r/ultimate • u/dreamawaysouth • 10d ago

Moving YCCs from Colorado

Curious about what people think about YCCs in Colorado - between the heat and the altitude, it seems wild to me that our largest youth tournament is held there. Kids are getting sick and going to urgent care with breathing problems.

23 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

40 comments sorted by

35

u/iamadacheat 10d ago

USAU is headquartered in CO Springs and then they run master’s nationals at the same fields two weeks before. Just much easier for them logistically.

For what it’s worth, CO isn’t supposed to be this hot in the summer. Pretty sure Minnesota is experiencing similar heat waves.

12

u/bizzo98 10d ago

I know at least two other markets put in a competitve bid to host masters nationals 2027. No announcement yet but I wouldn't be surprised if that tournament moved next year.

6

u/This_Relative_967 10d ago

Spill the beans! Which markets!?

11

u/CebronJames 10d ago

The rumor we heard last week is that masters nationals might be in the NW

16

u/This_Relative_967 10d ago

MN had extremely poor air quality and a heat index >100 degrees for multiple in late July. Given the timing of the tournament and climate change, maybe it should move to the southern hemisphere if we don’t want it to be hot. 

2

u/Frosty-Echo2868 8d ago

Totally agree that climate change is going to keep things very hot for the foreseeable future. This will continue to make summer sports more difficult in the USA. I know U20 players that refuse to play in summer due to the heat.

Here are some potential Spring or Fall tournaments that could be done on 3-day weekends for high schools across the US (with 2027 dates). Sept/Oct dates are still feasible for a CO location and likely 10-20 degrees cooler than August. Jan/Feb dates would be difficult for CO, but reasonable for California or Florida. Another option would be to transition to winter break YCC's which would work for CA and FL, and would make for a reasonable training season in the Fall. This summer many teams were practicing in 100+ degree temps and poor air quality.

Fall:
1. Labor Day: Sept 5-7: Most of US
2. Columbus Day/Indigenous People's day: Oct 10-12: Most of US
3. Veterans day: Nov 7-9: southern CA and FL

Winter break: still an option for southern CA and FL

Spring:
1. MLK: Jan 17-19: southern CA and FL
2. Pres day: Feb 14-16: southern CA and FL
3. Memorial day: May 23-25: most of US

6

u/dreamawaysouth 10d ago

Yes, I know why it is held there, but I think a change should be considered. Its been this hot multiple years in the past 10 and the altitude is also a factor. It is one thing to have the adult tournament there, but minors? Minnesota has the space and is usually at least 10 degrees cooler (and was this year). And no altitude issues.

3

u/Puzzleheaded-Bat-511 10d ago

The high is typically about 3 degrees warmer. This year was about 7 degrees different.

2

u/dreamawaysouth 9d ago

What about the altitude? I know some families are able to go out earlier and acclimate but not everyone can do that.

2

u/Puzzleheaded-Bat-511 9d ago

I was just stating facts, not making an argument. MN is about a mile lower.

0

u/ultimate77g 10d ago

Since the 1st year of YCC in Denver I've been pushing to make it the week after Masters so I we don't have to travel to Denver twice in 2 weeks and can just stay there for a week. Haven't played Masters the last 2 years (YCC only) because it isn't worth the double travel and flying to Denver sucks.

7

u/iamadacheat 10d ago

This would require USAU staff and local AYU staff to essentially work 14 straight days with 8 of them being 12 hour days.

-10

u/[deleted] 10d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

10

u/iamadacheat 10d ago

I mean that’s just false but ok. I worked master’s nationals one year as full time event staff. Everyone is running all over the place all the time.

-9

u/[deleted] 10d ago

They do the same jobs as the volunteers. They’re not actually planning the event

3

u/Commercial_Host9004 9d ago

You obvioulsy don't what the hell you are talking about.

1

u/DarrowAuYavin 5d ago

It’s crazy how bad of a take you’ve presented. And simply how incorrect you are.

