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| New Orleans, February 25-26, 2012 |
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After months of background work, we are happy to announce the National Flag Football Series. This is a series of
pre-existing tournaments stretching from Washington DC to Rhode Island, with the goal of delivering a better product to the
flag football teams (especially in the 9-man style) . In short, The Series is designed to lower registration fees for
teams, encourage more teams to travel to tournaments, clean up the rules of 9-man, apply high standards from tournament to
tournament, and deliver on customer service to the flag football community.
With this announcement, we've also
established our Executive Board. Each tournament has voting rights with the Series, and we are happy to include the
following league/tournament directors in our founding board.
- Andy Hoffman (Spokesman, Commisioner of The Flag Football Challenge Series, the MDFFA and the WCFFL, Maryland)
- Emerson Kilgore (Commisioner of the NEFFA, Rhode Island)
Rick Robinson (Commisioner of the Old Bridge Flag Football
League, New Jersey)
- Antwon Blunt (Commissioner of the Hartford Flag Football League, Connecticut)
- Kent Page (Commisioner of the MAFFL, Washington DC/Northern VA)
While the full story can be found on our website (www.TheNationalFlagFootballSeries.com), here are some of our highlights:
- Each tournament has agreed to adhere to the Tournament Standards and Participant Rights as listed on the "Why Play
in the National Flag Football Series" page on the site. This protects you, the consumer.
- The Series believes that the bigger a tournament is, the better it is. Our points system is based on the number
of teams participating, which means it is in the more competitive teams' best interest to encourage other teams to play.
-The Series also believes that Series Champion is the team who competed the best throughout the year. The Series
winner for each year will play for $250 cheaper in any Series tournament the following year.
-The Series will always have a cash (or cash/bid option, for the teams who prefer that) for the Pro Champion. The
Competitive Division will be playing for a trophy, and teams will have the choice of which level to participate in.
Pro teams will always have a chance to play for the cash prize.
-The Series will have a comprehensive set of rules in the coming months, eliminating the grey areas from tournament to
tournament.
Although we are focusing on the 9-man Ineligible style at this time, we are definitely interested in
working with other styles and regions as we grow into the future.
The Series schedule will encourage teams to play in multiple areas, but we have no interest in regulating which tournaments
teams choose to play in. Our schedule below will be solidified over the next few weeks, but we're looking forward to
a very busy 2012.
New Orleans (February 25-26, 2012), New Jersey (March 24-25, 2012), Ocean City MD (April
28-29, 2012), Washington DC (May 2012), Rhode Island (early June 2012), Pennsylvania (July 2012), Baltimore (August 2012),
New York (August 2012), Western MD (November 17-18, 2012), Connecticut (December 2012).
And lastly,
if you have a question, you can call me. I answer the phone.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, and we
look forward to seeing you soon!
Andy Hoffman
thenationalflagfootballseries.com
(301) 790-1205 office
(443) 996-9677 cell
The 2012 New Orleans Bowl
Kenner, LA
February 25-26, 2012
Early registration accepted until midnight, January 20. Registration closes at midnight, February 3.
Registration Fees:
Non-refundable deposits
($350 for 9-man) will be accepted before deadlines, but full payment (without early discount) is required before first game.
9-man Ineligible: $675 before January 20, $775 until February 3.
8-man Eligible: $675 before January 20, $775 until February 3.
Women’s 8-Eligible: $675 before January 20, $775 until February
3.
5-man Contact: $225 before January 20, $300 until February 3.
4-man Screen: $225 before January 20, $300 until February 3.
All Referee fees are included in registration price.
All teams advance to Sunday in 9-man!
Pool play on Saturday, Single Elimination on Sunday in 9-man, 8-man
Eligible, and Women’s Division.
Pool play with Single Elimination for both 4-man and 5-man (Saturday).
Seeding for pool play will include USFTL, MCFFU and independent tournament
and league results.
A and B brackets offered in each style with minimum
participation.
Prize pools to A brackets start at $750 in 4-man and
5-man.
Prize pools in 9-man, 8-man Eligible
and Women’s Division start at $2000. Prizes to 2nd and 3rd places with 14 teams or more.
Payment (cash, unbounceable
check or money order) to:
The Flag Football Challenge
Series, 45 S. Colonial Drive, Hagerstown, MD 21740
Information updated at www.TheNationalFlagFootballSeries.com.
Questions? Call Andy
at 301-790-1205/443-996-9677.
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Friday, November 4, 2011
“If you build it, they will come.”
It’s hard to start a business, and to build it
from scratch. You hope that if you do a good job at making your customers happy,
they’ll spread the word and you’ll grow. All you can control is your product
and marketing.
