Ignoring Change Costing Contact Flag

Despite the increasing number of active flag teams nationwide, there still remains only a few Pro 8-Man Eligible and 9-Man Ineligible teams who are considered major forces in flag football’s most competitive categories. 

The list of top tier contact teams from the early and mid 1990s who have remained competitive has declined over the years, but certainly not in terms of national influence.   The elite teams still provide tournaments the appeal needed to attract other teams to compete, however with the lack of growth on the Pro (A) division the numbers remain relatively low. 

Due to years of organizations failing to funnel new teams into the Pro (A) divisions, creating unnecessary styles and not successfully moving into new markets, the remaining teams find themselves playing only each other in different tournaments or having to travel great distances just to face new competition, which leads to an overall increase in total tournament cost.

Now this is where national organizations earn their titles and believe it or not, many honestly do not know the duties of a national organization.  It’s more than a website and hosting a major tournament and telling teams, this is “THE” nationals!”

The job of a national organization is to actively work to improve overall participation for its teams by expanding into new markets, introducing new teams to the popular styles, rotating lower-level teams to higher levels of competition, constantly seeking to increase the value of their tournaments by providing prime locations, better fields and making necessary changes that advance the game.   None of which can be done overnight, nevertheless an effort to do so is extremely important in order for competitive contact flag to grow and prosper.

Today there is just as much competition off the field in the business of flag as there is on the field, which means any flag organization conducting business the same way they did yester-year are leaving themselves vulnerable to aggressive competitors and open to questioning by their supporters?  As older teams begin to phase out, newer teams arise with different and often higher expectations of their national organizations with good reason. 

In today’s business world companies such as Intell and EA Sports teach us one thing, and that is continually compete with yourself and improve on your product/service.  Just because you do not see smoke does not necessarily mean there is no fire.  Intell with their (Pentium 1, Pentium 2, Pentium 3, etc.) and EA Sports with their (Madden 2005, 2006, 2007, etc.) both demonstate a desire to top themselves before their competition have an opportunity to, because the day they do not is the day someone else will, leaving them playing catchup in a market they once led – remember Atari?

People often say, “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”, which is a term often used by conservatives who cannot see past the present and who embrace the past.  Too often do those who live by history, become history.  Should your organization or business decide at anytime to stand still and ignore change, what is now not broken will soon become broken due to uncontrollable outside forces influencing the industry. 

Because whether anyone believes it or not, change is inevitable and will happen faster than you think.  It’s easy to get to the top, but without embracing and adapting to change, it’s impossible to stay there.  The question competitive contact teams should be asking is if their national flag organization is moving forward or standing still? 

The wheel of change moves on, and those who were down go up and those who were up go down.  – Jawaharlal Nehru