The "official" word on Central Regionals is that it will take place in Tulsa, whose state's abbreviation is ironically "okay." It will require roughly 10 hours and 33 minutes drive time for me and my Minneapolis counterparts to get to Tulsa. Taking a rough guess at the average drive time of the players on elite teams competing for spots at Nationals, I'd say it's around 12 hours. Yikes.Alternatively, they can always spend $250+ on a plane ticket. Sorry Big Ass Truck.
Maybe it's less time or money for some of the teams not competing for a Nationals bid, but what's the drive time or price tag threshold for teams not playing to advance? How many teams who are going to win two games or less will drive 6+ hours to attend, particularly since the Regionals format tends to "eliminate" teams in fewer games?
I said it far more concisely on RSD, but a distantly located Regionals does not promote growth. It hinders it. Let's face it, some teams have a greater vested interest in Regionals. The UPA's efforts should tend to cater to those loyal, committed groups.
Timmy's point about players in the region whining needing to step up to put in a bid is valid, but becoming less legitimate by the minute. The UPA is now generating a 7 figure revenue. Granted, it's still run heavily by volunteer work. But the fact is, as ultimate (and the UPA) matures, more and more players are graduating into more administrative roles (Greg Williams, George Cooke, that one observer guy with the mustache and aviators, etc.). As a UPA member, I expect the UPA to begin leveraging these resources more effectively to improve competition. More precisely, rather than accepting the best submitted bid, they need to be more proactive to ensure excellent bids are submitted.
Here's to hoping the Ultimate Revolution puts it into action.
4 comments:
Huzzah!
and another thing!.... why the fuck dont we make club and college nationals, USA club and college nationals. Why do the canadian colleges and club teams get to compete in our national tournament, when we can't compete in theirs??
stupid canadians.... by the way Canada I'll be in Whistler in a few weeks.
Becky, if you'd come to the UPA summit here in Blaine two weekends ago, you'd have had a say about that (it was discussed)
JB,
I think it will be very important for volunteers, especially, as you mention, those that have stopped playing, to remain "in touch" with what is going on out there.
Do you have any suggestions for how RC's can be more "proactive"? Typically, like most bid processes, RC's put out a "bid request". I think the response is, in general, a bit underwhelming. Part of me thinks it is due to our discomfort with the idea of making money in Ultimate. In other words, if it was more acceptable to pay our TD's(the folks submitting the bids), maybe we would get better bids. So, I would put this on a list of more proactive things to do.
Just to quickly address Becky's question: because that is the way the members of those orgs voted.
Thanks,
George
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