition with the MLB during the summer. Playing exhibition games before MLB/MiLB games that were included in the regular ticket costs would be an option too.
I've also thought that while they need to get more teams, the ones they have are too far apart. They have teams in Florida, Texas, Chicago, and Akron. For a league who struggles with paying players, I think if their teams were located a little closer they could cut both travel costs and pick up momentum as a regional phenomenon then start expanding outward.
I live in Oklahoma so I don't know how much support the teams have locally. Does Abbot's playing generate a large crowd in Texas? Right now some film makers put together a pretty cool looking documentary over the Akron Racers that's generating some interest in Akron its self but does that interest reach farther? Honest questions because I seriously don't know what they average in attendance or merchandise sales from their home crowds.

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Ok... so here goes...

First the season needs to be when it is for a variety of reasons... (doesn't conflict with the 'real' money seasons overseas in Japan/Europe, less conflict with National Teams (many players are Australian/Japanese), conflict with coaching jobs in college in the fall, etc). It is a good gap.

So the big issue in my mind has always been the model. Like many other minor sports, NPF have tried to jump to and maintain a 'national', fully professional model from day one and this has a very, very limited level of success. You are right - travel for a softball team is expensive and there is no living wage available under this model. Basically there isn't enough money to run the league and market it. It isn't working well and it is struggling year to year to make progress. It needs a new model - and there is a couple out there that could work if you change how you look at a professional league.

First, it doesn't have to be 24/7 professional. Players and coaches don't have to exclusively be softball players to be professionals. The Japanese model where they work for a sponsoring company may be viable, or even an investment in helping players find jobs local to a team can make up a living wage. It wasn't all that long ago that players in the NBA or NFL had a similar model where players worked in the off season. Work during the day, practice after work (or knockoff early) and games Friday/Sat/Sun. You can build up to a living wage for players over time (which is what happened in the major sports).

I believe there is some regional pro-lacrosse leagues like this in the NorthEast. Other countries have a lot of semi-pro leagues with similar models. I live in Florida, so I could see establishing 6 teams within the state - hell let the colleges themselves unofficially have a team and it would make a great place for players to work at as it is generally a flexible environment - plus local banks, big companies, etc, etc... It is not the millions of dollars here team owners have to invest now to get a team - it is probably sub-$300k (that is a medium sized marketing campaign for the company I work for) if you do it right plus the company gets access to 20+ college educated woman who know how to work in a team as additional assets to the business. Feels like a win all around.

To make this realistic - it doesn't have to be national from day one. It starts in a region which limits travel expenses heavily (no flights for the most part) and also allows you to concentrate your resources in one specific area. And as you have success, you can add regions as you get interest. Then you can play winners of regions against each other. Again, keep costs down. You could have conceptually eventually have a California division, a Florida one and so on. You build slower instead of all at once.

I am sure I am over simplifying it and the idea needs a lot of work - or there is a better idea someone else has. However the current model is not working and just slogging away doing the same thing every year, nowhere near critical mass, is just a long, drawn out death. At least it is a new way of thinking about it.

I could see establishing 6 teams within the state - hell let the colleges themselves unofficially have a team and it would make a great place for players to work at as it is generally a flexible environment - plus local banks, big companies, etc, etc... It is not the millions of dollars here team owners have to invest now to get a team - it is probably sub-$300k (that is a medium sized marketing campaign for the company I work for) if you do it right plus the company gets access to 20+ college educated woman who know how to work in a team as additional assets to the business. Feels like a win all around.

To make this realistic - it doesn't have to be national from day one. It starts in a region which limits travel expenses heavily (no flights for the most part) and also allows you to concentrate your resources in one specific area. And as you have success, you can add regions as you get interest. Then you can play winners of regions against each other. Again, keep costs down. You could have conceptually eventually have a California division, a Florida one and so on. You build slower instead of all at once.

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I LIKE this!

He thinks there is too much competition with the MLB during the summer.

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I disagree with him, only in that for those who follow the WCWS and then go back to baseball, the game is excrutiatingly slow. I will watch games I had DVR'd rather than stopping cold turkey and watching baseball. Many softball fans would choose to watch Fastpitch over MLB.

a problem with the summer is that most of the fan base is tied up in their own tournaments every weekend.

I have no idea how to run a sports team successfully, but my thought is to shoot for a sport like MLB in the 50's or 60's, when players weren't rich but could make a living- even working another job in the off season.

when we had a local team (New England Riptide) going to games was an awesome, inexpensive family event. I have pictures of my daughters with players who they had seen on TV playing in college, others who were or became Olympians, some who went on to coach college teams. 7 yo could hang on the fence watching pitchers warm up and they'd throw her a ball afterward. Going to these games was the quintessential American experience. like something you would see in an old movie. and my DD's thoroughly enjoyed watching grown women playing the same sport they played at the highest level. the games held their attention like nothing else. It was too good to be true, so it didn't last.

Well it's draft time. We have a few acquaintances that are draft eligible this year and at least two will get drafted.

Go to the website they said. Our draft will be awesome this year on the website they said...and the website is down.

Act like a rinky-dink operation, get treated like a rinky-dink operation.