From Urban Velo Article in Issue 17 By Kevin Walsh

“…it seems that the more people travel, the more people wish things were better organized. For example, there are some minor regional differences in rules—which kind of ball to use, when you can attack after scoring a goal.

In an effort to better coordinate all of these efforts an interim body of 25 polo players representing cities across Canada and the US formed together in October 2009…”

For the moment, their “organizing body” has neither a real name, nor a bank account, nor a tax status. And for its first year, it has a fairly modest, North American-specific agenda:

1) Choose the location for the North American Bike Polo Championships 2010 (This has been accomplished; Madison WI and Boston MA presented two excellent bids, Madison won. See www.leagueofbikepolo.com/bids.)

2) Develop a collective approach to sponsors for tournament organizers, and explore the idea of supporting an established circuit of major North American tournaments.

3) Establish a viable decision-making structure, consisting of a system of elected club/city and regional representation.

4) Launch a public-facing website (its current home is a sub-forum on www.leagueofbikepolo.com).

5) Rules. It’s unclear whether there will be a “rule-book” per se, but it’s reasonable to expect that the organizing body will have a hand in determining what rules are in place at the 2010 NAHBPC in Madison.

6) Establish a bid process for determining NAHBPC 2011, and work with polo communities in Europe, South America, Oceania and Asia to establish a bid process for determining the WHBPC 2011. Ideally, by the time NABHPC and WHBPC roll around in summer 2010, we should already know who is hosting the 2011 tournaments. By the end of 2010, we will hopefully know about
2012 too.

…Until then, the stakes are being kept low, and our decentralized/DIY/local polo pickup scenes remain
sovereign.