The Politics of Scheduling

This past weekend, I came across a number of very disturbing incidents that I would like to highlight. They all relate to the politics of scheduling. One can be forgiven for wondering how scheduling can lead to politics, but surprisingly enough it is rife with inconsistencies.

Flames were schedule to play Phoenix on Aug 1/2 weekend. However, because the CER was taking place, we were informed that the game would be postponed as a couple of players from the Flames were playing in the CER. We had bye weeks on the weekend of the 9/10 and 16/17. Instead, we were scheduled to play back-to-back games on the weekend of 29/30.

Now, I ask why this happened? It wasn't Phoenix players that were involved in the CER. So, why should we be penalized with back to back games when we could easily have played during one of our bye weeks? Yes, the Flames would have to play back to back games, but wasn't this reschedule because of them? So wouldn't they have to be accommodating? However, the wisdom behind the two-fold reasoning that I received left me astounded. Firstly, I was told that it was fair that both Flames and Phoenix has to play back to back games instead of just one. Neither team would have an "advantage". Secondly, the Flames had players who play in the Thirty/30 division and thus the back to back was the only way to accommodate them!

Since when did we start scheduling Div 1 games based on Thirty 30 availability? Does this happen for any other team, or players? Does the management team responsible for scheduling avoid conflicts for Div 1/2 players on all the Thirty/30 team? How is it fair to Phoenix who were not the cause of the reschedule? If a game is rescheduled due to one team (in the past due to some tragic circumstances), doesn't the team responsible for the change have to be the one that is accommodating?

Despite all this, we played the back to back games without any further fuss, resigned to accepting our managment's "fair and consistent" decision making reasoning. But then, things took a turn for the "even more consistent". Phoenix was scheduled to play the Royals on WP4 on Sunday after having played the Flames on Saturday at Community Park. Flames were scheduled to play Muslim Gym on Sunday at WP2. Sometime on Friday, the venues for the 2 Sunday games were swapped. And why would this happen, someone could ask?

Firstly, the Flames game was postponed from a 10am start to a 11am start. Even the Muslim Gym players did not know this until they arrived on Sunday at the ground and had to call the Flames to figure out what was going on. Why was this game rescheduled to a 11am start? Was there an out of town team involved? Not unless one of those 2 teams had relocated within 24 hours to a different city!!! Could it be because the Flames had played a game just the day before on Saturday? Surely not, because Phoenix had just gone through the same predicament and our game began at 10am.

Secondly, why was the venues for the two games swapped? Specially, when both were at Washington Park. Looking at both ground, they both looked really good, well cut, clearly defined boundaries, even field, etc. So, what then could the reason have been? Well, we found out shortly when the Flames players arrived. Muslim Gym players were ok "swapping" back and so we began our game. When the Flames players arrived, they objected (stopping our game for around 30 mins while we figured stuff out). They said that the "matting" was not good. Yet, when we glanced over at the ground, the matting lay neatly rolled up. What manner of phenomenal eye-sight had they developed to see that without unrolling the mat? And when the mat was un-rolled, sure enough, they were correct. Yet, this was the same mat that other teams have played on this season, including Phoenix vs the Wildcats the weeekend prior. So why did this make an iota of difference? Since when were teams scheduled on grounds based on the matting available? We were able to solve the standoff and continue our game with all teams agreeing to the solution finally. But, a mystery had begun unfolding and we had little clue as to the motives or events behind it!!

Another scheduling mystery that is puzzling us - Muslim Gym were supposed to play St Louis in Chicago. Suddenly, they are now scheduled to play in St Louis! How, why, where did turn-around happen? Were they informed of this, and did the accede to this scheduling request?? What is the motive behind this great puzzle?

Well, we are still looking for answers. We have two options before us. One, send a notice to the MWCC Management and request and explanation. We've done that, because this has left us truly confounded on how and why such a situation would come about!!! This is the second option - employ the services of the brightest and sharpest minds to help us understand what happened here. Is there a detective amongst us who will be able to solve this mystery?