I’ve always held my tournaments to a high standard,
and tried to improve the next one with things I’ve learned from this one. The
good news is that we have a lot of teams who come back to each tournament year after year, or attend multiple tournaments
each year.
But it’s time to keep building onto those expectations. Below is a list of what I expect from a tournament and its directors. If I ever fail one of these, please bring it directly to me. I’ll
do my best to correct the issue.
1. A tournament participant deserves to be treated professionally. Phone calls and emails need to be returned quickly, and questions need to be answered. Treat someone the way you would prefer to be treated, while standing up for what is
right.
2. Teams have the right to have basic expectations met before, during and
after every tournament. Accurate team lists will be updated leading up to
the tournament. The schedule and prize pool will be released the day after the
deadline. Schedules need to be kept on time, with minimal delays. Sunday schedules
will be available two hours after the completion of the final Saturday game. Final results and champion photos will be posted
within 48 hours of the completion of the tournament.
3. Teams of all levels should be treated by the same standards. There should be no disparity in regards to the enforcement of deadlines and entry fees. Officiating and scheduling should be consistent between A and B brackets. All styles will be represented
in marketing, photography and recognition.
4. You deserve to know what the rules are and to expect them to be enforced
consistently. Tournament rules will be posted, as well as weather policy
and tiebreaker procedures. Officials will be professional and well-trained, and
rules questions will be handled quickly and correctly on site by the tournament director.
5. There should be a prize at every tournament. The prize should be based on the total number of teams playing, and encourage growth of the tournament.
6. However, prices should be kept down to encourage more teams to play. Since most teams in each tournament will not win a prize, pricing the tournament
to encourage as many teams as possible to participate is more important than a larger prize for the winning team.
7. Teams shouldn’t have to play the same teams over and over. Saturday
pools should be set up avoiding matchups pitting local teams against each other. Sunday
schedules should avoid early rematches of Saturday games. This allows teams
to face more and different opponents.
8. Having more teams in a tournament is always better. Tournament points should be based on the number of teams participating.
This discourages the higher level teams from poaching players from smaller teams, eliminating the competitive possibilities
of those teams. It also encourages higher level teams to support smaller teams
to attempt tournament play.
9. Teams should be able to choose what level they play, but the B teams should
be able to play B teams in the elimination process. Teams should be given the option of playing in whatever level they
choose. However, prizes should be different enough to keep the A teams in the
A bracket. The tournament setup should avoid dropping A teams to the B bracket, and B teams deserve the opportunity to play
a full schedule on Sunday against equivalent talents.
10. Teams have the right to get as much value
as possible out of each tournament. We should offer multiple styles of play,
and encourage teams to play the different styles, by scheduling to avoid conflicts between games. We also will guarantee teams advancing to Sunday, in order to avoid wasting hotel reservations.
As a tournament director, you cannot control which teams choose to play. However,
you can control the organizational setup, the safety of the fields, the quality of your officiating, and the level of communication.
It’s all about being professional.
Monday, May 10, 2010
So, the MCFFU snipers are out...
It's great the MCFFU has so many supporters. My only question is why you don't put your name out in support?
I disagree with Kyle Mitchell, but at least he puts a name on his posts. And why do I have to be a hater if I think
that teams deserve more than what they are getting?
I posted my tournament information on Real Deal's site because
there were questions about the difference between tournaments, and because this message board tends to be a clearing house
for the NY/NJ teams. I have the permission of Gill to do so.
But there's one thing I want to address, in the search
for truth. This was a quote from above:
"the rest of my 9man brothers will be there because of competition, points,
cash prize, awesome facility, tradition, great tourny, and structure which seems outsiders always try to tear apart. Where
were all you saviors when we needed you 3 years ago? Unbelievable!"
You must be a little late to the party. Your arguments
on tradition lack merit.
What was the first MCFFU 9-man tournament? The 1st Ocean City Challenge, run by me, 5 years
ago.
Who physically ran the first 9-man MCFFU Virginia Beach tournament? I did, with my refs, at Princess Anne Park,
5 years ago.
If you want to talk tradition, I've been with 9-man longer than the MCFFU, when they told me that 8-man
was the way to go and 9-man was dying out, and that I could keep plugging if I wanted to. So I did. It's amazing how 9-man
became king when the Ohio and DC 8-man leagues decided not to play with the MCFFU.
The MCFFU sold the 9-man teams
on their tournaments with "why play for points when you can play for cash". I was there. Now you are proud of playing (or
should I say paying) for points when 90+% of the teams haven't won a dime from the MCFFU.
