Write the weather policy before the season
Published policies vary a lot:
- Rain or shine, lightning only. LUG Sports plays through rain and stops only for lightning.
- Makeups if time permits. Chicago Sport & Social reschedules when the calendar allows.
- Best effort, no refunds. Volley Life makes up what it can and says so up front.
- Guaranteed before playoffs. Phil Dalhausser BVA reschedules weather cancellations before the playoffs start.
Any of these is fine. What is not fine is deciding on the night.
Three ways to make up a lost night
- A buffer week. Leave an open week in the calendar, often one mid-season and one before the playoffs. A rained-out night moves there. This is the cleanest option and the one most outdoor leagues use.
- Push everything back. Every remaining night slides a week, and the playoffs move with it. Simple, but it can collide with holidays and court bookings.
- Double up. Fold the lost matches into a later night as a second match. No calendar change, but a long night for some teams.
What happens to a match stopped halfway
Decide this too. The common choices:
- Finished games stand. Whatever games were completed count, the rest are not played.
- Resume exactly. The match picks up at the same score on the makeup night.
- Replay the match. Start again from zero.
"Finished games stand" is the least work and the least arguing.
Never just delete a lost match
If a match cannot be made up, mark it not played rather than deleting it, so everyone can see what happened. Then make sure your standings are fair to teams that played fewer matches: rank on win percentage, not total wins. See volleyball league tiebreakers for why.
Tell everyone fast, in one place
A rainout message that reaches half the league means the other half drives to the beach for nothing. Whatever you use, the announcement should say:
- what happened (rain, lightning, courts closed, heat),
- whether tonight is off, delayed, or moved,
- the new date and time if there is one, or that one is coming,
- what happens to any match already in progress.
Send it to every player, not only the captains, and pin it where people will look first.
A sensible default
One buffer week before the playoffs, finished games stand, matches that cannot be made up are marked not played, standings on win percentage, and every player notified within minutes.
How Sideout handles it
Sideout's league setup holds up to three rain makeup nights and asks what happens to a match that is stopped: finished games stand, resume exactly, or replay. On the night, the commissioner opens Rain delay, picks the reason (rain, lightning, courts closed, heat, or something else), moves the night to a new date and time or postpones it with no date yet, and Sideout writes the announcement and posts it to the league feed and the captains chat. Standings sort on win percentage. See how leagues work in Sideout.