Black Division Stats

It was surprising how close the team averages came out in the Red Division. That didn't happen in the Black division.

Dart Frogs       17.01
Cory's Team      11.92
Rats             11.66
Young Guns       10.91
Horny Toads       9.71
Pobody's Nerfect  9.47
Black Widows      9.37

Looking at those ppd's, you kinda gotta expect that the Frogs are going to dominate the top 10 - and here it is.

Dan Zimmerman    20.93
Kraig Moore      19.39
Dwane Clifford   18.02
Clint Phillips   14.90
Cory Donham      14.86
Brett Rogers     14.02
Terry Hassler    13.36
Marc Garcia      13.30
Jeremy Fleetwood 12.89
Mike Seeley      12.87

Some Points Per Darts Stats

The WDA's points per dart are based on roughly equal numbers of 501 and 301 games and should not be compared to soft-tip averages or to steel-tip leagues that do not play 301.

Team ppd averages - Red Division:

Lizzards        11.96
Dairy Air       11.84
Mz Thang's Gang 11.57
Outlaws         11.21
Generation X3   11.07*
It's All Good   10.95
Doug's Team     10.67

*That one was a little surprising since 2 players have averages above 11 and 5 have averages below 11, but the number of games played by each player is what pushed the overall average up.

If you're looking for Black division, come back in a few days.

PPD leaders (minimum of 6 games - sorry, Jennifer, with your 12.62 ppd average.)

Dale Casey            15.57
Kenny Chamberlain     15.22
Gregg Turner          14.58
Rich Pike             14.36
Paul McPhillips, Jr.  13.21
Shawna Inkelaar       13.11
Dave Rosendale        12.86
Steve Stuckey         12.82
Bill Patrick          12.60
Dennis McHugh         12.49

Smoking Ban and Effect On WDA Meetings

If we have a meeting at a smoking establishment, it is illegal for members under 18 to attend. It doesn't seem right to require someone to buy a membership if it is illegal for them to attend meetings.

The sections of the bylaws that are on topic include:

Article 3, Section 2 - Meetings. "Attendance by a Board Member ... is required at all Board of Directors meetings..."

Article 5, Section 5 - Action of Members For Voting Purposes. "Members in good standing ... shall be entitled to vote..."

Article 5, Section 6 - Association Meetings. "All Association meetings shall be open to the General Membership..."

The simplest solution is to create a non-voting membership that's free and available to anyone under 18 who plays in leagues. Make another bylaw change that requires that Team Captains are voting members. And another change that Association meetings are open to voting members. Then players under 18 are WDA members, but are not required to go to meetings.

There is a loophole in the City ordinance. This is the exact wording from the ordinance: "Business means any ... entity formed for profit-making purposes..."

Post 4 is having a lawyer contact the city about this for the city's interpretation. It seems that non-profits (Post 4, Post 256, Eagles) are exempt from the smoking ordinance. Businesses exempt from the ordinance can have people under 18 in the establishment and allow smoking.

Deepest and Heartfelt Condolences To Steve Terronez

Steve's mother passed away Thursday morning, July 10.

Steve and his mother were very close. They were important parts of each other's lives.

Keep Steve in your prayers and let's all wish him the best as he enters a part of his life missing a person who was very important in his life to this point.

The Air Cap is a $7,500+ tournament

Entry fees are being raised by $2 for all events other than blind draws and the Youth event. That puts the Air Cap in line with entry fees for other tournaments in the region.

Math stuff here - shut your eyes if you can't stand it. It takes about the same number of entries to break even on entry fees and payouts for the $7,500 payout as it did for the $6,500 payout.

There was a thorough presentation of the pros and cons of raising fees and payouts. There was discussion and consideration. I think it's worth mentioning that there was no arguing, no shouting, no interrupting. After people voiced their opinions they fielded questions to clarify their presentations.

I thought the reasons for and reasons against the change were legitimate, well-considered, and well-presented. Then the board voted overwhelmingly in favor of raising entries and payouts.

Even though I presented the reasons not to raise the payouts, I'm kinda giddy that the Board voted to raise the payouts. It's kind of a chest-thumping announcement to the region that we have a great tournament and a great organization that can afford to throw a bigger tournament.