I give a cash prize for
my tournaments, but instead of filling the top teams' pockets with huge "winner-take-all" prizes, I keep the prize lower and
the entry fees lower for everyone across the board. Think of it as every team winning $50-$75 back.
As far as comparing
facilities, I'm sure I can find a post or 10 that state how great Princess Anne Park was when it was a MCFFU location. It's
amazing to me how it's such a downgrade when it's not their field this year. (And by the way, we play on turf every week in
my league. The last week of June on turf in Virginia is not going to be a bonus to anyone.)
And as far as great tournament
and structure of tournament, I will happily put mine up against theirs anyday. I played at Lake Taylor last year, and I gladly
will do a side-by-side comparison this year.
By the way, if you want to enjoy the Virginia Beach nightlife, my host
hotels use "flag football" as the code, and will accept teams from either tournament. I'm not going to pretend there's alot
to do as adults in Williamsburg. I've worked there too many times. The Denny's was good though.
The only point you
can make is competition. Teams are going to choose where they want to go. Those same teams can change their mind tomorrow.
However, as a business, I think I've offered a great product at a reasonable price, and I'd love to see you in Virginia Beach.
And if the big boys don't come, someone else is going to win.
My name is Andy Hoffman, and my website is www.theflagfootballchallengeseries.com.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
What a great weekend in Ocean City!
First, let me apologize for being a day late on my recap. I needed a day to recover from the weekend. Especially
after looking at weather reports for a week straight.
There was no way we were going to stay dry on Sunday. I was sure of it. The storms that were creating tornadoes
in the Midwest was going to come through Saturday night, and we were going to have to be flexible on Sunday.
And then? Nothing.
We end up with a beautiful (although chilly) day on Saturday, and an overcast but pretty tame Sunday.
I couldn't have asked for more.
On the injury front, we had more ambulance calls than I've ever seen, but the wait from phone call to service was less
than 10 minutes in each case. I want to thank the EMT's from Ocean City, but also the people on the sidelines who helped
out in each case, whether it was your player or not.
- The Giants player who injured his knee on Saturday has a sprained knee, but it's not as bad as we feared.
- I haven't gotten an update on the Dogos player who dislocated his elbow. I know they had it back in place before
the ambulance left the field, but that was sorta grotesque. I hope he's feeling better today.
- The NJ Raider player got stitches above his eye from an accidental head-to-head block.
- And you're not going to believe the last one! The Red Knights player was diagnosed at the OC hospital with a possible
calf tear, torn ligaments, dislocated kneecap and broken femur. After the swelling came down and he returned to his
own doctors, the results were so much better! He dislocated his knee, but tore NOTHING, broke NOTHING, and was cleared
to play this weekend (with a brace).
Other notes:
- Congratulations to the MetroDawgs on the 9-man A Championship. You beat the teams in front of you, and to come back
in both the semi against the Blaze and the final against the Nomads were great wins.
- Congratulations to the MD Rebels for winning the 9-man B Championship. They were down 13-0 to the X-dawgs before
multiple interception returns and some great plays pulled that one out, and they methodically won the bracket.
- Congratulations to D4 for winning their 3rd Flag Football Challenge Series 4-man title in a row. Charlie, your guys
are solid and a class act.
- The biggest surprises of the weekend? The Nomads kept saying in the Finals that they got further than they expected
to, but they had to keep going. You've got a good team there, Mr. Allen and Mr. Sharp.
- One thing I want to bring up: we use NCAA rules as a base for 9-man. We also are proud to say that we are
as close to "real" football as you can get in flag. Lining up correctly (5 men on the line of scrimmage, no more
than one receiver on the line on either side of the center) is administered at the high school, college and NFL levels.
We all have penalties called against us, and none of us like it. But this is something basic and can be fixed at the
team level, and makes our style better and sharper than the others.
- In the entire weekend, there was only one time where teams played each other twice, and that was in the B Semis.
You can't say you didn't get to play new teams this year.
- I appreciate the 4man teams being flexible when the Red Knights lost their team to injuries. You guys handled the
changes like champs. Now we just need more teams!
- There were at least 7 games decided in the last two minutes (MetroDawgs-Nomads, MetroDawgs-Blaze, Xplosion-CW Renegades,
Patriots-Miller Lite, Trojans-MD Raiders, Nomads-NJ Raiders, Pickles-OC Animal Hospital) this weekend, and even more that
were within a score. That's competition, people.
- We had no game ejections throughout the entire weekend. I appreciate the maturity.
- The farthest we were ever behind on Saturday was 20 minutes (which is amazing with the ambulance visits), and we were
actually ahead for most of the day on Sunday. Tell me another tournament who can say that!
