From a participant's perspective, recreational soccer league management seems like a simple enough task...add some players to teams, make a schedule and you're done. In reality, recreational soccer league management is a highly complex and multi-faceted activity that often goes unrecognized by league and club members.

This article is the first in a series that will explain what comprises league management and how leagues can establish a 'best practices' approach to managing their leagues. The ultimate goal of all of this is to make sports league administration and communication easier for leagues of all sizes and ages. Each article will suggest ways in which administrators and volunteers can spend less time on the mundane (albeit, highly critical) tasks involved in administration and communication. By implementing these tactics, league managers will be able to place their focus back on the reason they became involved in the first place - for the love of the game.

This series will place particular focus on the application of technology because, not surprisingly, software and the Internet can be used to make league management a much simpler task. In coming issues, you can look forward to profiles of different leagues and their practices, guest writers that have specialized in different areas of league management, and highlights about new league management tools.

What is League Management?

League management is a small term for a big task. In many ways, businesses provide an excellent template for how soccer leagues operate. First, you have your customers - the players. They are the most important piece to the puzzle that comprises your league; everything is done to serve the customer first. Second, you have your suppliers - coaches, referees, fields, equipment providers, sponsors, etc. Without them, you simply can't operate. Lastly, you have your internal operations, which includes all the planning, administration, and communication with both the players and the suppliers.

Most people involved in league management would agree that internal operations can be painfully tedious and overly time-consuming at times. Those same people know that there are ways to improve league management, but most often have neither the financial nor the time resources to make changes. Furthermore, resistance to change coupled with internal politics make drastic changes virtually impossible.

Who are League Managers?

The ideal answer is that everyone should be - leagues are community-based organizations. In reality, only a few people do most of the work. Generally, there is a board that makes the highest-level decisions on things like budgets, policies and constitution changes. Then there are the administrators (either paid or volunteer) that organize all of the day-to-day operations of the league. These are the people that do the bulk of the work, and it is their workload that can be reduced with the use of technology.

In coming weeks we will be investigating how individual tasks can be accomplished more efficiently. Specifically, we will explore the following topics:

A. Your Season:

1. Registration
2. Scheduling
3. Standings
4. League Communication
5. Special Events - Tournaments & Cups
6. Playoffs

B. Administration

1. Finance
2. Human Resources
3. Growth

C. Suppliers

1. Facilities
2. Referees
3. Equipment

Stay tuned to the League Management topic in each of the upcoming issues of Down-the-Line. Your league members will be happy you did!!