I am not sure if this belongs on this topic thread or somewhere else, but if our new CEO was part of this, its very impressive. I know its hard to compare polo with other sports but volleyball does seem one that has similarities. Euro pro leagues not US, expensive to play, more female than male college programs, olympic sports, team dynamic, to name a few.
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This might seem like a small thing, but itâs not. The USAWP website is horrible. It looks like it was designed 20 years ago by a teenage in graphics class and has zero functional feel or aesthetic.
With the new software tools on the market, itâd be incredibly easy for USAWP to ship a new website that makes it look like it has its sh*t together.
Look at the AUS website. They have fundamentally the same National program as the US (ODP, National Teams, Domestic Pro-ish league, etc.) but look how much better their web footprint is. Small things make the difference. Someone figure it out.
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100%. Search does not work. Items are hard to find and often are not linked. Schedule is out of date. A good example : front page = âthe path to Parisâ front and center.
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So true! If you hover over (or click) âTeam USAâ youâll get links to Tokyo 2020.
And the history section doesnât have any Olympics post 2016.
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Agree with #4. If you donât see a potential to play in college you wonât participate in the sport. I tried to get numerous lacrosse moms to move their boys to water polo. Top thing they said there are only about 7 schools they would probably send their kids to, the other D1 programs itâs not worth the cost or the educational value
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That seems like a pretty skewed perspective, but maybe things have changed since I was in high school. My high school didnât have swater polo, but I was a 4-year swimmer and moderately competitive my junior and senior years. Swimming was a big sport at my school, with 25+ boys and a similar number of girls most years. Of all the kids I swam with in high school, boys and girls, which would be seasons with graduates from 1982â1988, I can think of fewer than 10 who swam for college varsity teamsâand almost all of us were at Division 2 or 3 schools. No matter what athletes and parents hopes and dreams may be, only a very small fraction of high school varsity athletes in any sport will play at the college level. Across all sports, the average is around 6% and thats for D1,2, and 3. If you want your kid to play in college, girls ice hockey at 33% is the best bet. Girls and boys lacrosse are both in the mid-teens. Odds are higher for elite players who are on club teams and play year round, of course.
More info here: Estimated probability of competing in college athletics - NCAA.org
SAVE THE DATE
2025 USA Water Polo General Assembly
Friday, May 31, 2025
8:00 AM PDT - 11:00 AM PDT
As you may know, at least once every two years, there shall be an Assembly at which all individuals, organization members and other USA Water Polo constituencies shall gather and provide input to the Board on important issues confronting USA Water Polo. At the Assembly, the Board Chair shall provide a report on the âState of USA Water Poloâ and the Chief Executive Officer shall provide a managerial report addressing issues of concern and importance to USA Water Polo. Any member of USA Water Polo may pose questions to the Chair and the CEO in regard to these reports.
In the interest of efficiency and honoring our membersâ time, this Assembly will be virtual. In addition to presentations and questions, the Assembly Delegates from the twelve regional zones of USA Water Polo will vote on changes to the USA Water Polo Bylaws Article 8. They will also be asked to vote on ratification of the USAWP Board of Directors Class A.
It is our goal that the Assembly will provide insight into the current performance of USA Water Polo, as well as ensuring that we are meeting our obligation to good governance. Thank you in advance for your interest and participation.
Thank you,
USA Water Polo
General Assembly Session: Live broadcast at YouTube.com/USAWP on Saturday, May 31st at 8AM PDT 11AM EDT.
Q & A Session: Open to all USAWP members following the General Assembly Session. Click HERE to register.
Assembly Delegate Voting Session: The final portion of the Assembly is restricted to the Delegates who will receive a separate Zoom registration.
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Anybody know - Does new CEO Davis live in Pennsylvania?
Yes, thatâs my understanding. Moreover, as far as I can determine, he still hasnât sent a message to rank-and-file members of USA Water Polo.
Well, letâs not discount skipshot magazine 
I guess you have to ask what the role of the CEO is - does he need to be around the sport? Does he need to know the challenges of tournaments? The state of referees? Should he be around National team trainings? ODP Championships?
