I guess I'm a little perplexed as to why we're even looking at NPPL/PP's failure to deliver out-of-industry support when PSP is in the exact same boat - although were it not for some people misbehaving in Texas maybe they would be up one major sponsor. And financially, neither league is doing well - although it does appear PSP at least has more people willing to dump in more money and more of it presently.
Another point of note is PP/NPPL *DOES* have the potential to take some actions that would drastically improve their financial situation. It'll change the product they offer a bit, but life goes on.
Speaking of product offer, I must stand corrected re: NPPL reffing. I had earlier stated that the reffing was bad because NPPL/PP wasn't spending enough money. After talking to more of the officials, it is clear that NPPL/PP is definitely spending the right amount of money. I'm not sure if spending the money and still having ref problems is better or worse than just not spending the money in the first place though.
If there's one area where NPPL/PP could make a lot of improvement without a big budget change it would be getting a strong reffing coordinator and giving them wide lattitude with the reffing program, even at the expense of hiring a few fewer refs to pay for it. (I also think the coordinator could pay for much of themselves by elminating some apparent financial waste in the reffing program.) There are still very basic things that don't happen on the fields - can't count the number of games I watched on very cluttered 7-man fields (nature of the beast) with exactly ZERO refs on the inside of the field. Even on the showcase field on Sunday, in the Pro finals, I'd expect to see somebody on the inside snake position. Two somebodies would have been appropriate given the traffic that area of the field was taking. That's just basic things that arn't happening. Apparently the money is being spend, so I can only guess that the supervision is lacking.
Back to the topic at hand, I don't think the situation is dire enough to cause a reunification. Maybe some more cooperation. The 'extreme' parties on either end (chuck/jerry) have been eliminated/marginalized, and the current ship captains (Ged/Dave) seem to get along well enough. Although it may not be intentional, a bit of cooperation is already happening - PSP and PP use the same vendor (PB Central) for their air. That should save both leagues money, and does so without reunification. I'd expect we may see more arrangements like that that benefit both leagues without forcing them to confront issues like common format or who owns how much of what post-reunification.
Another point of note is PP/NPPL *DOES* have the potential to take some actions that would drastically improve their financial situation. It'll change the product they offer a bit, but life goes on.
Speaking of product offer, I must stand corrected re: NPPL reffing. I had earlier stated that the reffing was bad because NPPL/PP wasn't spending enough money. After talking to more of the officials, it is clear that NPPL/PP is definitely spending the right amount of money. I'm not sure if spending the money and still having ref problems is better or worse than just not spending the money in the first place though.
If there's one area where NPPL/PP could make a lot of improvement without a big budget change it would be getting a strong reffing coordinator and giving them wide lattitude with the reffing program, even at the expense of hiring a few fewer refs to pay for it. (I also think the coordinator could pay for much of themselves by elminating some apparent financial waste in the reffing program.) There are still very basic things that don't happen on the fields - can't count the number of games I watched on very cluttered 7-man fields (nature of the beast) with exactly ZERO refs on the inside of the field. Even on the showcase field on Sunday, in the Pro finals, I'd expect to see somebody on the inside snake position. Two somebodies would have been appropriate given the traffic that area of the field was taking. That's just basic things that arn't happening. Apparently the money is being spend, so I can only guess that the supervision is lacking.
Back to the topic at hand, I don't think the situation is dire enough to cause a reunification. Maybe some more cooperation. The 'extreme' parties on either end (chuck/jerry) have been eliminated/marginalized, and the current ship captains (Ged/Dave) seem to get along well enough. Although it may not be intentional, a bit of cooperation is already happening - PSP and PP use the same vendor (PB Central) for their air. That should save both leagues money, and does so without reunification. I'd expect we may see more arrangements like that that benefit both leagues without forcing them to confront issues like common format or who owns how much of what post-reunification.
