1 of 1- n00bthtpwnz
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Help needed with pathway for a fictional sport
I don't know if this is necessarily the right sport to post this (none of the other sections seemed to fit what I'm looking for). Basically, to make a long story short, I've been working on a fictional sport for the past few years and I've hit a point where I'm not entirely sure where to take the sport.
For some detail, the sport is called Trampolineball, which is pretty much just Olympic Handball, but on a trampoline (I came up with the idea about a decade ago when I was in middle school, hence why it's so generic). It begins as a regional sport primarily played in and around Milwaukee and Chicago. Slowly the sport spreads across the Midwest and eventually, the rest of the United States.
The Midwestern league started in 1978 and I've simmed all the way up to 1988, with regional leagues in the Midwest, Northeast, Southeast and West Coast. I'm planning on introducing a Canadian league in 1989 but after that, I'm not entirely sure how I want to expand.
I have a few things already planned out in my head:
Canadian league in 1989 (as mentioned above)
Women's US leagues starting in 1991
Men's US regional leagues merging in 2001, creating a 4-tiered national league system
Other than those things, I'm not sure how to expand the sport across the world. I have an idea of the regions where I really want to sport to expand, which should hopefully make things a bit easier, but I have no clue when to expand to make sure that it's realistic.
I would gladly appreciate any help and any ideas so I can progress with this passion project of mine.
Last edited by n00bthtpwnz (4/16/2023 12:59 pm)
- HWULA
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Re: Help needed with pathway for a fictional sport
n00bthtpwnz wrote:
I don't know if this is necessarily the right sport to post this (none of the other sections seemed to fit what I'm looking for). Basically, to make a long story short, I've been working on a fictional sport for the past few years and I've hit a point where I'm not entirely sure where to take the sport.
For some detail, the sport is called Trampolineball, which is pretty much just Olympic Handball, but on a trampoline (I came up with the idea about a decade ago when I was in middle school, hence why it's so generic). It begins as a regional sport primarily played in and around Milwaukee and Chicago. Slowly the sport spreads across the Midwest and eventually, the rest of the United States.
The Midwestern league started in 1978 and I've simmed all the way up to 1988, with regional leagues in the Midwest, Northeast, Southeast and West Coast. I'm planning on introducing a Canadian league in 1989 but after that, I'm not entirely sure how I want to expand.
I have a few things already planned out in my head:
Canadian league in 1989 (as mentioned above)
Women's US leagues starting in 1991
Men's US regional leagues merging in 2001, creating a 4-tiered national league system
Other than those things, I'm not sure how to expand the sport across the world. I have an idea of the regions where I really want to sport to expand, which should hopefully make things a bit easier, but I have no clue when to expand to make sure that it's realistic.
I would gladly appreciate any help and any ideas so I can progress with this passion project of mine.
I get that you want realism, so I will offer some suggestions in that realm. But don't be afraid to get creative with how things expand.
Realistic Ideas
- Some international players visit Chicago and watch a game out of curiosity. They bring the sport back to their home country and it expands from there.
- Exhibition matches between Canadian and United States National Teams, pitting the best of each nation against each other.
- Television deals to make the sport more accessible internationally.
- US/Canada players travel around the world to teach young people how to play the game, growing Trampolineball worldwide.
As far as your "when," you could try somewhere between the start of the Women's US league and the Men's league merger. You could also do 5-10 years sometime after the Men's merger.
But again, don't be afraid to get whacky with it! My basketball league started as dudes in a YMCA in a made-up country and grew from there.
Hope this helps!
- n00bthtpwnz
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Re: Help needed with pathway for a fictional sport
Realistic Ideas
- Some international players visit Chicago and watch a game out of curiosity. They bring the sport back to their home country and it expands from there.
- Exhibition matches between Canadian and United States National Teams, pitting the best of each nation against each other.
- Television deals to make the sport more accessible internationally.
- US/Canada players travel around the world to teach young people how to play the game, growing Trampolineball worldwide.
As far as your "when," you could try somewhere between the start of the Women's US league and the Men's league merger. You could also do 5-10 years sometime after the Men's merger.
I was definitely thinking that TV exposure would be a big factor into the sport growing in Canada, but I can definitely try that out for further expansion across the Americas. I could definitely have international players visit and bring the sport over to other continents (I actually have a few international players already on some rosters, but I was probably going to say that they moved to the U.S. at a young age and they still have strong ties to their birth nation).