Or is his job to staff the Board of Directors with rich bankers and people that will write fat checks (or are connected to people that write fat checks)
Serious question - because a lot of these board members have no connection to water polo and several are only connected via their kids playing⌠but revenue and net assets have gone up considerably under Ramsey and all the Board members he installed.
| Year | Revenue | Net Assets | Membership |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | $ 3,900,018 | $ (636,690) | 26,991 |
| 2007 | $ 4,709,511 | $ (728,351) | 26,945 |
| 2008 | $ 5,024,824 | $ (430,285) | 26,873 |
| 2009 | $ 5,431,042 | $ 71,135 | 30,928 |
| 2010 | $ 6,533,252 | $ 148,887 | 33,766 |
| 2011 | $ 7,654,133 | $ 369,223 | 35,750 |
| 2012 | $ 8,774,557 | $ 289,462 | 35,794 |
| 2013 | $ 8,312,190 | $ 396,991 | 39,715 |
| 2014 | $ 9,600,274 | $ 532,082 | 42,090 |
| 2015 | $ 9,836,298 | $ 678,281 | 42,419 |
| 2016 | $ 11,127,537 | $ 908,555 | 44,773 |
| 2017 | $ 10,844,093 | $ 914,010 | 45,320 |
| 2018 | $ 11,568,339 | $ 1,089,524 | 48,122 |
| 2019 | $ 14,948,843 | $ 3,260,716 | 50,578 |
| 2020 | $ 9,968,856 | $ 5,140,405 | 38,800 |
| 2021 | $ 13,747,803 | $ 6,543,014 | 37,219 |
| 2022 | $ 16,111,156 | $ 6,565,605 | |
| 2023 | $ 17,921,117 | $ 5,544,355 | |
| 2024 |
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I just played with AI to create a summary of this thread. @jeff @clark just a general suggestion â it is easy to use ChatGPT to create a summary of a topic. The site (current and old) tends to have repetitive discussions and not bulding from a basic knowledge foundation. For example: ODP, what is Academy, recruiting experience, foeign players in USA WP, suggestions to USA WP CEO, etc. you might want, with some frequency, ask ChatGPT to create a summary of a topic that will serve as a âprimerâ or our community âWikiPolo.â Happy to help and we can crowdsource the effort on various topics to even improve what is now a great site.
Back to the topic.
Hereâs a summary of the top 10 proposals most commonly endorsed in the Water Polo Exchange thread âIf You Were CEO of USA Water Poloâ, along with the individuals who supported each idea:
1. Rebuild a Domestic Professional League
- Endorsed by: polofan, thomas, jeff, twinkie, leftypolo
- Emphasis on creating a sustainable, televised national league to keep elite talent in the U.S. and improve visibility.
2. Financial Support for Athletes
- Endorsed by: jeff, leftypolo, thomas, alvinpolo
- Suggests stipends or job placements for senior national team players to retain talent and ease financial strain.
3. Revamp USAWP Governance and Transparency
- Endorsed by: jeff, polofan, thomas
- Calls for increased accountability from leadership, including regular communication and strategic updates to members.
4. Prioritize Grassroots and Youth Development
- Endorsed by: twinkie, westsidepolo, alvinpolo, leftypolo
- Expand accessibility through affordable youth clubs, better coaching education, and school partnerships.
5. Balance Foreign Player Influence in NCAA
- Endorsed by: jeff, polofan, twinkie
- Introduce caps or incentives to ensure fair opportunities for domestic athletes in college programs.
6. Invest in Coaching Development
- Endorsed by: thomas, alvinpolo, leftypolo
- National standards and continuing education programs to raise coaching quality at all levels.
7. Establish Regional Training Centers
- Endorsed by: westsidepolo, thomas, jeff
- Develop regional hubs to decentralize training and reduce travel/time costs for promising players.
8. Create a Unified National Calendar
- Endorsed by: polofan, thomas
- Coordinate club, high school, college, and national team schedules to reduce athlete burnout and improve scouting.
9. Improve Marketing and Media Presence
- Endorsed by: twinkie, jeff, westsidepolo
- Grow the sport by increasing digital presence, social media strategy, and partnerships with streaming platforms.
10. Reintroduce a National Club Championship Format
- Endorsed by: polofan, leftypolo, alvinpolo
- Host annual tournaments that bring together top clubs across age groups for visibility and unity.
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I approached USA WP with a suggestion to follow this specific discussion and the site overall as I think they would find it highly beneficial.
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Thanks @wp2024
Taking a Promethean risk for building summaries, Iâll mention that our board supports grabbing the entire text of a topic.
