The Price of Glory Is Sixty Dollars

They said the field could not be saved. That the grass had won, that the season would be played in a meadow, that somewhere beneath it all there was a pitch but no living man had seen it.

It was mowed. It was lined. It is, against all reasonable expectation, a football field.

And somebody paid for that.

The ask

$60 per player. Hand it to your captain.

That’s the whole thing. You may return to your stretching.

How to pay

Settle the method with your captain — cash, e-transfer, whatever suits the two of you. Captains then submit for the entire team in one go, which spares the organizers the indignity of chasing seventeen grown men individually across a small town.

So: one payment, one captain. Not a crumpled twenty handed to three different people over the course of a month.

What your sixty dollars buys

Referees. Field rental. Insurance, because we are not as young as we behave. Paint for the lines you will shortly be arguing about. The website you are currently reading. And the year-end party — which, let us be honest with ourselves, is the item most of us are truly invested in.

Captains

Once your squad has settled up, get it across to the league organizers. If a name on your roster has gone quiet, a gentle reminder usually does the trick. Sterner options remain available.

This week, please

Nobody wants to be the man still being pursued in October, glancing over his shoulder at the parking lot. Pay up, and go back to worrying about your hamstring.

Questions to your captain, or the league at soccersmithers@gmail.com.