I have 2 boys who love basketball, ages 4 and 7. They both started playing in a league for the first time over the winter at the local YMCA. The more I watch the games and the rules they use, the more I think it should be done differently. I have looked for other options in my area and most of the leagues seem to use similar rules. Here is what they currently do:

Ages 3-4: 5v5, 6 Foot Rim w/ Mini Ball, Cross Court, M2M Only
Ages 5-6: 5v5, 8 Foot Rim w/ 27.5" Ball, Cross Court, M2M Only
Ages 7-9: 5v5, 8 Foot Rim w/ 27.5" Ball, Full Court, Zone Allowed, No Press

I personally think the rules move ahead way too quickly. My oldest just turned 7 and I don't think he is remotely ready for zone defense or playing full court at this age. Plus 7-9 seems like a big age range, as 9 year olds would be way more advanced than 7 year olds. In watching their games I think they would also do much better with 3v3 vs 5v5. The court is smaller and the kids are just constantly on top of each other. Due to this, I have considered starting my own league this winter for kids ages 4-7 or 4-8 with rules designed to optimize their learning. Here is what I was thinking:

3v3
5-6 players per team
6 Foot Rim w/ Mini Ball for 4-5 Year Olds
7 Foot Rim w/ 25.5" Ball for 6-7 Year Olds
No Zone
No Press
5 Minute Quarters for 4-5 Year Olds
6 Minute Quarters for 6-7 Year Olds

My 2 biggest concerns are getting enough players and finding a place to have the games. I'm just curious if anyone has attempted this and how it did? Any insight would be appreciated.

I think the biggest challenges would be:

1) marketing to get enough players
2) securing places to play on a consistent basis
3) finding coaches
4) having a stable group of refs

I've watched a few folks with start-up leagues in various sports and the biggest challenge is always getting enough players. Some leagues end up combining age groups or the teams end up playing each other too frequently.

You'd have to "solve a problem" of sorts for the parents out there to make them want to jump ship. I know i9 Sport's whole gig was to have practice and games back to back. So their selling point was you only show up for a few hours once per week. No zone. no press makes sense to coaches, but that might not be a strong enough selling point for parents. I think you'd need some tagline or saying to help make your league standout.

Honestly, a small business plan would probably be a good place to start. Don't think you have to go crazy, but I'm sure there's free business planning software out there.

I started my program for my own kids. Daughter started 3v3 in 2nd grade. Just invited school and soccer friends. Practiced skills and played some 3v3. Invited a couple other teams to come play us (split them up). We played 3v3 full court. Pick up man to man at half court.

Since it was getting tough to convince other teams to play us (they wanted to play 5v5) I gave in and transitioned to 5v5 tournaments at end of 3rd grade. We have been playing small sided games in our practices during the week and then 5v5 tournaments on some weekends every since.

My son started 3v3 in 1st grade. Just invited friends. Worked on skills and then played 3v3. Word spread fast with the boys and it got a little out of hand. All same grade level... ended up with 26 kids (and more wanting in). We did not invite teams and had enough kids to just played ourselves.

The parents saw what we did, appreciated the skill work, and after seeing it realized it was a lot better than the 5v5 stuff their kids did at ymca. So word spread.

After my son begged me every day for two years wanting to play in tournaments (like his older sister), I gave in at 3rd grade. I created a team and played a couple 5v5 tournaments.

We have been playing small sided games in our practices during the week and then 5v5 tournaments on some weekends every since.

It was a fair amount of work but I think it worked out fairly well. Things moved to 5v5 faster than I would like but I only have so much time in the day so we conformed to what everyone else did. It's hard to do your own thing...and much less work to adapt to what is already available.

If you have any questions, let me know.

BTW, I was the coach, the ref, the organizer, and everything. Only cost for players was gym rental.

It takes a coach with a lot of experience to do that and do a good job. During the games, I reffed and coached at same time. Dads were in charge of each team and just basically substituted. While I was reffing I also coached them. Stopped and taught. I was in charge and stop whenever I wanted. Taught them a lot about defense, pivoting, avoiding travels, cutting, spacing, and ball movement.

We also staggered game times so I could ref/coach all games.

Jeff, thanks for your reply. I just have a few questions:

1. So do you just charge the cost of the gym rental divided by the number of players participating?

2. How do you handle uniforms, etc? Just make sure they wear the same colors?

3. Do you play a season with a set number of games?

4. Where do you hold your program? Any tips on finding a gym?

5. Do you hold practice during the week and have games on the weekend? Or is practice held before the games?

6. What rules do you play under? Rim height, floor size, etc?

1. So do you just charge the cost of the gym rental divided by the number of players participating?

Yes plus a couple misc expense like reversible jersey.

2. How do you handle uniforms, etc? Just make sure they wear the same colors?

First year we used pinnies. 2nd year we ordered these for every player on the team:
http://basketball.epicsports.com/prod/22596/a4-youth-reversible-mesh-basketball-tank-jerseys.html

3. Do you play a season with a set number of games?

At first with youngest kids, we just had a set "# of clinics/practices". Every Saturday for 1 hour. Lasted two months. The following year I think we had practices once a week and a handful of dates where we just had "games".

4. Where do you hold your program? Any tips on finding a gym?

We did this at a local school. Check with schools, churches, rec centers. It can be tough to find gyms in some places and requires a lot of time/persistence.

5. Do you hold practice during the week and have games on the weekend? Or is practice held before the games?

See answer to #3. The days we chose just depended on gym availablity and my schedule.

Max time recommend for 1st grade is one hour. Keeping them focused beyond that is way too hard. 2nd grade stick to 1 to 1.25 hours. 3rd grade 1.25 to 1.5 hours. 4th grade we went to 1.5 hours. Depends some on type of kids you get. Our kids were pretty well behaved.

6. What rules do you play under? Rim height, floor size, etc?

We tried to lower hoops for girls until 4th grade. Just eye balled it... maybe 8-9 feet. If technique got messy i lowered the rims. Floor size didn't really mater to me. We just used whatever we had for markings. Ball size recommendations are here:
https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/basketballs/size-chart.html