[AtlUmpSteve]

Scott, much as Allan Richardson wants to pass off his program as a new national sanctioning body, right now it is limited to North Texas, according to feedback on Heybucket. There are obviously a lot of disgruntled teams and coaches there (not sure of the full geography, but I hear Dallas and Fort Worth for sure; maybe parts of Texas ASA, as well) believing that the local ASA staff is unresponsive to their needs, so they have adopted VTD as an alternative.

In our local area, there are two (or more) self-proclaimed "sanctions", which want to becoem major players. They get the travel teams that cannot even remotely compete in ASA, and aren't rec teams, but still want be classified as B to win a trophy; or the second tier that know they must play A, but cannot effectively compete for ASA berths.

That said, when the top teams want real competition, they still play ASA. Even with nonresponsive JO staff and higher priced tournaments; because they get the best facilities, the best umpires, and the most consistent standards in every aspect of the game. That has also been true in many other ASA strongholds; and will most likely be true if your umpire associations stand up and refuse to work second tier associations.

I had that battle for exactly one year. Lost a few "money umpires"; when they got the bait and switch, and didn't get what they expected, they mostly came back (the ones that I accepted back; some I told they had made a choice they had to live with, the ones I took back haven't ever looked back). Since then, enough that I took back told the tales and the message of those that I didn't; and haven't lost anyone to that temptation since.