Continuing Thoughts on League Expansion

Problem:

The NCDA is the kind of league that sees consistent growth over the course of time. The only issue facing the league in this regard is how do we continue this growth?

First, it’d be great if we could actually increase the rate of entering new members into the league. The league brought in three new east coast teams in 2011-12, and one new one this year in VCU. It’d be great if we could keep this up, especially since there are a bevy of schools just in the tri-state area of Maryland, Virginia and Delaware that could potentially have dodgeball clubs. Personally, I know University of Delaware has one since Towson sees them every year at a non-NCDA tournament held in December. Having talked to the guys from UDel and from many other teams that attend the tournament, many of them have expressed great interest in joining the NCDA. There’s only one problem with this, we don’t have a way of contacting these guys and girls. As much as I’d like to see a great East Coast expansion so teams like Towson, UMD, Penn State, and RIT can see more action. It would also be great to see more expansion down south so JMU and VCU don’t have to travel as far as they currently do to play at other tournaments.

Knowing that the league plans to apply for non-profit status soon (thank you Bomis) we also have to wonder about how to advertise the league. In my opinion, we are the most unique dodgeball league in the nation, if not the world, based on how we play. Other leagues have similar elements to us, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a league that plays 15 v. 15. How do we advertise to other schools that it is worth it to get 15 men and women to come together and hurl what most people mistakenly call kickballs at each other? In addition, how do we make it clear to people that we go harder than Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn?

Solutions:

Every year Towson travels up to New Jersey to participate in a tournament that is played in a completely different manner than what we are used to. In this tournament we see teams from New Jersey, Delaware, New York, even Vermont. We have been in talks with these teams talking to them about the NCDA trying to raise interest and awareness. This tournament is full of talent that pains me to see wasted on foam balls. We have gotten teams like Monmouth University (NJ) interested in joining in, but we don’t have a way of keeping in contact with these guys. If we can get these teams’ contact information who knows what could happen. Also, if other teams can find tournaments like these out in the midwest or down south this league could really explode in expansion. Who knows, maybe we could actually blaze that Oregon Trail in a few years.

Author: ssmith19

Former Captain and Vice-President of Towson Dodgeball. Sporting #19, Sean's talents as a content writer range from previews, interviews, postgames, and excessive uses of both satire and sarcasm. Also, he is the first person to bring some much needed East Coast flavor to the NCDA site.

One thought on “Continuing Thoughts on League Expansion”

  1. 1 way is to exchange business cards. Most of the time, they don’t get looked at or used but at least you have your contact information on there. (e.g. NCDAdodgeball.com, NCDA Dodgeball, Email, phone, whatever you think is relevant: YouTube, Facebook Fan Page, Twitter. vistaprints.com offers 250 free prints.

    2nd way I can think of is for them to join a Facebook Group that’s open to new member teams or use one of the old NCDA groups for them to join. https://www.facebook.com/groups/2204898728/ It’s probably better if they just look us up. Then again, even if they remember, will they take the time to check out info.? then actually “send an email?”

    Just keep trying, have that effort. Failure happens a lot. Sorry If I can’t be any more useful.

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