How to Build a Sports Team Availability App

Every amateur team on earth runs on the same broken system: a group chat where the manager asks "who's available Saturday," eleven people reply, four don't, two say "maybe," and the manager counts messages on Friday night.

What it needs

1. A fixture list — date, opponent, home or away, meet time.
2. Three-state availability per player per fixture: yes, no, maybe. Maybe is essential; without it people just don't respond.
3. A count visible to everyone. Social pressure does the work. When people can see you're two short, they answer.
4. A reminder to anyone who hasn't responded 48 hours out.
5. Squad selection from available players, visible once the manager confirms it.

Leave out: stats, league tables, payments. Availability is the problem worth solving.

Starting prompt

Build an amateur sports team availability app for iOS and Android. Managers create fixtures with date, time, opponent, location and meet time. All squad members see upcoming fixtures and mark themselves available, unavailable or maybe. Everyone can see the current count and who has responded. Send a push notification when a new fixture is added, and a reminder to anyone who has not responded 48 hours before kick-off. Managers select a squad from available players and publish it, which notifies the selected players.

The honest hard part

Getting everyone to install it. The group chat's advantage is that it already exists on everyone's phone. An app has to be enough better to justify a download, and if three players never install it you're back to counting messages.

Realistic approach: use it alongside the group chat for a season rather than trying to replace it immediately.

Cost

• Subscription: $25/month
• Equivalent developer quote: $10,000–25,000

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