2) Develop a collective approach to sponsors for tournament organizers, and explore the idea of supporting an established circuit of major North American tournaments.
3) Establish a viable decision-making structure, consisting of a system of elected club/city and regional representation.
4) Launch a public-facing website (its current home is a sub-forum on www.leagueofbikepolo.com).
5) Rules. It’s unclear whether there will be a “rule-book” per se, but it’s reasonable to expect that the organizing body will have a hand in determining what rules are in place at the 2010 NAHBPC in Madison.
6) Establish a bid process for determining NAHBPC 2011, and work with polo communities in Europe, South America, Oceania and Asia to establish a bid process for determining the WHBPC 2011. Ideally, by the time NABHPC and WHBPC roll around in summer 2010, we should already know who is hosting the 2011 tournaments. By the end of 2010, we will hopefully know about
2012 too.
Bike polo is one of only a handful of sports to have developed on a global scale during the age of the internet. Its growth has been horizontal and organic, and for good reason people have been skeptical of various aspects of formalization, standardization, or top-down structures. But its rapid growth has given rise to the need for something to hold it together and ensure that its growing pains aren’t much more painful than the road rash worn by most of its players.
With any luck, 2010 will see the formalizing of this body, it may even gain an official name and legal status. Until then, the stakes are being kept low, and our decentralized/DIY/local polo pickup scenes remain
sovereign.
About the Author
Currently based in Toronto, Kevin is the polo geek behind www.leagueofbikepolo.com, and an interim rep for the “Northside” region.