I guess I could spread it across the Americas in the next 4-6 years from where I'm currently at, then spread it elsewhere in 8-10 years. I'll try and draw out a plan and see how it looks.
But again, don't be afraid to get whacky with it! My basketball league started as dudes in a YMCA in a made-up country and grew from there.
I completely get starting from a random place. My sport literally starts off with 4 high schoolers in a backyard.
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Thread Starter- Wallflower
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Re: Help needed with pathway for a fictional sport
Okay, so it sounds like you have a good set of ideas to go with. It seems like at this point it is a very small sports considering most leagues are regional. I might suggest looking at how some of the 2nd-tier sports leagues have expanded in North America. Like Lacrosse, even the rise of the MLS to some extent. Or even Ultimate Frisbee which seems to be on a similar level at least at this point.
It's a little difficult to like see very organic ways of expanding considering it's not super easy to play in schools or be introduced to younger people. Maybe look at the rise of trampoline parks, maybe that plays into people getting into the sport. Of course, it's fiction so you can make stuff happen to help the story expand further. I think your ideas for some leagues coming up and an eventual merger are good, my best advice is let those slowly come together. Little things can happen each year as you build towards a big event like a merger and I am sure it will feel organic. And you can of course look at how other similar leagues have also changed. I'm sure expansion is a lot more rapid in the 80s-90s and onto the 2000s.
- n00bthtpwnz
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Re: Help needed with pathway for a fictional sport
Okay, so it sounds like you have a good set of ideas to go with. It seems like at this point it is a very small sports considering most leagues are regional.
So with the regional leagues, the way I have it set up is that they are all part of a larger Federation/Association that oversees everything for the sport (think the Football Association in England).
It's a little difficult to like see very organic ways of expanding considering it's not super easy to play in schools or be introduced to younger people. Maybe look at the rise of trampoline parks, maybe that plays into people getting into the sport. Of course, it's fiction so you can make stuff happen to help the story expand further.
This is where I incorporate a little bit of fiction. In the very early days of the sport, I was thinking that they would use some sort of Olympic-style trampoline (even though Trampolining did not become an Olympic event until 2000. I also don't know if those types of trampolines would've been invented/common in the mid-late 1970's.). Then, once the sport grows locally, they would partner with a trampoline company to create a trampoline that was more suitable for this type of sport (much akin to what you'd see in a modern trampoline park).
I wanted Trampolineball to be a more modern sport, but I also wanted it to have a little bit of a history as well, so I would think that this sport could help speed up the popularity of trampoline parks, as the sport would be gaining in popularity across the nation in the 80's and 90's.
I think your ideas for some leagues coming up and an eventual merger are good, my best advice is let those slowly come together. Little things can happen each year as you build towards a big event like a merger and I am sure it will feel organic. And you can of course look at how other similar leagues have also changed. I'm sure expansion is a lot more rapid in the 80s-90s and onto the 2000s.
I've actually already got the expansions set up for each of the regional leagues, with basically all of the expansion happening throughout the 80's and 90's, leading to each league having 20 teams by 1998 in anticipation of the merger in 2001. For the most part, each expansion is 4 teams every 4-6 years until the league reaches 20 teams. I thought that this was a good way to expand the sport how I saw fit, while still being fairly realistic.
I will say that I would rather not go back and re-simulate anything, so if I were to adjust any expansion, it would be anything after my current point. Hopefully this all makes sense.
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Thread Starter- n00bthtpwnz
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Re: Help needed with pathway for a fictional sport
So I've made a map that shows where I eventually want leagues around the world (along with the boundaries of the US regional leagues). There is a key, but it cuts off some of the countries that I listed, so if you're curious which nations are in which league, feel free to ask.
Also, I will point out right now, yes there are some leagues where the nations IRL are in conflict with each other or otherwise wouldn't make sense. The main examples of this are Pakistan/India, Israel/the entirety of the Middle East and Hong Kong and Taiwan joining a league with Japan and South Korea. While I won't dive into any foreign relation lore, let's just say for the sake of simplicity that foreign relations in this universe are not as hostile as it is IRL.
Any feedback would be appreciated! (I realize that I originally asked about a timeframe for expansion, but I wanted to get this figured out first before moving on to the timeframe.)
Last edited by n00bthtpwnz (4/25/2023 10:43 pm)
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