{"id":20566,"date":"2022-07-20T21:13:54","date_gmt":"2022-07-20T21:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/quidditch-becomes-quadball-leaving-jk-rowling-behind\/"},"modified":"2022-07-20T21:13:54","modified_gmt":"2022-07-20T21:13:54","slug":"quidditch-becomes-quadball-leaving-jk-rowling-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/quidditch-becomes-quadball-leaving-jk-rowling-behind\/","title":{"rendered":"Quidditch Becomes &#8216;Quadball,&#8217; Leaving JK Rowling Behind"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Quidditch, the sport of boarding school wizards riding broomsticks in \u201cHarry Potter,\u201d will become \u201cQuadball\u201d to the humans who play the game in real life, its leading organizations said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The groups cited financial obstacles imposed by Warner Bros., the producer of the movie series, holding the trademark to Quidditch, as well as a wish to \u201cdistance themselves\u201d from JK Rowling, the author of the books, and what they called her \u201c anti-trans positions,\u201d referring to her contentious statements on gender identity made in recent years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis is a bold move, and for me personally there is definitely some nostalgia to the original name,\u201d Alex Benepe, who helped found the real-life sport in 2005, said in a statement.  \u201cBut from a long-term development perspective I feel confident this is a smart decision for the future that will allow the sport to grow without limits.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The path to the decision started in December, when US Quidditch and Major League Quidditch \u2014 the youth and professional wings of the sport \u2014 announced their intention to choose and trademark a new name.  Their statement emphasized \u201csponsorship and broadcast opportunities\u201d that were missed because of licensing issues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a 2017 interview with The Quidditch Post, a news site devoted to the sport, Mr.  Benepe praised Warner Bros.  for being \u201cremarkably permissive\u201d in allowing a league to operate and sell tickets under the name.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He added, however, that Warner Bros.  had prohibited the sale of merchandise that used the word \u201cQuidditch\u201d and that the sport had been forced to sacrifice major business opportunities.  Mr.  Benepe argued at the time \u2014 before the latest political controversy with Ms.  Rowling \u2014 for a name change.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI love Harry Potter and always will, but if our sport needs Harry Potter to survive it must not be that great \u2014 and I believe that it is great and I think our players do too,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Nevertheless, on Tuesday the International Quidditch Association, the sport&#8217;s top governing body, listed Ms.  Rowling&#8217;s \u201canti-trans positions\u201d as its primary motivation for changing the sport&#8217;s name.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe&#8217;ve tried to be clear that it&#8217;s both reasons,\u201d Jack McGovern, a spokesman for US Quidditch and Major League Quidditch, said in an interview.  \u201cWe did not intend to give a value judgment about which reason was more important than the other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Quidditch matches frequently appeared as scenes in the Harry Potter books and movies.  The real-life version of it includes many elements taken from Ms.  Rowling&#8217;s imagination of the game: the riding of brooms, hurling balls through hoops and the need to evade bludgers, and eventually catch the Golden Snitch.  In real life a bludger is a rubber dodgeball, rather than a flying ball of iron, and the snitch is a tennis ball attached to a person, as in flag football.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Thousands of people play the game in more than 40 countries, according to the International Quidditch Association.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After her comments about transgender issues on Twitter drew widespread attention, Ms.  Rowling published an essay in 2020 that raised concerns about \u201cpushing to erode the legal definition of sex and replace it with gender\u201d and the rise in gender transition among young people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Many advocates for transgender rights have called Ms.  Rowling&#8217;s comments transphobic, and some fans have struggled to reconcile their love of \u201cHarry Potter\u201d with their objections to her views.Ms.  Rowling&#8217;s representatives at The Blair Partnership said there would be no comment on the decision but said that the various Quidditch leagues had never been endorsed or licensed by her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cQuadball,\u201d according to the International Quidditch Association, refers to the number of positions in the sport (a keeper, chaser, beater and seeker) and the number of balls (two bludgers, a quaffle and the snitch).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr.  McGovern said that the association of Quidditch with Ms.  Rowling had become an obstacle in recruiting new players, and he said he did not know how much the official bodies of the sport would refer to \u201cHarry Potter\u201d in the future.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">His first exposure to real-life Quidditch, he said, came in 2010 when he was in middle school.  He persuaded one of his parents to drive him from Philadelphia to New York City to see a Quidditch World Cup.  He said that he was struck by the \u201cenergy and life and forward momentum\u201d of the game, and that he was a \u201cfan of obscure sports more generally.