March 11, 2020
Fellow members, our league is celebrating our 30th Anniversary – what an incredible milestone. Imagine 30 years ago when a group of like-minded men took out an ad in the newspaper looking for others to form a 50 and older competitive men’s basketball league. In short order they had multiple teams, and while there were some in their numbers that were on the upper end of their 50’s, and a few in their 60’s it was, by and large, a league of 50 year old’s. Fast forward seventeen years to 2006 and the league was faced with a challenge which was brought about by their success! Most of the members stayed in the league, as they had found something special – while they came for the basketball they stayed for much more. Some of these original members were now in, or were approaching their 70’s and trying to keep up with young 50 year old’s on the court.
A somewhat game-changing decision was made by our CSBL board in 2006 to create a second division of play and groundwork was laid for what we now know, 13 years later, at the Colonie (upper) division and Albany (lower) division. For thirteen years this format has served us well, but some of the same trends that were developing in 2006 are now reappearing as we look to begin our fourth decade as a league. We now are seeing a wide array of skills, abilities and ages in both of our divisions, to the point where there is a significant gap between the top five players on any given team and the lower three players – a gap that simply didn’t exist to this extent when the two division structure began in 2006 or when the league was founded in 1989.
A couple months ago I published some divisional statistics in the Hoopster called “The Power Report” to illustrate this trend. It shows what we all intuitively know: the Colonie division team games are higher scoring (average of 65 ppg) than the Albany Division games (average of 48 ppg). We could debate what the causes of these difference are, but at the end of the day I suspect the majority of people would agree it’s due in large part to younger age, more stamina and the retention of more of their skills in the Colonie Division. The data also shows there is not much if any overlap as the Colonie team with the lowest offensive production is more productive than the Albany team with the highest production. Even free throw shooting percentages, where defensive efforts do not apply, are higher in the Colonie Division (65% to 58%).
I recently ran a report to look at the average ages for players in both divisions. The results: Colonie division average: 58.9; Albany division average: 67.8. That’s about a 9 year difference in average age, but that doesn’t show the full picture. I then looked at the ages of players from the 2011/2012 season, which was five years after the split to two divisions. The comparison between these two years is somewhat startling:
In these eight years the average age of the Colonie player has gone up by 2.6 years, and the Albany player average age has gone up 4.2 years. Furthermore, those players who were 55 years of age or younger in 2012 represented 37% of the overall league whereas that same group represents only 17% of the league today. On the other end of the spectrum roster players age 70 and older were only 10% in 2012 whereas today they represent 22% of the league.
These trends are something I have been noticing for a few years now, but it wasn’t until I started examining the data that I realized how much this data supports my intuition. I have spoken with the Board about this the past couple years, and recently we on the board felt the time was right to present the information to the membership.
As I said earlier in this letter, we have this inconvenience because of our success! They say that any company’s success can be measured by the percentage of repeat business that company enjoys. With that as our yardstick I would say the CSBL is a highly successful enterprise! But the effect that this repeat business has on our demographics is a population that is trending older, and as such is diminishing the level of competition by skewing the age range within each division to a point where competitive imbalances occur – within teams, and within divisions.
I have proposed to our Board of Directors a plan to expand our CSBL League to three divisions. My proposal would essentially create three divisions of five teams each that would play a full schedule during the year and have their own playoffs at the end of the year. This new structure of 15 teams (versus our current 14 teams) would have the potential of immediately adding eight roster players to our numbers, and even with the increase of roster players all divisional games would be able to be played within the confines of our 6-game day on Saturdays. This would be achieved by one team from each division having a bye each week, while the remaining four teams play 2 games each week: 2 games/division x 3 divisions = 6 games.
My proposal would create the rosters in much the same way they are created now – from the top down. Therefore, this proposal would have a total of 120 roster eligible people (determined by seniority, as it is now) in the overall draft. Five captains, determined to be “A” Division captains would draft 7 rounds, thereby taking who they collectively felt were the top 35 players off the board. The remaining 80 players on the board would then be presented to the five “B” Division captains who would then draft 7 rounds to take the next group of 35 players off the board. This would then leave the final 35 people on the board who would be selected during the third and final “C” Division draft. While age would certainly be a determining factor in the drafting process it is not the only thing the captains will be looking at. Captains can and will draft by skill, size and need, as is done now. My proposal would still have some provisions for allowing players to request a division, which for the most part is honored. To re-emphasize, the entire draft eligibility process would be based on seniority, as it is now, and there would be no risk whatsoever that any member would be left out so long as they have their seniority.
Our board will be deliberating this matter during this upcoming off-season, and a decision and announcement will be made before the 2020/2021 season begins. I wanted to be sure all the membership was aware of this motion and had ample opportunity to consider it, to discuss it with their peers in the league, their captains and with Board Members. I encourage anyone who has questions or concerns to contact me, by phone or email. It is vitally important we have a good sense of how the membership feels about this, and what the membership desires and expects from their experience here in our league.
Thank you all for your consideration of this matter and your feedback.
Best Regards,
Andy Kramarchyk
CSBL Commissioner