1. Do you think the Southside is a good place to serve as our “steady location”?
a) yes – 11
b) no – 1
c) maybe – 1
· Geographically yes. Machine choice as of now…not even close.
· I hate the beehive and trying to find a place to park in the south side
· yes, IF the Beehive renovations are finished in time for the season
· S. Side is good, or somewhere similar. Has to be a central location. I don’t think we should alsways base out of the Beehive however. The plan is supposedly only two machines once the renovations are done.
· however, an alternative should be considered if the Beehive is out of commission for too long
With the high number of machines and being geographically centered, this is probably still the best option, even if the Beehive reduces the number of machines.
2. Similar to the Southside, there are locations that have many games within a close walking/driving distance
(ex: Lawrenceville). Should we use places like this for league?
a) yes – 8
b) no – 2
c) doesn’t matter – 3
· If there is a better place- by all means
· B, but i’d still go if they were in multiple places
I think we should give Lawrenceville a try. I don’t know about the winter season (unless necessary), but it would be good for the spring and fall.
3. Should we use places that have an admission fee, but games are on free play (ex: Pin Perfection/Games n at) for league?
a) yes – 8
b) no – 1
c) depends on the cost – 4
· but only if the games are in good working condition
· On occassion, fine. Not regularly. Plus, I don’t like supporting Pinball Perfection as I think they are BAD for the hobby.
A trip to PP once a year seems like a good plan. We could go back to GNA if they ever get their games in decent working order.
4. Aces provides a unique setup for league in that we have to start at 7 with no late calls and be done by 9. Would you like to play there again?
a) yes – 5
b) no – 3
c) doesn’t matter – 5
· This would be a great location for a Sunday date
· Aces on occassion would be fine with me.
We should try it out once this year. Perhaps the winter season would be best for this one.
5. Is there any place that you would like to play that we don’t currently play?
· PAPA
· Silverball CC – 2
· Lawrenceville could be fun. Lots of bars in close proximity – 2
· Not really any I know of. They are putting a doublewide grill in Cranberry…maybe he’ll put games there…..
· Ya, my house! But we don’t have enough functioning machines yet and our space is limited (might be able to during warmer weather when the out of doors are an option for people to hang out.)
· Maybe a Friday night option once in a while can be a tour event where you can play multiple games in a short distance, like the Southside or Larryland. I might be able to host an event that starts/ends at my house and offers my 2-3 games as well as 2-3 games at bars or other locations within a short distance. This may open up more house options who, like mine, does not have enough games to meet the PPL volume.
· I love playing the private collections when they are available.
· south park club house says they can guarantee us min 7 machines for league night, so i would like to see that work out
PAPA and SBCC are private locations and we could only do that with permission from their respective owners/managers.
6. What is your favorite non-home place to play?
· Slovak Club – 3
· NGV – 3
· PAPA
· PAPA! We hang out at Elwood’s sometime in Rural Ridge but they only have one machine. Also like to frequent OTB occasionally
· SP Clubhouse (It was NGV)
· SP Clubhouse / OTB
· If by non-home you mean not my home, probably Scaletta’s. If you mean not anyone’s house then I’m not sure I have one. I play PoTC at Gooski’s a lot because it’s next to my house.
· None that I’m crazy about…maybe OBC?
· Starlight Lounge in Blawnox (CFTBL) , Ellwood’s Pub in Rural Ridge (RFM, Monopoly)
7. If there was a Sunday league day/night, would you participate?
a) yes – 4
b) no – 3
c) only if i couldn’t play on Thursday or Friday – 2
d) maybe – 3
· Not during football season, but otherwise i might.
· I would volunteer to scorekeep
· It would depend on the location. For example, if thurs/fri were South Side and Sun. was a private collection. I would probably opt for Sunday.
· Depends on the time of year….sometimes Sundays can be rough.
It would stretch us thin, so we would need volunteers, but perhaps we should give it a try.
8. League dues are currently $20. Do you think this is good?
a) It is too High
b) it is Perfect – 11
c) it is too low – 2
· I think we could raise it to $25…or maybe $30. This is based on what I hear other leagues are charging. We would still be far below their costs. That would give us more wiggle room for getting giveaway machines…and perhaps up the prize payouts.
