Bruce, I love your passion for this and I agree that a collective "national" league that we could all be proud of would be great for the hobby.
My two cents...
Keep it simple, and all inclusive... and to me this means more of a
tournament circuit format than regular season games, schedules, playoffs, etc. I think an MFCA national league would be more realistic (and successful) if it partnered with the regional tournaments and was created as a series of tournaments rather than played as a league with a regular season and playoffs....the MFCA tour! We could run it like the Fed Ex Cup in golf (points for placement in the preapproved tournaments, with points dependant on # of coaches playing) and then a grand finale tournament for the MFCA championship (with MFCA rules), with seeding coming from the "regular season tournment circuit" point standings.
An
MFCA sponsered tournament circuit could provide critical support for the local tournaments, encourage participation and grass roots growth for the hobby, and it with some simple planning can be achieveable in 2011!
(1) The local tournaments are a life bood of the hobby, and this format would hype up the local/regional tournaments and lend support and prestigue to them and encourage participation! In this format we create a WIN-WIN for the grass roots local/regional tournaments and the "big picture" and that would be a bond that ties us together, rather than wedge us apart. Can you imagine checking the "standings" after each tournament and the fun it would be to rank and specualte.
(2) it will create the grass roots effort that is needed to encourage new participants to compete. Anyone can come play and be apart of these tournaments...heck, we could even award tournament points to coaches who recruit a new coach to play in a tournament. An individual can start small with one local tournament and you can build your "tournamnet schedule" at your own discretion and timetable (no demanding pressues...this is important for many!)
(3) this is achievable! Every person's schedule is different and getting organized for a league is very demanding. However tournament format is a fresh start each time, encourages and promotes participation, if one guy doesn't show up the plan doesn't get spoiled, there are no teams that are 0-10 feeling hopeless, you can attempt to compete in a tournament without worry of not meeting a long term league committment, and overall tournaments are a great way to play. By combining forces into a unified tournament circuit we have a way to create something BIG out of what we already have without it becoming overly demanding on our schedules/lives.
I want to go to LA for the OPEN RUN, I want to go to BELTSVILLE, I want to go to DIXIE, I want to go to a Jim Davis run tournament in Detroit, I want to have a tournament in Indianapolis or Chicago, etc, etc. If we tie these great events together like one big family of events maybe these events will have the support to be even more successful.
Sorry if thats more than 2 cents.
Joe