Dear Sean,
I'm interested in finding people to play Foursquare with in LA -- perhaps even starting a league. Can you give me any advice in that direction? I think it's awesome that you have such a big group of people to play with -- now if only Boston were closer to Los Angeles... -David, 1/19/06 6:07 PM

Hi David, there are two ways you could go about doing it.

The first is to just start a social group with your friends, nothing official, and play irregular games. We have a tradition in our circle of friends to throw a party once per year that is dedicated to playing four square. We have a bbq, beers, music, and a bunch of four square courts to play all day. Usually lots of people turn up for a party like that ? and I think your weather is more predictable than ours too.

Craigslist is an awesome tool for finding interested players. If you don?t already know: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/

Then you could also form a full on league or club, which depends on having space available on a regular, reliable basis. Usually you have to pay for that, check out the local YMCA or YWCA, school gyms, city recreation centers, or any place that has a flat, dry floor for activities. You just have to work out a little math, set in advance how many games or hours you want to play over a few months then you know how many people you need to sign up to break even. We pay $35/hr for our gym, we planned on recruiting about 25 members and each payed $40 per person, and we had money left over to outfit them in cool shirts. Sometimes community based organizations like the Y would consider a partnership, you would split your admission fees with the Y, or by percentage, and then they would have financial incentive to register members too.

Best of luck and play hard.