US Quidditch Announces New Three-Year Plan for Future of US Muggle Quidditch!

Following its victory at the World Cup, US Quidditch (USQ) has released its new strategic plan for July 2018–June 2021. The plan will direct the course of the organization for the next three years as it seeks to nurture and grow Muggle quidditch in the United States.

The 2019–2021 plan will focus on three key areas under a general theme of careful expansion that focuses on the sustainability of the sport.

The first key area is retention. For teams to survive, they need to ensure that they are keeping players on board and that they have ample room to grow. In order to achieve this, USQ is planning to expand opportunities and available resources for players. The strategic plan aims to host an international event and introduce additional league-supported competitive events. If these goals are reached, this should allow players greater opportunities to play the sport and potentially strengthen international ties for players who aren’t part of the US national team.

Second is the goal of recruitment. For the sport to continue to grow, new members need to be attracted to and engaged with the community, the earlier the better. US Quidditch is investing a large part of its strategic focus toward the youth game, instead of toward the traditional member base that consists of college-age recruits. USQ plans to advance youth and high school play, expand the base of volunteers and officials, and promote mentorships of new teams by those with more experience.

To do this, USQ has developed bold plans for a structured high school league, a youth and high school rule book, and even the addition of a high school division to the national championship! This would mean the US Quidditch Cup would consist of three divisions. Previously, collegiate and community teams competed against each other, but as part of the strategic plan for 2016–2018, this year’s event was split into two.

USQ further hopes to create an internship program and increase both pay and resources for officials in order to incentivize members to become involved as more than just players.

Finally, US Quidditch is targeting its reach to ensure that there is accessible and transparent communication between the organization to both members and the public in general. This is part of USQ’s overall vision to increase awareness of Muggle quidditch within the US as a serious sport.

Regular and varied use of social media will be used to reach as many members and non-members as possible. The key will be expanding coverage of matches to increase exposure since this is an effective tool to increase awareness of the sport to the general public.

The previous strategic plan covered the period of 2016–2018 and focused on broader goals. The organizational and financial sustainability of US Quidditch as a body is now being overlooked in favor of considering the needs of the sport itself, while the other two key areas of ensuring the growth of quidditch and developing trust in the US Quidditch brand have been folded into the new 2019–2021 key goals.

You can check out the new USQ strategic plan here!

Do you believe that the 2016–2018 strategic plan was a success? Is US Quidditch headed in the right direction to ensure the sustainable growth of the sport or are there development issues not being addressed?

Let us know what you think in the comments below!