Meeting Paves Way For Season Opener

From the tough economy to rule changes and digital enhancements, the 2009 S.L.A.M. Manager's Meeting — held at Gensler HQ over pizzas and views of Rockefeller Center — presented a unique opportunity for managers to overhaul a number of league practices for the good of all the firms involved. Here is a recap of some of the major points discussed last week:

• The Commissioners and the Managers in attendance voted to lower the league fee to $500 per team due to the current economic issues facing all of our firms. As a result, the league will cut out the annual All Star Game T-shirts and will be drastically scaling back the end-of-the-year party, if not eliminating it completely. They will also be reducing the number of awards that are given out at the end of the season.

• Also because of costs, preseason practice permits will be limited to the first week’s 7 p.m. permits. The idea behind this is that if we have 5:30 p.m. permits, why waste them on practices/scrimmages when we can get the season rolling and possibly cut back on the number of extra permits we may need at the end of the season?

• There was an extensive discussion about the rules in the playoffs. The league is considering one of two new formats: 1) that only the top six teams make the playoffs, as most of the teams under that spot (for years) have finished far below .500; or 2) allowing eight teams to make the playoffs with the following format: a bye week for the top four seeds and a single-elimination round for seeds 5 through 8. Second week quarterfinals: bye week for seeds 1 and 2, best-of-three series for remaining teams. Semis bring the top two seeds back into the mix to face the winners of the quarters, etc.

Some managers (including myself) who supported the six-team bracket, expressed that playoffs should be a best-of-three during all rounds. Still, we agreed that we would be willing to support an eight-team bracket, but only if the lower teams were forced to play single-elimination to preserve permits for the teams who “earned” higher seeding during the regular season. A decision on which one we’ll use will be made before the season starts.

• Similarly, I introduced a discussion that all regular-season games and playoff games be considered official after five innings. Most agreed that, because we’re trying to move towards a best-of-three playoffs, there’s no reason to force teams to continue games (thereby creating unfair advantages and burning extra permits).

• Finally, it was obvious from the reactions around the conference room table that our PCF/HH blog made a big splash with the rest of the league last season. Partly in support of our efforts, S.L.A.M. webmaster Josh from The Philips Group has started a S.L.A.M. blog where managers can talk smack. They may open it up to comments from others who have to first register with the webmaster, but this is a precaution because the league doesn’t want a flood of activity on the board, as well as non-league players from the outside spamming it. In addition, not only will the scores be put up there each week but each manager will select a “player of the game” to get some props up there too. The S.L.A.M. site is already posted as a copy-paste link on the right side of this blog.

Gmail and Blogger users can post their reactions to all of this news right here on The Black and Red Report. Voice your support, concerns, and ideas. And dust off your cleats, because the 2009 S.L.A.M. season is right around the corner!

Big Decisions at S.L.A.M. Manager's Meeting

The S.L.A.M. Manager's Meeting was held last night at Gensler HQ in Rockefeller Center. Details on the entire meeting — and the many decisions that were made — will be listed here in the very near future.

In the meantime, check out one of the newest components of the S.L.A.M. media family: the S.L.A.M. Talk blog. It's a brand new feature and is still in its infancy, but it's sure to be another fun component of the Architect's League. There is also a copy-and-paste link to the blog now listed in our "Links" section along the right-hand column of this blog.

Dust off those cleats and start stretching! The 2009 S.L.A.M. season is right around the corner!