Milwaukee to Host NAHBPC 2018

Posted on May 14, 2018September 14, 2020 by Alias Tagami

The NAH is very pleased to announce that the 2018 NAHBPC will be returning to Milwaukee, WI!

Milwaukee (MKE) has been a bike polo institution in the short history of our sport. It has forged champions, and it no stranger to hosting major events. The NAH knows that the MKE club will provide an excellent continental championship, and we were very pleased with the content of their bid. The final date of the event is still being finalized, but it will still occur within the original NAHBPC window (Between Sept 21st and Oct 22nd).

As more details are known will be posted here: nahbpc.com

MKE’s bid took excellent advantage of the grant initiative funding that the NAH reserved for the event, and the entire North American bike polo community should praise them for their work thus far and to come. Their bid features supplemental support from Wausau Bike Polo, and as such praise and thanks should be passed on to both clubs for their collaboration. The bid is ambitious, and involves potential new court infrastructure. If you are already familiar with MKE’s court setup, the bid outlined how the tournament space will adapted for the squad format should existing infrastructure be used for the event.

Please be patient while we work with MKE. In an abundance of caution, we won’t over-promise on details, so today’s announcement is limited to the location and time-window of the event. The Regional Qualifiers (RQs) have already begun, and we are excited about the season. Because of the NAHBPC’s timing, we remind all regions who have not yet scheduled their RQ that as a courtesy that they not schedule their tournament within six weeks of the NAHBPC. This allows for players and teams to have the bare minimum time needed to plan and schedule leave for the event and ensures a high quality competition.

2018 NAHBPC Bids Due April 15th!

Posted on March 20, 2018September 14, 2020 by Alias Tagami

NAHBPC

The NAH is now collecting bid information from clubs interested in hosting the 2018 NAHBPC. This year we are providing start-up funds (up to $2,275.00 USD!) to help ensure the best quality event possible and to encourage quality bid submissions. Read more about this year’s Regional Qualifiers and Continental Championship here.

Here is a quick breakdown of the money we will be offering up to a host club looking to take on this years event:

$500	Winning bid (two courts)
$300	Additional Courts (for each additional court) max 4
$75/court	Lights (until at least 10pm) to a maximum of $225
$50/court	Court Access (symmetrical squad ready doors) to a maximum of $150
$100/court	Reffing facilities (elevated, covered stands with functional scoreboards)
50% contribution	Free Food (match costs on food, snacks, beverages) max $100/day
$5/Game	Refereeing (for every game in the tournament we will front $5 for reffing)

These are the financial perks we will be offering up to the host of the 2018 NAHBPC. This along with the support from our team and the skills of past tournament organizing, we feel any club in the NAH has the ability to take this on and we encourage you to submit a bid. Interested hosts should consider how else they would fundraise for the NAHBPC in conjunction with NAH funds. It is okay if your club cannot provide all details now. Submit what you plan to provide and qualify what you can commit to provide and what you seek to provide. Additional review and work between the host and the NAH may result in additional funding if additional features are added. Bids should be submitted via email (mark@nahardcourt.com) with the documents provided here. It is okay if your club cannot provide all details now. Submit what you plan to provide and qualify what you can commit to provide and what you seek to provide. Additional review and work between the host and the NAH may result in additional funding if additional features are added.

The 2018 NAHBPC should be held no earlier than September 21st and no later than October 22, 2018. If you would like to host outside of this time window, please contact the NAH Tournament Organiser to discuss the feasibility.