The format is:
https://www.waterpoloexchange.com/t/<topic slug>/<topic number>/print
So if you wanted to get the full text of this topic, you can grab it using:
https://www.waterpoloexchange.com/t/if-you-were-ceo-of-usa-water-polo/756/print
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I see this will take money, money, and more money. Is there a path to this without drastically increasing fees on members?
For example - if USAWP took over Futures, USCC, and all the Irvine tournaments so the profits from those big events went into funding a National League - would that be worth it?
Do we need to add media timeouts to make the game more palatable to streaming/sponsorship? Do we need to look at the editing complexity and nuance of the rules to attract outside viewers?
I think we should focus on the things that are free:
- Unified calendar
- Rules simplification
- USAWP transparency
- Growing parity in the college game
However - Iâm not hopeful this will happen - we lack a âcommissionerâ or anyone driving this ship across all the different organizing bodies (HS/Club/NCAA/Refs). We canât even get the home team cap colors to be the same across the sport - so what chance do we have at bigger changes? Sorry, to be a pessimist.
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I agree with what you sayâŚcanât we get the PGA/Soccer treatment with picture-in-picture ads? Heck, Iâll take some product placement in game as well. Announcers slide in that the crowds throats must be dry from all the cheering? Grab an ice cold Coca-Cola to get those vocal cords ready to go!
I do think a unified calendar would do great. Hard for college coaches to see HS talent that doesnât have the club/ODP exposure develop over four years when the seasons line up. Football/basketball make it work but would be nice to get HS and Club tourneys at some colleges for more exposure.
Rules simplification seems like something that will never happen. Unless we get our own NL going overhear and try to separate ourselves from the international game, I feel we will always be on these message boards discussing the rules (side note: I really did enjoy the YOU MAKE CALL on the old site).
The last two I feel are currently wait and see, especially with college parity as we wait for all this NIL to play out. Maybe the NIL will force USAWP to heavily invest in a NL if the college game is going to the international players or getting cut due to budgets.
Arenât those tournaments fundraisers for specific clubs? They are probably already USA Water Polo sanctioned events but to give them to USA Water Polo would deprive the current sponsors of the revenue from those tournaments.
Yes, but just as example of how revenue could be raised to accomplish some of the loftier goals. The point is you immediately see the conflicts - The National League will only work as a psuedo-2nd menâs collegiate season, as we have paid coaches and free pools for training.
I think the biggest obstacle to adding the NorCal teams to NL is the travel - whoâs going to pay for the flights and hotels? The schools? the kids? their parents?
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I see your point but you canât commandeer tournaments from clubs, plus that wouldnât be enough money to really make an impact. The only real shot the National League and water polo has at becoming a professional sport is to create a league where teams are owned and athletes are paid. To give water polo credence, the sport needs to be run like a professional league. Someone made a point that the only spectators are in this forum donât forget about the parents, spouses/girlfriends, and siblings who are dragged to the games, and sometimes the grandparents. The National Team needs an angle and a good marketing plan.
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I agree, USAWP canât commandeer tournaments - I only say that in jest.
A while ago there was a discussion on here about paying Refs - like really paying them to attract professional talent, not just casual weekenders - people who would review film, prepare for games and watch film afterwards to critique their calls. How much would we have to pay the Refs and evaluators to where losing your spot as a Ref really hurt your pocketbook - It wasnât enough to live on, but itâs enough to be painful if you lose it. In that example, where weâre just trying to pay 2 people $40k/year to work 20 of their weekends (~$2000/weekend), there wasnât a viable solution when you add single play dates (league games).
I only bring that up to illustrate that if there isnât a path to pay 2 people (the Refs) - what makes you think thereâs a path to pay 30 people (athletes + coaches).
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I think the idea of a professional water polo league is an exciting one but IMHO, I believe that the water polo community, not USA Water Polo, needs to step up and show their support and faith by financially backing one. I saw that Tony Azevedo was on a podcast stating that an American professional league is imminent. That will only happen if the money is put in place to make it happen. Even if player salaries are $50 - 60k they have to get paid to put their careers on hold to participate in a professional league. Refs need to be paid as well but without players, no league. This is the most excitement Iâve seen in forming a league beyond amateur (if you can really call it that anymore) but money and professionally run teams are the only way to get this off the ground.
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