Euro Bike Polo Series

Discussions EHBA
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#1

#EUROSERIES

TLDR:
Euro Series would be a yearly “league” of existing recurring tournament (think Berlin Mixed, Bruxelles’ Grand Royal, Hell’s Belles), meant to represent as well as it can the best infrastructure Europe has to offer - biggest tournaments with refs, live streaming, video content, statistics - with a focus on pooling resources between all these major tournaments to alleviate the knowledge and resource burden associated with organising.
This is not meant to replace the euro championships or national championships, but it’s meant to highlight the clubs that work hard on developing their players.
Also it’s in hope to give more visibility to the sport, with regular public events throughout Europe.
Another hope of it is that your club can gain local recognition for funding or infrastructure from your local businesses and/or councils, knowing that they can regularly see their club’s performances!
Also at the end of the year we can send sports media some resources to report on bike polo.

Objectives:
create a pool of tools for bike polo development that can be lent to any clubs for any events (typically euros, or worlds)
foster club growth
create and develop more content of the sport
integrate funds from bigger sponsors
facilitate organisation for host clubs
generate awards for clubs and people
Link clubs to team names
create a contact point for media

How would it work:
Between 10-12 tournaments would be selected to be part of the series each year, hopefully events with the most notoriety, in as big a region we can.
Of course clubs willing to travel more will be at an advantage, as well as clubs being in more polo dense regions. But clubs could finance their teams for travel.

What do tournament organisers have to do?
To be eligible: tournaments must have an open registration, although hosts spots and previous winner invites are ok
Tournament specific format are ok (mandatory mixed, WTNB only à la Hell’s Belles, Bench, Squad, 3v3, 4v4), but generally court size should be standard, rules should EHBA rules.
The preferred team selection after registration process is random pick, to allow fairer entry possibility.
Teams register with their preferred line up, they can chose to represent a club or not, with at least 3/5th or 2/3rd playing in that club

Effectively, it doesn’t change much for the tournament organisers. It allows them to have additional resources without the hassle around it. And for players, they can decide to participate or not for this, their effort is minimal.

Targeted events:
Berlin Mixed, Porto’s November sun, Open de Montpellier, Rouen’s Epiphanie, Milano’s Stick or Treat, London Open, Croatia’s Grafiti Na Gradele, Bruxelles’ Le Grand Royal, Hell’s Belles, hopefully Switzerland, Poland, Austria, Spain, Romania could organise something big, as well as countries from further away.

What will it cost:
10€ of each player’s tournament rego fee could be used for buying equipment for the whole series: Walkie-talkie, ref equipment, bibs, cameras, streaming equipment, spare tools for court building, complete tool kits, bike stands, high quality tents, sun and rain protection, finance travel expenses for the people moving things around/volunteering (refs, film crew)

Awards exemple:
Best Club - Best 5 results of the teams from said club
Best team - Best 5 results with at least 3/5th similarity
Best Player and/or Best WTNB Player - Best 5 indivual results
Best scorer
Most assists

Who will organise it:
Of course I would volunteer to coordinate that, if well received by the community, and I would love to hear if people have any objections, reserves, ideas or if they could be interested in participating in this.
I will be hoping to get a few hands raised to coordinate refs, film crew, gear, sponsorship, media relations in the long run.
I am hoping this can be a subset of the European Hardcourt Bike Polo Association, but totally ok if not.

When could it start:
I am thinking it could start this year, with a test season of 4-8 tourneys
dm me if you want your tourney included in this!

Who am I:
I am Jason currently living in France, I have been playing polo for 11 years, started in France, played a bit in Chile, Finland, the United States and 6 years in Australia. I played at the last 4 world championships. In 2014 I founded EHBA and organised the first election and the first euro census. I love the sport and love the people and I want to share it with all the people I can!
I am well rounded around organising and coordinating tournaments, if you need help, or ideas doing anything, let me know. It doesn’t have to be around the Euro Series.