If you have any questions about this year’s qualification series and the championship, email mark@nahardcourt.com

Other Items

REF PAYMENTS: Over the weekend, the NAH reviewed all available documents from the 2017 WHBPC to pay referees. Some documents were damaged and/or lost which delayed the process. We apologize for the delay on closing out this effort, and thank everyone who helped. We are currently collecting emails, and will be sending out contact info so that we can PayPal you for your work. Keep an eye out in your inbox! If you wish, you may reject your payment and donate it to one of three initiatives/causes:

Support to San Juan Puerto Rico Bici Polo Club players (cash to the club for them to use however they see fit)
NAH Incorporation Fund (money to be used to help clubs register/incorporate in their state/providence or towards non-profit status)
2018 WTF-FRST Scholarship Fund

WTF-FRST: We are already into 2018, and are looking to help WTF-FRST raise more money this year to support the community and promote diversity, growth, and competition! If you’d like to donate to this initiative, PayPal your donation to treasurer@nahardcourt.com with a note that says “WTF-FRST”!

If you have any questions about WTF-FRST, email genderinpolo@gmail.com

2018 NAHBPC Bids & Regional Qualifiers

Posted on February 26, 2018September 14, 2020 by Mark Aseltine

Welcome to the official call for bids for the 2018 NAHBPC. This year’s call is going to be different than past years. As you might know last year the NAH brought an added level of support and collaboration to the NAHBPC than in past years. We helped create schedules for the tournament, we aided in the collection of team names and registration. We used our website and social media platform to distribute information and communicate to team captains directly.

This year we will be doing all of this and more. This year we will be giving out seed money to the club successful in hosting the 2018 NAHBPC. That’s right, we’re giving out money! Up to $2,275.00!

Here is a quick breakdown of the money we will be offering up to a host club looking to take on this years event:

$500	Winning bid (two courts)
$300	Additional Courts (for each additional court) max 4
$75/court	Lights (until at least 10pm) to a maximum of $225
$50/court	Court Access (symmetrical squad ready doors) to a maximum of $150
$100/court	Reffing facilities (elevated, covered stands with functional scoreboards)
50% contribution	Free Food (match costs on food, snacks, beverages) max $100/day
$5/Game	Refereeing (for every game in the tournament we will front $5 for reffing)

The 2018 NAHBPC should be held no earlier than September 21st and no later than October 22, 2018. If you would like to host outside of this time window, please contact the NAH Tournament Organiser to discuss the feasibility.

Regional Qualifiers

Like last year, we are using the new prorated ranking system for regional allocation which factors a region’s performance over the previous four years. For a more information on 2018 regional qualifiers, read more here.

For any questions regarding the bid process or the application form, please contact Mark Aseltine directly at mark@nahardcourt.com.

For questions regarding hosting the NAHBPC, please contact Jennifer Spencer directly at jennifer@nahardcourt.com or Matt Krofcheck at thiscarcrash1@gmail.com.

Photo by Carlos Hauck

2018 North American Bike Polo

Posted on January 29, 2018September 14, 2020 by Alias Tagami

Happy belated new year to all! We hope you’re enjoying your winter, and maybe (weather permitting) finding some time to play polo!

The NAH wants to give you a rundown of some of our initiatives for the end of winter into spring, as well as introduce some new team members! We also know that everyone is eager to know what this season will look like, and we can report some early details to help you in your bike polo season planning and scheduling!

Initiatives

WTF-FRST – One of the things we were most proud of in 2017 was working with WTF-FRST to get six bike polo scholarships out to WTF athletes to assist in their development and competitive season! In 2018, we intend to continue the program, and with the generous contributions from the bike polo community, we hope to exceed our previous year!

Going Official – The NAH is a registered corporation in the District of Columbia that is tax exempt due to its 501(c)3 status. This was the primary feature that let us bid for the money we needed to put on the WHBPC stream last year! This taught us a lot, but it also got use thinking about what kinds of more formal and official structures that could be established at the local level so that clubs could take advantage of public funds and non-profit status to build infrastructure. What we’ve seen in the past is often a club will have a PayPal account that is in reality simply a member’s private account. This is a good vehicle for collecting funds, but if that person was audited by the IRS, they might have a very bad time proving they didn’t owe back taxes. For these reasons and more, the NAH has a new initiative to get clubs to formally incorporate so that they also have legal and financial protections. This initiative in 2018 will consist of a series of documents on how to do this, but may additionally include some limited financial support for the associated processing fees that the state will collect.

