How early do you cancel games??

I think there are many considerations that must be evaluated prior to cancelling a game or forcing one to go. And making that determination as to when to cancel..

• Distance opposing team is traveling.

This is an obvious one. If you can avoid it, you want to make a decision before the other team even gets on the bus. We had it happen once when I was in high school that the game got cancelled when we got about 10 minutes from the school we were headed to. Now our school had spent $XX to drive and turn right back around. Additionally, because we spent that time on the bus, there wasn't much point in trying to go back to our school and getting a practice in. So now that was a completely wasted day for our team.

• Threat of additional rain/weather.

This can go along with above as well as reasons below. You don't want to push to play a game and then it get washed out in the 2nd or 3rd inning, whatever, due to rain. Now opponent has spent money traveling there, you have to still pay the umpires, and you've got nothing to show for it.

• Game Schedule

What some don't realize is that a lot of schools over-schedule every year. They do that so if they have a good spring, they can hopefully get the maximum number of games played. I've seen teams who scheduled 3-4 extra games with those games closer to the end of the season being "mutually cancelled" if a team plays all of the other ones. Also, if it's a conference game or not can make a big determination.

• Field condition

Field condition is obviously a big factor. But we have to look at the entire field. And what's going to happen after teams have been on it for 20 minutes. It may look playable, but is it really? Safety has to be a priority and if the field is "iffy" then I'd prefer we wait another day!

• Cost to have field ready to play and cost to repair field as needed

Last consideration is what is it going to cost to have the field ready? This could be measured in man-hours (are you paying somebody to prepare the field? Is the coach leaving class to prepare the field?), measured in amount of money spent on fuel for the tractor, money spent on some sort of drying agent. None of that stuff is cheap! Additionally, so if you do choose to get out and play... what damage are you going to do to the field? Is that going to require repair in the days to come?

So based on your two situations and what you're saying, I'd agree with you. But I just wanted to give you some thoughts that the athletic administrator must consider...

Bulldog hit on the right points.  We just had a rare postponement due to wet field this past week.  AD was at field at 10:30 am.  Game was scheduled 4:30.  Opponent had to travel 1 1/2 hrs.  Field looked GREAT - no standing water.  But when you stepped on it, just a bit too mucky.  It was sunny but a possible chance of rain later in the day, so not sure if it would dry in time.  Had to cancel and not a moment too soon, calling other school's AD, letting JV kids know by noon that they would not be getting on buses to travel, calling umps, etc.  To the casual observer, this probably looked like a bad decision made too hastily but it was the right responsible call by the AD.

I'm not saying it was the same situation as yours, Buckeye.  And if we were in your wet/cold region, we may have hoped for more of an effort to save the game, but I'm just trying to shed some light on the fact that there is a lot involved behind the decision process and it does need to happen sooner than later.

All good points...with regard to $$$.  No issues, in the first case, it never rained...so no money spent on extra preparation or repairs.   Today....no additional money would be spent....just drag it, line it and play.  Our field isn't nice enough for anyone to worry about "damaging" it...which is what makes these situations all the worse...lol.  You can't hurt it.  Coach and his dad, and some parents would have been at the field today....no cost to anyone.  I've spent hundreds of hours prepping fields while my son has grown up....we have a junior high field that myself and my friend essentially maintained on our own for 3 years while our kids were playing.  That's part of why I knew that yesterday's wind and today's sunshine would dry the field up quick enough that we could play.  Our AD has absolutely no idea about field maintenance...which is why him calling games so early makes even less sense.

I agree that it sounds to cautious, however you are missing some finer points when talking about $$$.  Now in saying this I am only going by our area so yours could be different.  If, during weather conditions, we state that we are going to be able to play and the umpire leaves his residence to come to the game we owe him his game check.  Same thing in regards to buses, once the bus pulls out of the district yard our Athletic Department gets charged.  So you need to understand there is more going on when it comes to money than just the field.

I understand busses, umpires, etc.  I coached a junior high team for two years and had to make the call whether or not to play on my own.  In today's case, we cancelled yesterday at 10:30am.  Most of the other teams in the area pushed their games back to a 1pm or 2pm start...then made the decision early today.  I was at the field at 8:30am and based on my experience with the field, it was easily going to be playable for today.  At 1pm it was perfect....and 52 degrees and sunny.  The call could easily have made today at 9am if needbe...instead of 24 hours earlier.  The team we were playing today is 25 miles from here...and both umpires live within 10 minutes of the field....so no issues there.

Were there any players, specifically starters, who were going to miss the game for one reason or another? I have heard of coaches coming up with any kind of excuse to cancel/reschedule games due to starting players not able to make the games.

Here's an interesting one for you...

Conference game scheduled today. Two teams have not yet played each other. Inch of rain overnight makes our field unplayable. Move to the other location who I believe has a tarp. After 7 innings of play, the game is tied when weather opens up again. Teams will finish this game and then play second game next month at our place. LOL. 

As an AD myself this post is perfect for what goes on in decision making. Trying to figure out to play a game or not is a science and art.  Even with modern weather technology it's a toss up.

Earlier in the spring we were going to play soccer at home with a team who had to travel about an hour and half.  When I had to make the decision based on their departure time the sky was clear and weather.com said 0% chance of rain until near what would be the end of the game.  So before they left we decided to cut the JV games short so we could get varsity over with before next rain showed up.  I kept checking weather.com and nothing.  About 15 minutes before they showed up it start raining and steadily got worse.  Thankfully, they were terrible because we had a 4-0 lead at half and I called the game then due to poor field conditions.  I talked to both coaches and all the refs so it was more mutual decision than just me but I had in my mind to cancel it.  So I did everything I could to make the right decision but still got it wrong.

This past Friday the forecast looked terrible.  Tornado watches, strong winds, thunder, lightening and rain for our area.  The other team called to ask what I thought and looking at weather.com it had nothing for us but accuweather.com had us getting thunderstorms about when second half started.  Everyone around us was canceling everything but we stuck with it.  Beautiful weather with some wind all through the game.  We were the only ones to play in the area but it could have made me look really stupid if I was wrong.

Our AD has absolutely no idea about field maintenance...which is why him calling games so early makes even less sense.

I learned very quickly that if there is something I don't know about a sport to rely on that coach to make that decision.  Makes me look a lot smarter than I really am.