PSP Chicago: Thursday

What can I say? The place is well named; the Badlandz. Word today was that the immediate area has absorbed 15 inches of rain in less than a week. Although absorbed isn't a hundred percent accurate as there is standing water in a few spots and lots of mud--a thick, sticky, gooey clay-like sort of mud. Efforts have been made to minimize the impact but it's almost been two steps forward, three steps back as the rain continued to fall day after day. But it's not the last Pomona (yet) which was the PSP's Waterworld event.
I talked to a few of the PSP staff over the course of the day and I almost felt sorry for them. (Almost, but I'm maintaining a journalistic distance.) They were uniformly worn down & worn out by the daily repeated efforts to make the venue playable. We were booted off the pro field this afternoon--something about an email last night to stay off?--as there was still work to be done even as the other fields were hosting matches. And those fields weren't pretty, they were uniformly muddy and beat up and the tournament is just getting started. The pro field still needed the pits and the scoreboard set-up and there was an effort being made to even out some churned earth and drain off some water.
Parking is problematic as well with little viable parking on site and the overflow redirected to a Balmont Park lot on higher, dryer ground. Shuttles are shifting peeps from the lot to the venue--slowly--and in the early morning tomorrow it could put every schedule behind. But again, it is what it is.
While conditions are less than ideal there is no point in complaining. The league has done the best they could. Rennick & the Badlandz staff also worked prior to the PSP's arrival to prepare the venue and it won't matter. People will complain during the event and continue to complain about it afterwards, too. And in one sense they are entitled but it won't help anybody win. Complaining never does and right now it's time to play ball. And excuses are for losers. Time enough after it's all over to look back and evaluate the results.
We registered, spent some time on the field (we weren't supposed to) and waited for a Facefull photog as the magazine has scheduleda future feature of some sort on the team. As the day dribbled away it turned out the Facefull guy was running late (too) and we decided to reschedule and get out of the heat. The next two days will be long ones. Two matches a day for the players but 6 or 8 matches for me as our prelim opponents and other likely opponents need to be scouted and charted. Rain or shine I spend my time under an umbrella in the grandstands.

For those of you who wonder what Old Skool competition was like--there were times when it looked very much like this. Tomorrow, match reports & results.