League Schedules

[shoeshine boy 242]

question for you guys that play some form of organized hockey:
how long before the season starts does your league release your schedule?

back story: our league (independent, not run by a rink) has 9 skill divisions and 70 teams. we have an eval skate for new players between seasons (usually around 3 weeks before we begin) and teams looking for players can draft from that pool though some players are ear-marked for certain teams and must be rated at the proper level. we routinely have 65-70 new players show up at each eval skate. 2 of the last 3 seasons we've had enough players left over to make new teams. because of this sometimes we don't get the first month of the schedule until about a week before. we then usually get the remainder of the schedule a few weeks later. basically players are bitching that they can't set their work travel schedules soon enough causing them to miss games and they want us to figure out a way to release the schedule before we even have the eval skate so I'm curious how other leagues do it. 
thanks, I'll hang up and listen. 🙂

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Usually 4-5 days. Championship is won on Sunday, the next season is posted on tues/wed or so, and starts on Sunday again. 

But we only have 6 teams in our division and one of them only plays Wednesday nights. The rest of the games are either 7PM or 9:30PM on sundays so the schedule is pretty easy to make and doesn’t change much.

[djsalerno 3]

@shoeshine boyDo you happen to be in Seattle? 

[marka 526]

Howdy,

I would say typically around here we get a full schedule no more than a week or two prior to the session starting.  In one of my leagues, for the last session it was scheduled week by week... We would get the upcoming weekend's games scheduled by Wednesday or so of the preceeding week (and, fwiw, NOBODY liked this... 2 or 3 days notice sucks).

In short, the OP's league sounds better than anything I'm used to.  🙂

Mark

[althoma1 574]

For ice hockey, they usually release the schedule for the first 2 months of the season about 2 weeks ahead of time. Then they release the schedule for the next 2 months about 2 weeks before the first game in that schedule ect. They only schedule 2 months at a time so they can rebalance divisions if necessary.

For the inline league I play in, they release the entire season's schedule about 1-2 weeks before the first game. This is only an 8 team draft league; so any rebalancing is done via trades and not by moving teams up or down divisions. So that allows them to release the entire regular season schedule at once. 

For my planning purposes, I prefer to have the schedule 1 month in advance, but do understand that this isn't usually practical. I do appreciate that once my inline schedule is released, it's set for several months (I now know my game times from Jan 6th until mid-June). My Jan ice schedule only goes until Jan 14th and I'm anxious for the next 2 month block to be released ASAP so I can plan around it. 

I can see why players would want the schedule ASAP, but expecting it before the evaluation skate isn't reasonable. So unless the evaluation skate is moved back to 4 or 5 weeks before the season instead of 3, then the best they can hope for is to receive the schedule 2 weeks before the start of the season. Getting it a week before can be somewhat difficult to plan around; so I'd aim to get it out 2 weeks before, but sooner if it's possible. 

Edited January 2, 2019 by althoma1

[shoeshine boy 242]

4 hours ago, djsalerno said:

@shoeshine boyDo you happen to be in Seattle? 

nope, about as far away as I could be in the USA. I'm in Atlanta

[shoeshine boy 242]

41 minutes ago, althoma1 said:

Foee why players would want the schedule ASAP, but expecting it before the evaluation skate isn't reasonable. So unless the evaluation skate is moved back to 4 or 5 weeks before the season instead of 3, then the best they can hope for is to receive the schedule 2 weeks before the start of the season. Getting it a week before can be somewhat difficult to plan around; so I'd aim to get it out 2 weeks before, but sooner if it's possible. 

that's what we're grappling with. some people want to move the eval skate to mid-season of the previous season. I think it's not good to have people come try out and then tell them, "ok, now you've got to wait 3 months to see if a team picks you up.". we have 2 seasons a year, 20 games plus playoffs.

some players also want to move registration to mid season as well. imo I think that could create issues if you're dumping a player. I've been that player that's been dumped and rather than play the last 3 games I just  bailed because it was too awkward for me.

[djsalerno 3]

@shoeshine boy  You could take everything you wrote (from teams, to eval skate, to schedule, to complaints from players) and apply it to one of the leagues up here in Seattle, haha.  

[CRupp13 28]

Whats a schedule? Both Men's teams that I play on in NY, in 2 separate leagues mind you, only give their individual games out 2-3 weeks in advance. We never get a full season schedule.

[shoeshine boy 242]

many thanks to those that responded. my first instinct is to tell our players how good they've got it but that seems harsh. I'm sure we'll still keep looking for options but it's nice to know that if anything,  we do a BETTER job than the average league.

Edited January 8, 2019 by shoeshine boy

[Paddy 11]

Do you all have drafts? I've never paid much attention, because we get our schedules way earlier than anything you all mentioned. But, we don't do any drafting.

People were bitching early December that our schedule for January wasn't out. It dropped and included all the way through March.

We've got it good.

[badger_14 601]

There's a few leagues here that draft, but they tend to be C+ and up.  The few times I've played in a league it's been small and you at least have a single day of the week and a time range (e.g. a Sunday night league with rotating start times between 5pm and 8pm).  Having games on a specific day at least makes it easier to schedule around work for most people. 

[shoeshine boy 242]

18 hours ago, Paddy said:

Do you all have drafts? I've never paid much attention, because we get our schedules way earlier than anything you all mentioned. But, we don't do any drafting.

People were bitching early December that our schedule for January wasn't out. It dropped and included all the way through March.