· It is definitely not too high. I’m fine with it the way it is, but if it was raised a bit, I’d still join in.
· It is perfect. I felt like I definitely got my money’s worth out of league. I would be willing to pay more for a bigger and better league or if costs went up, but I might start to hesitate if it was much more than $30.
· Dues are fine. I wouldn’t mind if they were higher but some likely would.
If it ain’t broke, no reason to fix it.
9. We currently use the coinball website, email, facebook, and text messaging for distribution of information. How can we improve this?
· By reducing the number of ways you contact the league. texting/e-mail is just fine.
· Facebook is too clunky, but seems to be the leader in easy info gathering. Coinball just seems to be gathering dust. Need to hear from the new members on this one…
· I think its great.
· Communication via texting is great. I feel the tasty humans site should be updated more frequently and be the go-to place for info. Results and schedules seemed to fall behind this season. Give it to a guy that’s always in town (NIQ seems to obsess over the numbers).
· I think the above methods are suitable
10. Are there any changes to the current rules that you would like us to consider?
· Standard start games only- no games in spanish, super games etc. Nothing that would be not allowed at a PAPA game start should be allowed in league. That should mean that the first player should only have the option of pressing the start button before game play starts. Also, have some system in place so finals can start at the listed time, rather than 1 hour later. Perhaps late calls should NOT be allowed for finals.
· I think it would be interesting to have a season where the games are randomly assigned instead of people picking which game they want to play.
· Are the rule sheets on the ‘new’ coinball site? I am guessing that half of the members do not know the rules. I think the rules are fine. Is there a rule about not rounding up scores in data collection? Might wanna add that one.
· Maybe a penalty for missing a week if it isn’t made up.
· Five player groups seem unfair
· We should use the groupings of 1,8,9,16; 2, 7, 10, 15; 3, 6, 11, 14; 4, 5, 12, 13 for finals. It’s mathematically correct to do it this way and rewards higher qualifiers better. Also, I feel you should have to play at least half of the weeks to qualify for finals (keeps a ringer from playing one week, then showing up at finals and winning C). Also, make previous winners move up a division (i.e. LEE won B….require him to qualify for A next season otherwise he doesn’t play in finals (rather than bumping someone down that did). Also, no repeat winners on the game drawing.
· Eliminate the make-up week
Starting finals on time is almost impossible due to the fact that groups need redone when someone does not show. We can only make the sheets and start play after we are sure everyone is there. The rules will go up on the site once we have a better site in place. The finals groupings were based off how PAPA does it, but I wouldn’t have an argument with what was suggested. And while I have no problem with 5 player groups, I still think the scoring should be 4-3-2-1-0.
11. Anything else you would like to add?
· Thanks for your work
· I enjoy the league and I like the way it is run. You guys do a great job.
· Thanks for being awesome. PPL Rules.
· Thanks for taking the time to do this.
· Keep up the good work. My first PPL season was a blast. Looking forward to the next one.
· League officials should show up before the scheduled start time to keep things moving. Several weeks the official was late and/or indifferent about timing. Perhaps the duties of the officials should be rotated to other members from time to time. And lastly…..cash prizes instead of checks….
· Keep up the good work!
· Thanks again.
· I’m not for increasing our fees but we need to cap how much money is “saved” between seasons. If we get a used machine to raffle at a good price and we have enough to cover the party/finals then we need to consider raffling off another machine or more prizes. I can see saving $500 from one season to add to the next so that we can raffle a $1000 game and still cover the party costs but even holding that much can cause temptation and/or be traumatic to the league if lost. The PPL has built up to 60 some players in the 4 years we have been operating and I’d hate to see the group feel cheated and we loose numbers or interest again. I trust our officials but human nature has not changed since Adam and Eve (Biblical, not the porn site) and I think planning how to handle our growth in advance of it is prudent.
· It seems like we’ve had to scramble and add a bunch of public locations the last couple of seasons, you may want to poll the owners of the private collections and ask what is keeping them from offering up their homes for league play. Is it too quick of a turnaround with three seasons a year, is it the fear of unknown members, or is it just not the availability of a Friday night?
· I think a sunday league would be GREAT! it is very difficult for me to make it as often as I would like
You are all welcome. We use checks as they provide documentation of league payments. I think we have been doing a decent job of keeping the league abreast on how the money has been spent.