I hope everyone had a great time, and I hope to see you again soon. Information for Virginia Beach will be coming
out this week, and i have to decide if we are offering 9man or 8man Eligible in Ocean City in October (along with 7man,
5man and 4man). I'll have an answer by Virginia Beach.
Once again, many thanks!
Andy
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
About Virginia Beach!
Before this goes too far...
I run my tournaments as a business. That means I offer a product, and
the consumers (the teams) choose to either purchase my product or not, at the price offered.
The MCFFU is a competitor
for me. They've offered their product the week of my tournament (Carolina, April 09). They've offered their product the week
before my tournament (Northern VA, May 09 and Connecticutt, April '10). I wanted to do a tournament in Virginia Beach, and
splitting the field costs with George Coleman and FISO Sports makes alot of sense to me, as does using the traditional weekend
that teams go to VA Beach. They continue to work with the USFTL, so I have no problems if the USFTL decides to give points
for this tournament. However, I will not give a bid to another organization's tournament, and my prizes are my prizes.
I
am happy to be using Princess Anne Park as well, since it's a much better complex than where we played last year.
I
also realize that the "big boys" want to play for points. (God, I remember the conversations about the idiocy of playing for
points when I worked for the U, but I'll save that for another time.) I understand this, and I wish those teams well.
I
also realize that with a "pro" field of 16 in Miami, the bulk of the teams will not be in it. I project 3-4 teams from NY/NJ,
3-5 teams from MD/VA, 3-4 teams from Texas, 2-3 from New England, 2-3 from the South and maybe a wild card or two from the
West Coast. What's the problem with that? Those are at least 14 spots filled there, and all of the other teams playing for
2 spots. Everyone else is going into the Open bracket, where points are only used for seeding.
So here is what I'm
offering those teams:
- Instead of paying $670 ($550 +$40 ref fees for 3 games, and that's if you don't advance past
the first round on Sunday), pay the early entry fee of $550 where everything is included. Instead of feeding your cash into
the Grand Prize, which most teams have no chance of winning, I think it makes more sense for entry fees to be lower and smaller
prizes given out to more teams.
- Play on the beautiful fields at Princess Anne Park. Everyone knows how nice it is
there.
- All efforts will be made so you can avoid playing a team from your league in the pool play.
- Schedules
for Sunday are available 90 minutes after the last game at the host bar.
- Your tournament director stays on the fields
all day, and doesn't sub it out. He also will answer your phone calls (usually as it rings) and emails in a timely manner.
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High level college and high school officials will work your games, and aren't separated to focus on the "big boys". Every
team deserves good officiating.
- Teams choose which level they want to play for and end up in the right level because
they play for different prizes.
- The team listed will be updated as commitments and entry fees come in, and will be
publicized.
- Host hotels and a host bar with specials and discounts will be provided to the teams.
- And lastly,
my tournaments run on time and efficiently.
I know I'm going to be trashed by the snipers, and I wouldn't expect less.
Choose for yourself, and decide what's best for your team.
I will happily put my product up against theirs any day
of the week and twice on Sunday.
Andy Hoffman
www.theflagfootballchallengeseries.com
410-612-9231
443-996-9677 cell
Other people's tournaments
I got a nice invite to a 7-man Screen tournament in Middletown DE. I've added it to the Screen and More Tournaments
pages, and I wish them well. I also hope to see them in OC!
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2011.11.01 |
2010.05.01 |
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2009.11.01 |
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2007.05.01 |
2007.04.01 |
2007.03.01 |
2007.02.01
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Welcome to new thoughts, ideas and plans for flag football!
We look forward to growing our game, without the petty
arguments of previous organizations. Our goal is to enable more teams, players and regions to participate, and
to bring national and corporate attention to Flag Football!
This site is designed for open conversations about flag football,
irregardless of organization.
Need somewhere to promote your league, team or tournament?
Our Game deserves to be marketed! |
The National Flag Football Series
Andy Hoffman, Spokesman
*45 S. Colonial Drive*
* Hagerstown MD 21740 *
(301) 790-1205/ (443) 996-9677 cell
Or e-mail:
theflagfootballchallengeseries@verizon.net
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We are excited that you are visiting our web site. We are here to provide a forum for flag football's ineligible
style. Our focus is to bring more attention to the closest thing to pads, and to grow our game to its past heights.
I look forward to hearing from you, and I personally look forward to what the future can bring!
Feel free to email me with any questions or comments.
Andy Hoffman
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Please get in touch to offer comments and join our mailing list.
 
The National Flag Football Series
Spokesman Andy Hoffman
*45 S. Colonial Dr.*
*Hagerstown MD 21740*
*443-996-9677 cell/ 301-790-1205 office*
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