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#2

hi Jason,

i like part of your proposal, and i dislike or dont understand part of it.

i like the idea of helping host clubs and ease up the burden of orga, but imo that was already ehbpa goals, if the board gets active again. but great stuff anyway.
also raising standards are always good.

i like a body that will rate tournament experiences and give more consistant info on what the court is ( milan is indoor, but the court is slipery, the extact dimensions of the court)

things dont add up :
a 10€ raise on every player rego to buy equipments for the whole series. which target tournaments that are already well established . so they probably already have some funds from previous successful events, and equipments.unless i missed something

also having one team of people in charge of the whole serie on a european scale seems a bit hard, like, you thinking about hauling these talkie walkie from croatia to spain ? or are you thinking something bigger like a whole court covered from sun and rain ?

more restrictions on format and team (club teams 4/5)

i actually think that the key to achieve a lot of things you are mentioning will be achieved by clubs initiative, like each club puting in work to throw events that bring money in and allow them to choose independantly how to spend that money. mid term all club with link up to think how to spend their funds wisely.
i dislike the idea of raising the price of rego just to add up a layer of orga (clubs > then euro series)
you remember how sydney club would raise money by selling hotdogs in front of bunnings ? i think thats great and under rated, if a lot of clubs would do this on a regular basis it could really be a solid base for whatever funding euro polo needs.

cheers mate hope thats helpful and great input

1 Like
#3

About your concerns: raised rego prices might be counter balanced by lower entry fees, thanks to a bunch of stuff the clubs don’t have to care for. In the case of loan for the event.
I think to begin with most of the fund will be there to cover travel expenses of volunteers in video making and or reffing. The equipment gathered by this fund would usually be superfluous on a one off event (cameras/live stream setup).

My understanding of EHBA is that it’s a passive elected group that act when major regional tournaments happen. I think this is a way to channel funds into EHBA (if that’s ok with them), by creating a fundraising independent of Euro champs, not only it allows training (think reffing/camera crew) for the bigger events but also the infrastructure will be familiar to the actors, no figuring how to use this software on a last minute event.

I think I can do the logistics since I am very passionate about the sport and ready to go far for fun (I love road trips!) and I know people travel far away for tournaments, which they could get their travel expense covered (beers/accommodation/food/fuel), if they do their part!

Local fundraising is only wishful thinking in my opinion, it is great when it happens, but will rarely develop past your own city. This type of fundraising demands a lot of energy, which is a scarce resource. And most importantly, it will not start NOW! Whereas this project can start right away, minimal commitment, on a trial basis.

About minimum club representation, ideally we would do a 4/5 but my guts tell me that people will likely not build their teams around the Euro Series at first and just make the teams they want and then if they happen to be eligible they will register to it.

Anyway thanks for your valuable comments, I hope something like this sounds exciting to you, in a way or another. As you know I like to push boundaries, and it has to start somewhere!
I hope to see you soon!

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#4

I am not sure if I do understand your proposal

I just came across that European funding:

EU Horizont

Which, I thin, would be perfectly support your idea. Unfortunately the deadline is quite tight.

3 Likes
#5

Hello!
I appreciate that link, I will look deeper into this.

The primary idea is to create a competitive platform for bikepolo in Europe that resembles other extreme sports and or small team sports.
The additional benefit is stronger local bonds, where there’s an interest in pushing your club for more infrastructure.

For this event to work, the standard that needs to be set is visibility, promotion, reffing and volunteer funding.
The primary source of funding I see is players themselves, and I think once this Euro Series is kicked off, and somewhat established more funding will follow.

#6

let me see if I caught the idea right:

  • some tournaments are chosen to be part of the euro tour
  • teams which play many tournaments will compete against each other in an overall ranking for the whole tour
  • the registration for such events will be a bit higher
  • from that money, equipment will be bought to be used at said tournaments

do the teams need to be from the same club - or could caramba (#letcarambain) compete, for example? (all 3 players from different clubs)

#7

The most important thing is the club you represent, not the team.
In your example caramba can play in the tournament they register for but will not rake points for their clubs in the series regardless of their final ranking in that tournament.

Teams play the tournament with the chosen format if the formation has 2/3rd 3/4th, 3/5th of the line up from one city , results have an effect on overall city ranking.

For example:
A team register for a tournament that’s part of the series. They are all from Montpellier, they finish 1st at said tournament. Another team from Montpellier also plays and finish 5th at the tournament. Both results are integrated in the Series ranking. As part of our club’s best 5. Until we (our club) get better results on another tournament that is part of the series.

