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players
How do we get people interested in bike polo in our city?
Groups:
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Create flyers and spokecards, talk to your LBS, hit up local bike clubs and universities, set up a FB page and host bike rides once a month, etc.
^Definitely. Also, a ton of polo players are mechanics- the LBS thing is important. When I lived in KC they made stickers, which boosted up membership...for a while. When I recruited there the best bets were at alleycats. So being a part of your cycling community definitely helps- doing alleycats, urban rides, commuting...these all help you make connections with the commuters and "urban cyclists" that are your most likely candidates.
you're probably pretty much fucked. people don't like getting hurt and/or talked shit on and polo is both of those cranked to 11. if you figure out the secret recipe please let us know.
thanks for the help.
set up a friendliess tournament, invite neighboring clubs to come play, invite everyone that rides a bike in each of the quad cities to come watch, talk to all of those people when they come out, tell them how cool bike polo is, become friends, play polo together weekly, and repeat.
We are trying out a BIKE POLO 101 day. This being our first shot at it, we are going to set up shop at the court and essentially have 4 loaner bikes ready for anyone who walks up to try it out. We plan on having informal tutorials throughout the day as well as vet games to show new comers what it looks like at full speed. Essentially, a crash course of some sorts in all that is polo, but with experienced players supervising and ensuring everyone is being safe and can enjoy it. We worked with the local bike co-op, bike advocacy council, and university of cincinnati to advertise for it. I believe the university's sustainability office alone sent out over 400 emails to people on their email list.
Our estimation here in cincy has been for every 10 people who come to check it out/try it, you will probably get 2-3 thst will continue to show up regularly and maybe 1 out of those 3 that will eventually be B or even A team material.
We actually lucked out and had a local bike advocacy ride make a pit stop during the summer and actually got a decent amount of repeat players, including one that has picked it up faster than I've ever seen anyone pick up the game. My point being that the more connections you make within your cities cycling community, the more people who you will reach that have that competitive spark.
Good luck and keep recruiting,
thank you all for the input.
how do you get people interested in commenting on this post?
Just because I have a beard does not mean that I do not crush a lot.