July Captain's Meeting Highlights

Order your LizzardPalooza shirts online or by email. Save yourself and Jim the time for all the personal contacts. Jim has more obligations this year and isn't going to be able to track you down to buy a shirt. If shirt sales don't fly, the funds for the event don't fly. ORDER SHIRTS! NOW!!!

The really big news has it's own post - $7,500 Air Cap is coming to a town near you this January!

The next Thursday session will start September 4. Monday night singles league is taking signups now. Post 4 will hang another board if needed, which would allow 10 people playing singles out of one location.

General Membership meeting is August 3 at 2 PM at Post 4. Encourage your team members to attend. Drag them kicking and screaming if you have to.

The smoking law eliminates Side Pockets as a home for the Youth League. Both Post 4 and Post 256 have stepped up to the plate and offered to host the Youth League. Both posts know hosting the Youth isn't a money-maker, but want to do whatever is needed to support Youth Darts. It's great to see our sponsors offering to open at times they might not normally be open, put staff in place, and cover utilities and other costs with opening the doors without expecting anything in return.

Sandy informed the Board of her efforts to get sponsorship money for Regional entries from other sources than WDA funds. Our region is in danger of being eliminated and absorbed into another region that would likely include St. Louis. Going to regionals would require more travel time and expense if that happened. Wichita is the strongest organization in our current region, but we can't finance the region out of mostly WDA funds.

The deal for another company to buy the Broadview didn't get the city funds they wanted and it fell through. Ron has stayed in close contact with the Broadview. There are other buyers. One print article was written without contacting any employees of the Broadview or the company that owns the Broadview. The situation is not as bleak as some reports have indicated.

I've got to add a comment here. About the same time the doom and gloom articles were published there was another article about Wichita needing MORE hotel rooms within walking distance of Century II for convention business. Imagine trying to book a convention into Century II with a shut down hotel right across the street. That's a tough sell. The City has to keep the Broadview open.

In the absence of the HeadLizzard, the honor of the motion to adjourn was passed to Dale DeScale, who performed brilliantly.

WDA Nationally Ranked Players

Men:
45 - Dan Zimmerman
91 - Gary Boisen
171 - Chris Martin
269 - Danny Evans
284 - Bryan Byrnes
377 - Mike Durham
396 - Brent Johns
414 - Kraig Moore
417 - Randall Patterson

Ladies:
53 - Christy Zimmerman
104 - Teresa Garcia
136 - Leanna Clifford
180 - Sandy Diel
181 - Michelle Donham
200 - Kelly Balliet
207 - Shelley Hein
212 - Lori Kennedy
215 - Missy Leffew
274 - Jennifer Holley
425 - Diane Menard

$7,500 Air Cap - To Be Or Not To Be?

There is discussion of raising payouts at the Air Cap. I don't think it's a good idea. There's too much we can possibly lose and not that much we can gain.

I've asked why we should raise payouts and got the following answers:
1) We want to bring in more players.
2) It doesn't cost the WDA anything.
3) We want to bring in better players.

More players: With the number of players we had last year there were some long waits between board calls. We're adding 6 boards, but most delays were caused by people still playing in earlier events. Long matches and slow responses to board calls played a big part. Doesn't it make sense to see if we've corrected the delays before we try to get more players?

No cost to the WDA: If we use last year's record turnout and raise entry fees, this is true. If there is an attendance drop due to weather or travel costs, raising payouts costs the WDA $1,000.

Better players: Additional payouts are going to top 4. That could convince some money players to shell out the $$ for a plane ticket to Wichita, which would give Wichita's better darters better competition.

More/better players: What happens if we get some money player - say 8 men and 4 ladies? Chances are they end up in the money and take a solid share of the increased payouts. We're raising costs for local players and giving them less of a chance to get in the money.

Smoking: No smoking in the hall slows down every event. Players eliminated in previous events and players in slow brackets are called immediately. Bathroom and refreshment breaks are expected. Add about 7 minutes for a smoke break. No smoking adds at least 30 minutes to events. Should we wait to see how that affects timing of events - or possibly attendance - before we raise payouts?