The events that are ok to participate will have higher fee to allow for more expensive gear that could be shared with other events, think courts, spare goals, tents, bike repair stuff, streaming equipment. Those events may include Euro champs, World champs or national champs.

#8

more issues are brought to my mind:

club ranking makes organising a team with mix gender even harder and restricitve

goals, courts , camera stuff will have to be transported from one place to another, and then you will need to find storage when tou dont use them. all on you and your team
you will be working 7/7 when tournament season hits !

and what if there is two tournaments really far from each other ?

#9

I like the energy, but I think all the concepts have to be refined in practice. What about choosing 3 or 4 tournaments this year to start the rankings? Without charging more, training a camera crew, buying stuff… Just a virtual ranking and a little seal somewhere saying certified Euro Series™ event. I think most of the points we will spend ages discussing theorethically on PV will become clear once it is running. Then you keep your vision in mind to grow it, but flexible to what may happen… Whatever you can get for real is better than just a concept we discuss. What do you need to make it happen effortlessly as possible?

I also believe this kind of project could be cool to make some strong statements about what kind of sport we want to be. For example, a tournament could be elligible for the Euro Series only if it is mixed gender, or something like that… I would hate if it became soccer.

Also, what would be the difference of a tournament in the Euro Series vs a regular one? Which will be more fun?

3 Likes
#10

Benji:
I understand, I guess the idea is for each club to work on recruiting and developing their own talent (WTFNB or not) so you can be competitive in that competition. Earn your club trophy!

But you’re right it makes it difficult for now, maybe I should rank by individual registration until it makes sense not to.

Emilio:
I’ll take your advice and contact the 3-4 tournaments likely to be the biggest this season.

My intention is absolutely to get the ball rolling. I wanted to share the vision so people can get on board with the broader picture.

I think strong statements like mandatory mixed are dividing and could turn off tournament organisers by forcing their hand to a specific format.
The philosophy of this euro series will always encourage inclusivity. I apologise to those who think this is not enough for them.
Of course if that’s what players want, I will not stand against it!

In essence, tournaments in the euro series would be setting a standard in organisation, taking all aspect of the game seriously, and sharing it to the community through multitude of platforms.
They will be just as fun as other tournaments , with the added following thanks to quality live streams, high quality and consistant reffing, stats recording. And I think some people might consider that more fun!

1 Like
#11

Hi all,

I generally view bike polo as vaguely split between the competitive and casual sides. In my mind, this proposal is all about the competitive side (which y’all know I enjoy thoroughly). I always had envisioned this sort of situation rather than singular qualifier tournaments. The idea of having one bad weekend or even one bad game or bad ref and not being able to advance to the next level is scary. This solves those concerns. However, it does introduce new ones. Having qualifiers and whatnot in addition to such a series would be redundant. I am constantly jealous of how many big tournaments and facilities EU has in such close proximity. That’s what’s necessary for making this sort of thing an option in the first place. This isn’t really realistic in most of the US outside maybe the northeast and Cascadia.

That said, I think it could be valuable to separate the “series” part , the “paying dues and providing support” part, and the “competitive” part of the idea. I think if several clubs who throw these notable yearly tournaments wanted to band together and share resources, that would be an easily achievable and helpful first step. A points series can be added later on after the organization gets off the ground. Whether or not the organization fosters the competitive side or the more casual side can even be determined later! Just get together some resources, have some points of contact, come up with an incredibly boring but descriptive, and see how it works out at tournaments.

I don’t really have a good sense of the vibe of each of these tournaments. There are plenty of yearly and well-attended tournaments here that aren’t competitive at all. So if the decision is made to keep the normal competitive qualifier setup intact, then another thought is to treat new org this as non-competitive. Focus on club building, skills building (including learning how to ref), sponsors, sharing resources/equipment, etc. This would extend beyond merely the events mentioned.

To summarize, I think there are three separate issues this type of concept pivots on:

Competitive vs. Casual
Series vs. Qualifiers (whether part of org or not)
Support clubs vs. Support tournaments

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