What's going on in the Poloverse

I am glad we agree on "f off to Adidas", Amen...

Is there a mod in the house?

;)

Oh will you two just get a room already

Zargoza Bench Minor teams as posted on LOBP:

• MAÑOR THREAT (Zaragoza)
  Dani H, Pablo, Adrian, Borxa, Nacho, Juanillo, Hugo

• BIKE POLO BARCELONA (Barcelona)
  Bernat, Camilo, Lucas, Juanma, Alejandro, Rexo, Marcos

• MORDOR COUNTRY EUROMIX (Iberico/Mordor)
  Franky, Morgan, Dodi, Benjamin, Pabel, Dani Heranejos, Roberto tomassi, *****Special guest: Saul

• WANDERERS (Iberico/Mordor)
  Alejandro, Uru, Bodi, Chan, Fin, Rich, Mosaik

• NO NAME (Iberico)
  Jorge Grow, JB, Urko, R. Escanero, David, Ivan, Alberto Cosmic

• 6 MECS ET 1 PUCEAU (Montpellier)
  Mathieu Dumay, Loic chistera, Cathal Holmes, Joe Holmes, Baptiste daodaf, Tony MM, Floris Coucke

• PERPIGNON (Perpignan)
  Tristan, Kostiz, Henri, Mehdi, Greg, Gab, Cécile

• TOULOUSE
  Alex, Marco, Theo, Romain, Silvio, Remi, TBA

• BORDEAUX
  Rob + 6. There are many players interested

+VICENZA BIKE POLO (Vicenza)
Punch, Mattia, Edo, Luca, Mike, Edo, Mazzetta

Sponsorship by cycling companies (and beer companies) seems reasonable, but on our terms. We don't need that much money. We don't need that much exposure.

Bike polo is doing just fine with noinvolvement from non-cycling corporations.

It's fine if people want to get interviewed by news and entertainment outlets such as GQ, but they shouldn't be so incredibly naive when talking to journalists.

At the end of the day, we don't really need exposure, do we? We have plenty of players in cities across the globe, spreading the word on our own terms. The growth of bike polo has been explosive and this has nothing to do with corporate sponsorship.

#FuckNike #FuckAdidas

what about Puma?

Only Simple.

At the end of the day, we don't really need exposure, do we? The growth of bike polo has been explosive

Has it? The number of regular players in this city of eight million hasnt increased much since I moved here (nearly four years now, yikes), and the number of teams participating in the Open has been dropping the last two years.

There are (by my super quick and imprecise count) over 400 city-based clubs registered on LOBP. Five years ago there were (by my guesstimate) less than 100 in the world.

London has 100 players. This is probably the top end for city scene, and it's been remarkably stable. There are, after all, hundreds if not thousands of interesting things to do in this global city.

I am glad we agree on "f off to Adidas", Amen...

Is there a mod in the house?

;)

I'm sick of seeing this incessant bickering. I don't want to read it, no one else does, and I'm tired of deleting it.

Put eachother on ignore, or just grow up.

Consider this a warning, any more from either of you will get you both banned.

Fuck off...

the number of teams participating in the Open has been dropping the last two years.

Last year only actually...
2010: 48 teams
2011: 55 teams
2012: 82 teams
2013: 56 teams

Also, this was because registration was opened late and the tournament was capped and perhaps wasn't directly related to a downturn in the number of possible competitors (although I agree it seems that the number of players is dropping off currently).

Kev is a better source of bike polo activity (globally). The number of tournaments/registrations on LOBP appeared to level off from 2012 to 2013. Certainly there are less players in the UK now than there were this time last year.

Real lyf is going to kill the sport. Look at how hard babies are trending right now.

I'm not so sure numbers are dropping. In Birmingham we've had an increase in new players (5-6), so while they may not be visible at tournaments (yet) they do play regularly.

On a slightly more serious note...exposure is needed because so are new players.

B players no longer seem to push to become truly competitive players.
This is a pity because no one in the sport is really that good, there is a lot of room for improvement at the higher end and more people should be pushing for it.
Furthermore many of the current top players are the same ones that ruled the roost years ago. They're not getting any younger.

New players are needed in order to avoid decadence in the sport.

tl;dr: I don't like most of you. I want new friends.

new players need to HTFU.

you're not gonna get better unless you start off by being the worst player out of the group that you play regularly with.

Question, do people still think that the previous ways in which new players heard about polo are still relevant, or have we exhausted those resources?

I like the decadence.

I think we should be approaching BMX, MTB and trials riders...

Once Herne Hill finally gets going, we're gonna see a bunch of new, young players that ride track who are fit and have fantastic bike skills...

My money's on that crop producing some of London's next top players...

On a slightly more serious note...exposure is needed because so are new players.

We have a pretty good flow of new blood into the scene without having to use Adidas or GQ to get exposure. How did all of the great players from the last few years find out about bike polo? Forums and networks and homegrown tourneys seem to do the job just fine.

Forums, networks and tourneys are all forms of exposure. I agree that the local stuff is better at pulling in new players compared to high-profile ads (or whatever).

^^^ track standing was always the one thing I wish I could do when I started polo...

Word of mouth is and will always (imo) be the best way to spread the word. People trust their friends and relatives far more to recommend quality.

this thread

new, young players that ride track who are fit and have fantastic bike skills...

like turning left and pushing gears 3 times too high for polo?