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Almost as an afterthought, he added, \u201cI had been reading &#8216;Harry Potter&#8217; at the time.\u201d  Asked to what extent his love for the books had motivated that early interest in the sport, Mr.  McGovern replied: \u201cIt&#8217;s hard.  I don&#8217;t want to say more now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Quidditch, the sport of boarding school wizards riding broomsticks in \u201cHarry Potter,\u201d will become \u201cQuadball\u201d to the humans who play the game in real life, its leading organizations said on Tuesday. The groups cited financial obstacles imposed by Warner Bros., the producer of the movie series, holding the trademark to Quidditch, as well as a &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/quidditch-becomes-quadball-leaving-jk-rowling-behind\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Quidditch Becomes &#8216;Quadball,&#8217; Leaving JK Rowling Behind<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19703,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/quidditch-announces-name-change-amid-furor-over-harry-potter-author-jk-rowling\/","url_meta":{"origin":20566,"position":0},"title":"Quidditch announces name change amid furor over &#8216;Harry Potter&#8217; author JK Rowling","date":"July 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Three major organizations that promote and manage the sport of quidditch announced on Tuesday they are changing the name of the game to quadball, partly to distance themselves from \u201cHarry Potter\u201d author and quidditch creator JK Rowling. The International Quidditch Association (IQA) and US Quidditch (USQ), which are governing bodies\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Entertainment&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19727,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/quidditch-announces-name-change-amid-furor-over-harry-potter-author-jk-rowling-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":20566,"position":1},"title":"Quidditch announces name change amid furor over &#8216;Harry Potter&#8217; author JK Rowling","date":"July 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Three major organizations that promote and manage the sport of quidditch announced on Tuesday they are changing the name of the game to quadball, partly to distance themselves from \u201cHarry Potter\u201d author and quidditch creator JK Rowling. The International Quidditch Association (IQA) and US Quidditch (USQ), which are governing bodies\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Entertainment&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20310,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/quidditch-changes-its-name-to-distance-itself-from-jk-rowling-ents-arts-news\/","url_meta":{"origin":20566,"position":2},"title":"Quidditch changes its name to distance itself from JK Rowling |  Ents &#038; Arts News","date":"July 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Real-life quidditch - which is based on the game featured in the Harry Potter books - is being renamed quadball by the sport's governing bodies to \"distance themselves from the works\" of author JK Rowling.US Quidditch and Major League Quidditch said at the end of last year they would conduct\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Entertainment&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20302,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/quidditch-changes-name-to-quadball-after-jk-rowlings-trans-statements-sport\/","url_meta":{"origin":20566,"position":3},"title":"Quidditch changes name to quadball after JK Rowling&#8217;s trans statements |  sport","date":"July 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Quidditch, a sport created for the fictional world of Harry Potter before spreading to US college campuses, is changing its name to quadball.In December, two of the sport's major governing bodies, US Quidditch and Major League Quidditch, said they were considering a name change due to \u201csponsorship and broadcast opportunities\u201d\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Entertainment&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20219,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/quidditch-becomes-quadball-as-sports-bodies-change-name\/","url_meta":{"origin":20566,"position":4},"title":"Quidditch becomes quadball as sport&#8217;s bodies change name","date":"July 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"LONDON, July 20 (Reuters) - Quidditch, the sport inspired by the wizarding game in the \"Harry Potter\" books, will now be known as quadball, its governing bodies said, a name change meant in part to distance themselves from author JK Rowling's views on transgender issues.In a statement on its website\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Entertainment&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20912,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/jk-rowlings-quidditch-from-harry-potter-will-have-name-change-deadline\/","url_meta":{"origin":20566,"position":5},"title":"JK Rowling&#8217;s &#8216;Quidditch&#8217; From &#8216;Harry Potter&#8217; Will Have Name Change \u2013 Deadline","date":"July 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"In the biggest threat to Hogwarts tradition since Lord Voldemort, the game of Quidditch is undergoing a name change. The governing bodies of the real-life sport first profiled in JK Rowling's Harry Potter novels and later in its films have said that \u201cQuidditch\u201d will henceforth be known as \u201cQuadball.\u201d The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Entertainment&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2022\/07\/19\/lens\/00xp-quidditch-1\/00xp-quidditch-1-facebookJumbo.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20566"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}