Grants – Building off the last initiative, we’ve brought on a new team member to search publicly listed grants that clubs might be able to use for tournaments or infrastructure development. Anyone who has been around for a while and worked on polo development knows that this is the biggest thing holding us back.

The NAH Team

Alias Tagami – President, Governor, Treasurer

Mark Aseltine – Tournament Director

Kayla Story – Outreach Director [NEW]

Joe Rstom – Rules Director, Head Ref

Megan Shoop – Grants & Public Programs Coordinator [NEW]

Adam Hite – Web Development

Alyssa Johnes – Graphic Design [NEW]

Jennifer Spencer – Social Media Director

Will Robbins – Reffing Consultant

2018 NAH Schedule

The details as of today are few, but we can tell you that we plan to have a later season than the previous year. This is in part due to only hosting one major, the NAHBPC. As with each year we try to constrain the NA championship to some later point in the year then work backwards in season planning. We want all region qualifiers to be finished with eight weeks to spare before NAs. This provides some time for teams to plan and save money. We will continue to use the Squad format.

Who will host RQs? The RQs have always been the responsibility of the regions to coordinate and plan. The NAH’s position remains as it has in previous years, once regional allocations of teams are published, we leave it to the regions to decide how they will send their teams. We know that each region has different challenges in coordinating and hosting, so we hope to see creative leadership from clubs and NAH Regional Reps.

Who will host NAs? We’ve had some rumors fly around, but we will introduce a place to submit bid info next month. This year the NAH will do something different. We will provide starter funds for the host club. These starter funds increase with the number of criteria the host bid fulfills (e.g., More money if the host is providing three courts versus two). Expect to see a post on this topic to come soon in the next weeks.

2017 was an incredible year for North American bike polo. But before we get too far into 2018, we’d like to thank a few people and groups in particular. First a foremost, the hosts of the WHBPC, Lexington Bike Polo. We could not have made it happen without the generous contribution from our sponsor Kentucky for Kentucky and the generous public grant from the Kentucky Department of Tourism! Special thanks to Broomwagan Coffee & Bikes, West Sixth Brewing, County Club, and numerous other local businesses who helped make players from around the world have the greatest time in Lexington. We had lots of other sponsors pour in prizes for the WHBPC as well like Pake and RYB Denim. Rustbelt Welding provided trophies for the NAHBPC and WHBPC. We want to also thank Lancaster United Bike Polo and DC Bike Polo for their work on the NAHBPC. We’d like to thank all of the hosts of the regional qualifiers. We couldn’t have done without you!

If you have any thoughts or ideas on how to help us on the year or if you’d like to get more involved, email Alias (alias@nahardcourt.com).

NAHBPC 2017 Open Registration & Lottery

Posted on July 11, 2017September 14, 2020 by Mark Aseltine

The NAHBPC will have a small open registration to fill one or three spots in the championship. We are asking for interested squads to submit 5-player or 6-player rosters. If your squad competed at a regional qualifier please state which one and your finishing position. We will consider your regional finishing spot as means for selection. Squads formed without having competed in a regional qualifier will also be considered through a random lottery. This will not be a click race.

If three or more full squads register, there will be three squads invited to attend. If fewer than three teams register, only one squad will be invited to attend. This policy is due to planning out the schedule of events with an even number of teams. This will be a very short application period as the event is approaching quickly. Please submit by noon EST July 16th. Selection will be made July 17th. Once selected, you will be contacted with instructions on how and who to pay. All registration payments are final and no refunds will be issued. Squads should only register if they are prepared to commit to travelling to the event.

The NAHBPC is in Frederick, MD on July 28th-30th hosted by Lancaster United with support from DC Bike Polo and the NAH. Find more information about travel and accommodations at the official website: nahbpc17.com

All submissions and inquiries should be made to Mark Aseltine (mark@nahardcort.com).