We've got it good.

we draft as needed. our league has 70 teams in 9 different divisions. our last eval skate we had 70 people show up. where all these people come from every season I have no idea. if you're already spoken for by a particular team then you are just hoping to be rated at that level during the eval skate. if you don't have a home yet then the eval skate is the place to be seen by all the captains who have available spots. when we draft we start with our most advanced level and work our way down. some seasons we have enough players of a similar skill level to make entire new teams or "draft teams", as we call them. this is often what makes it impossible to make the schedule beforehand, as some of our players are wanting us to do.

[Paddy 11]

That's on a scale I can't even imagine. This season, we didn't even have an A level. D is the largest, with about 10 teams I think.

With A disappearing, I think some skill rolled down hill, if you know what I mean... But the guy running things is pretty awesome at booting guys playing down, especially into D. I mean, there's a 2 goal limit per person, and a few guys are clearly struggling just to stay on their feet. How much fun can that be?

[caveman27 208]

On 1/2/2019 at 8:47 AM, shoeshine boy said:

question for you guys that play some form of organized hockey:
how long before the season starts does your league release your schedule?

back story: our league (independent, not run by a rink) has 9 skill divisions and 70 teams. we have an eval skate for new players between seasons (usually around 3 weeks before we begin) and teams looking for players can draft from that pool though some players are ear-marked for certain teams and must be rated at the proper level. we routinely have 65-70 new players show up at each eval skate. 2 of the last 3 seasons we've had enough players left over to make new teams. because of this sometimes we don't get the first month of the schedule until about a week before. we then usually get the remainder of the schedule a few weeks later. basically players are bitching that they can't set their work travel schedules soon enough causing them to miss games and they want us to figure out a way to release the schedule before we even have the eval skate so I'm curious how other leagues do it. 
thanks, I'll hang up and listen. 🙂

Well, it sounds like the schedule is hinging on how many total teams there are going to be at each level.  My suggestion would be for your league to push up the eval thingy sooner, like maybe 6-8 weeks before you begin.

[shoeshine boy 242]

2 hours ago, caveman27 said:

Well, it sounds like the schedule is hinging on how many total teams there are going to be at each level.  My suggestion would be for your league to push up the eval thingy sooner, like maybe 6-8 weeks before you begin.

and that idea has been floated but that becomes problematic too. imagine you've got a guy on your team that just can't hang and you need to drop him. you've got to tell him mid-season that you're not having him back in order for him to find another team &/or attend the eval to catch the eye of a captain in a lower division, then he's got to play 6+ games with a team that doesn't want him? I've been that player told 2-3 games before the season's end and while appreciated being told in time to find another team it made me not want to go play with that team for the rest of the season.

it seems like there's no good way to make everyone happy but it also seems like our current method is not unusual.

[caveman27 208]

45 minutes ago, shoeshine boy said:

and that idea has been floated but that becomes problematic too. imagine you've got a guy on your team that just can't hang and you need to drop him. you've got to tell him mid-season that you're not having him back in order for him to find another team &/or attend the eval to catch the eye of a captain in a lower division, then he's got to play 6+ games with a team that doesn't want him? I've been that player told 2-3 games before the season's end and while appreciated being told in time to find another team it made me not want to go play with that team for the rest of the season.

it seems like there's no good way to make everyone happy but it also seems like our current method is not unusual.

Oh, that makes sense. I guess they could try to run the eval thingy right after your leagues championship game in order to get a schedule created.

I was in a league where they added two new teams one week after the start. It screwed up the scheduling. For whatever reason, we were playing two other teams for like 30% of the time.

[shoeshine boy 242]

22 hours ago, caveman27 said:

Oh, that makes sense. I guess they could try to run the eval thingy right after your leagues championship game in order to get a schedule created.

I was in a league where they added two new teams one week after the start. It screwed up the scheduling. For whatever reason, we were playing two other teams for like 30% of the time.

we basically do that now. typically the season ends on a Sunday. we usually have the eval the following Tuesday or Thursday. it then takes at least a week to complete the draft and then we send out the first month of the schedule.

[beerleaguecaptain 999]

On 1/3/2019 at 2:14 PM, CRupp13 said:

Whats a schedule? Both Men's teams that I play on in NY, in 2 separate leagues mind you, only give their individual games out 2-3 weeks in advance. We never get a full season schedule.

Chris and I play together...  he and I have to check the schedule every week and then we post updates to the team web site.  It's a pain in the ass. 

[xstartxtodayx 343]

20 hours ago, dkmiller3356 said:

Chris and I play together...  he and I have to check the schedule every week and then we post updates to the team web site.  It's a pain in the ass. 

I used to hate this (for those who don't know I play in the same league as Dave and Chris, just different divisions).  When I was just a player I hated not knowing the schedule too far in advance but since I started shooting photos for the league and chatting with the kid who more or less runs the league I have a new respect haha  he caters the schedule to teams and players, some teams can't play certain nights or prefer certain rinks, then some players are on 2, 3, 4+ teams so games can't conflict and if there are multiple games the same night they need to be at the same rink so players can make both, my head hurt just listening to him but as a result I now understand why we only get 2-3 week notice.  On the plus side, I can guarantee some great photos if our teams schedules ever coincide 😉

I would love if we lived in a place where each rink had its own league and things were much more cut and dry but I'm still waiting for a rink to be built that's less than a 45min drive for me.