League Play vs Tournament Play in the OBA and the Impact of the ABS..

League Play vs Tournament Play in the OBA  and the Impact of the ABS..

In the many years we have been involved in coaching in the OBA the main issue year to year has always been scheduling games with competitive opponents on a regular basis within your own region quite often the only way to ensure competition would be to enter into the many tournaments offered by other OBA organisations.

Last year there appeared to be a great solution to this problem with ABS (Mississauga Monarchs) and there member club league which provided scheduled games on a regular basis locally outside of the tournament and exhibition game system 15 games guaranteed plus playoffs what a great deal and a problem solver for playing teams that might otherwise not be on your schedule.

As a member club this league certainly gives you an advantage however what if like most of the Clubs in the OBA you are not invited or accepted into the ABS to play within there League within a League system well we can tell you what happens .. Tournaments hosted by any Club outside the ABS were hard to fill due to the fact many teams have spent the budget on ABS killing revenue for those Associations attempting to host tournaments the reality is teams will attend fewer tournaments when involved in a 15 game league. More tournaments this year had issue filling out there draw with competitive teams.

Clubs attempt to raise funds and awareness by hosting Tournaments now within the GTA it has become much harder to actually run a tournament I am not sure if this was the desired intention of the ABS or just a side effect of the "member club" model  .. there are rules for member clubs no ABS Games while member clubs attempt to host tournaments which is nice for them but what about the other Clubs who do not have membership? well this means sign up and join ABS your tournament won't be able to draw flies the team budgets are spent.

1. We do not believe all Clubs pay equally in the ABS if your not a member Club in ABS you are paying
    more to participate however this makes sense without Member Clubs the league cannot guarantee enough competition.

2. For some reason the OBA rates ABS team results in league higher than any tournament wins or        exhibition game results you can see this trend in all of the rankings in all age groups .. meaning if your close enough to Brampton and Mississauga join ABS because the OBA respects the leagues strength of schedule .. really the ABS is a mix of D1, D2,D3, and D4 teams some wins are not as worth while as others but weighted heavily by the OBA ..

3. The OBA should take more responsibility in forced scheduling when it appears one top team or local team is avoiding another if #3 want to play #1 late in the year and they have never played why allow one team to run from another top teams should play top teams. The OBA should host regional tournaments prior to the OBA via  Club Team this would show a hands on approach ..

4. The ABS is a good league however they are now taking credit for OBA champions because those teams play in there League .. which is odd they don't train for coach kids there a league within a league you schedule games , provide refs and takes stats all at a cost to the participants within the GTA the hottest talent pool going in Canada so teams are going to win with or without you and teams lose as well that are ABS teams vs non ABS teams.

The OBA by embracing this concept fully has shown us all that anyone can start a league and schedule games sanctioned or unsanctioned an possibly provide an alternative service to the OBA the ABS has successfully done so with the OBA's blessing .. the problem is the ABS is actually making the OBA irrelevant to a degree. A parent came us and said why does the ABS final finish after the OBA's which is the governing body the last event should be the most important event right ? .. in 2 years teams will decide not to go to OBA's if its too far when they could just stay home and play May Madness in the ABS no hotel, no long drive same teams right ?

We believe the ABS, CYBL, The Firm and any future leagues will all have success basketball is booming here in the GTA however what does that mean for the OBA if everyone can offer the same service withing the GTA this might make the OBA more of a rural Basketball League in the next 5-10 Years.

http://www.absbasketball.ca/

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