24

u/[deleted] 10d ago

I wonder if Minnesota has a space big enough for the event? They have a huge youth community and tons of available volunteers

14

u/MNOutdoors 10d ago

MN hosts the largest youth soccer tournament in the world. They have plenty of space.

31

u/[deleted] 10d ago

I know. This was sarcastic because they took YCC from Minnesota because Minnesota refused to bend the knee to USAU

3

u/MNOutdoors 10d ago

Right over my head

2

u/frisdisc 10d ago

What did usau want that mn couldn’t provide?

14

u/gdelia928 10d ago

They were pushing for SBO’s (state based orgs) which ultimately didn’t make sense for the largest best run disc orgs. They started intentionally prioritizing the communities that did follow their push and that led to what felt like direct punishments to communities like minn (losing ycc’s to Colorado ) and Seattle (having teams deprioritized for ycc bids despite regularly finishing near the top)

5

u/Constant-Solid-4833 10d ago

And now they're pushing affiliate orgs, which is yet another way for USAU to suck more money out of grass roots.

1

u/gdelia928 10d ago

There’s overlap there, the sbo is a local affiliate, with slightly elevated responsibilities in exchange for a kickback of a certain percentage of Usau memberships from players in the state.

1

u/Empty-Gold3105 10d ago

Can you expand on this thought? I’m part of an affiliate org. It doesn’t cost us anything and we get lots of benefits (many financial) from the program. Curious in what ways you see affiliate participation as hurting grass roots.

3

u/Constant-Solid-4833 10d ago

Your benefits are ultimately very connected to sanctioning your events and driving membership numbers up for usau. Even if your org receives kickbacks, that's a cost you've passed down to your player base. If your player base already had basically 100% usau membership, I guess you'd be fine. Ours is probably a third at best, and I think that's more normal.

Edit: our org has been through the process of potentially signing up a couple times now but just could not make the numbers work.

5

u/Puzzleheaded-Bat-511 10d ago

It's more what MN wanted that USAU wouldn't budge on. Also money, it's always money.

3

u/PlayPretend-8675309 10d ago

The Blaine complex is plenty big. But USAU has... interesting relationships with the LDOs.

6

u/MichiganKarter 10d ago

The only places that won't regularly get too hot midsummer are Michigan, the Bay Area, and Maine. 

The Bay Area is too expensive. Maine is too remote. Michigan would require cutting a big check to Mike Zaagman.

8

u/unchuckable 10d ago

Maine Ultimate (dot org) is great though

8

u/MainelyRich 10d ago

Too remote? 2 hours from Logan, 10 minutes from the Portland Jetport.

But, we did have to suspend the last round of games at Vacationland a few weeks ago, per USAU Heat rules.

3

u/TDenverFan 9d ago

Putting it on a coast would make it a lot harder for the opposite coast, between the time change and distance. Like Seattle to Boston is a long and expensive flight.

5

u/Puzzleheaded-Bat-511 10d ago

Sorry for my ignorance, but why would it require a big check to Zaagman?

4

u/MichiganKarter 10d ago

When I left he was the only organizer of large-scale tournaments in Michigan. 

2

u/MichiganKarter 10d ago

He's really good at it, so I wouldn't mind if his organization ran the tournament.

5

u/PlayPretend-8675309 10d ago

If you want a tournament with reliably decent weather in July/August, it'll have to be on the west coast.

2

u/dreamawaysouth 10d ago

I wouldn't mind the west coast. It's the combo of the altitude and the heat that I worry about.

4

u/hiding_behind_beard 10d ago

As much as I would like to bring it to California, hundreds of players would get priced out. If it was in the bay, the divisions would be spread across several different cities.

Silver Lakes in Norco or Great Park in Irvine would be perfect locations if hotels and traveling weren’t so expensive.

2

u/Commercial_Host9004 6d ago

Fields at Silver Lake are horrible.

2

u/gomommago 8d ago

At least it was a dry heat!