USA, USA, USA!!! The ASA rebrand...

[grcsftbll]

USSSA has their fingers in too many sports. As usual, the attention to fastpitch will eventually wane. It happened in the 90's, then the 2000's, and soon the late 2010's.

I hope not. I like USSSA best. Though we don't get much PGF, at least not that I know of (younger age groups).

 

[Lenski]

In SW Ohio, USSSA is basically for glorified rec teams. ASA and PGF rule when it comes to good competition.

 

[SoCal_Dad]

Believe me, they will try to leverage the whole Olympic opportunity hard. It was their main leverage over teams and players before and they will be glad to have it back (instead of doing the hard work they should be doing).

They definitely oversell the Olympic angle because reality is those teams are made up of top college and pro players. JWNT is also a stretch as the coaches aren't constrained to just players in their events and I seriously doubt they will ever allow themselves to be so constrained.

U-Trip is slowly building from the bottom up - and they have immense financial power that neither ASA or PGF possesses. At U-Trip world series there were way more states saying that U-trip is dominating the local tournament scene than ever before, and their higher end programs have done better than I thought they would in the first couple of years.

There are several markets (e.g. rec leagues, local tourneys, showcases, true national-level events). ASA used to be the top dog in many, however no one will ever dominate like that again. PGF's expertise is at the top level, so they took a top-down approach and their expansion at the lower levels depends on recruiting people across the country that can make it happen. U-Trip is the B circuit here and I expect they paid handsomely to get some big name teams to their inaugural ES WCS. Triple Crown did likewise with their TC/USA Nats event and I expect top teams will pit USSSA against TCS for the best deal.

To avoid confusion, I suggest the rebranded ASA be referred to as U-Sing (a la U-Trip).

 

[BobInMadison]

Around Wisconsin most tournaments and metro leagues are ASA.
The USSSA tournaments tend to be stronger on the average, though.

 

[marriard]

Really? ASA (soon to be USA Softball) is recognized as the National Governing Body of Softball for the United States by both the International Olympic Committee and the World Baseball and Softball Congress. ASA selects, funds, and trains the USA National Softball Teams. Sounds to me like they are the chosen representative for USA Softball

That is all legacy stuff ASA has had for years and years.. none of that is new. They are going to get their old toy back (i.e. Olympic games) but nothing else is going to change. They are not going to react to the very real competition hunting them and one day they are going to wake up and realize that they have been steamrolled by U-Trip from the younger ages and possibly PGF and U-Trip from the top end.

Southeast Florida now has ONE ASA tournament per year - and if you want to qualify for nationals it is a great one to turn up to because the biggest age division (16U) had all of 12 teams - 18U and 14U had 8 and 12U had 4. We didn't play because 1) If we won we wouldn't go to nationals anyway and 2) it was going to cost 3x to register and play over what it was going to cost to play a U-Trip tournament which was better attended and run. We would have had to have played MINIMALLY 3 ASA events to recover the cost but would have had to travel every time to go to any other tournament so more cost - and since a lot of them are just double elims/no pool games - 2 and out for extra money... no thanks. A friends team wasn't very good but the org is the one tied to ASA locally so they went to 3 away ASA events in Central Florida for a total of I think 7 games.

[MENTION=10413]riseball[/MENTION] is right about U-Trip and technology. Their website is a total pleasure to use; getting teams registered and insured is painless, managing rosters is really easy, reviewing your team and opponents and their rosters and records is easy, the schedule is easy to understand (and update and create if you are on the admin side). It is even easy to add photos to to your team page.

Registering for ASA is all sorts of painful time wasting BS. ACE coaching level 1 is a total joke. Insurance is process is stupid, expensive and unnecessarily complex. Registering players and coaches is painful and stupid.... in fact it is just stupid and painful all around. The website (and individual state websites - why?) is awful, their tournament registration and scheduling website is terrible - and they updated it recently. (Yet they are still better than NSA which I have no words for).

I can't speak for PGF since I haven't experienced it as they haven't been able to get it off the ground in Florida yet (they are trying again this year but it is nowhere near us).

Edit: U-Trip - despite updating their website multiple times per year - still allows you to find out results from past years easily on their website - just in case you want to remember that 8U tournament your DD was in back in 2010 (yes I have looked at it once or twice)

 

[Eric F]

In So Cal, ASA is the dominant org for rec ball, with LL a distant second. USSSA rec ball is non-existent. In TB, however, ASA is fading far behind TCS and PGF. In 2015, there were over 40 teams playing in ASA 12U A-States. This year, it was less than 20. A typical local org weekend TB tournament will draw more than 20.

 

[junkball]

Yup, way too many old guys set in their ways and refuse to change. They honestly believe that all the teams playing in PGF will return to ASA.... hahaha

With PGF nationals, if you go 0-2 in bracket play, you have 3-4 days to enjoy the sites and all that there is in the LA area. With ASA, you may be in some po dunk town that is a bore. Sure, it's nice to go to different areas of the country, but they tend to pick some very random locations. Normal, IL? Not saying it's bad place, but do you want to be there for 7 days? Salem, OR? Same thing. South Dakota? Findlay, OH? Sure these are all nice places to visit, but spend a week there? Not so sure about that. Just my thoughts.

 

[JAD]

ASA can change their logo as many times as they want, but until they stop hosting their national tournament in EBF locations they are just putting lipstick on a pig!

 

[#10]

I doubt they really care about PGF who is truly a minor player with no legs that is comfortable a niche market.

All of the college coaches who are here in SoCal for the 14U/16U national championships this week would disagree!

 

[smddad]

PGF has quickly become everything they hated about ASA, with the exception their nationals are held in SoCal.