Originally Posted by Anonymous
To the fool that wrote, “there is no precedent for a safety outcry” and then again wrote, “If a minority number of your customers hate your product, but stop in everyday to buy it anyway, is there precedent for change”… I would suggest you look up the meaning of the word precedent and then go and find me another contact sport (at the youth level) that doesn’t have some limitation or control for size and/or age. Do you think that was always the case?

Here are a few tips for you moving forward - a) don’t use words you don’t really understand the meaning of and b) don’t cite examples of things that actually argue against your point.

Business is business and this whole thing is real $ for the people that run it. So, no - it won’t change overnight. That doesn’t mean that consumers of the product (with as much right to their opinion as you have to yours) shouldn’t make the case for why there is a better path forward. Parents of left-back kids exploit a system that is deliberately set up to be exploited. Sorry, but Jr. is just older than his opponents, he is greatly advantaged by that fact and the left-back parents know this is true. Rationalize away!



Agreed. Moreover, many businesses, and even entire industries, have rested on their laurels and said "why make changes, we are successful", only to see the world change and leave them behind. As said above, this thing is real $ for those that run it, and if they are not concerned with growth, they should be. Moving to an aged based system, in conjunction with a more delineated and uniform skill level division (AAA, AA, A & B), will, in my opinion, engender more growth than they are already experienced, and more importantly, more sustained growth. For those who site numbers showing that lacrosse is growing at a substantial rate as it, keep in mind that this growth is mostly due to the fact that lacrosse is only starting to move away from its very small niche areas of LI and MD. Its a great sport and its being established in many areas of the country where it was never played before. This type of "0-60" growth for any industry is very easy. But there is still room for tons of growth, especially with the summer/fall teams, and in order to maximize this growth, it needs to move to age-based, and it needs to move to a more stratified skill/athletism structure, which will be easier to do the more it grows. This will ensure that kids play against kids who are similar in both age and skill. When this happens, kids and parents will be happier, more likely to keep coming back, and most importantly, more families will want to participate in travel lacrosse. I have seen many kids put on teams where they don't belong, than play against kids who are much older and much more skilled. These kids don't come back. Their money is just a green as everyone else's. If these clubs fostered a true B division (not the so-called one where if the team is not one of the top 10 in the country it is B) where kids played on age, these kids would thrive. My kids would likely be AA on age and the experience would be much better.