Right now there is a lot of talk about bids for Nationals and proposed rules changes on where Nationals can be held.
Why not discuss good places to have Nationals in the future?
For fun, what pool would you suggest as a great place for Nationals? This may help prime the pump with more pools that can/will bid on future events.
I will start things off with my submission, University of Minnesota for LCM.
Why?
I am from MN and have swum in it many times during college and in Masters. It is a great facility and is fast. Plus I have family in the Twin Cities and know my way around.
It is indoors and as anybody from the Midwest knows, the weather can get unpredictable in August.
They did a great job in 1999 for LCM, very well-run meet.
An open water swim could be run at Lake Hariett or one of the other metro lakes.
Airport is a hub for NWA (soon to be Delta) and is accessable from any major metro area.
Location is in Central US, meaning flights from anywhere in the US won't take all day.
Pool is on the U of M campus with lots of places to eat, hotels, and parking.
There have been many meets run at this facility since it opened and I think that the hosts would do an excellent job. I don't know why they have not submitted a bid but would love to vote for it if they ever did.
Just my opinion, go ahead and share yours.
I mentioned the Rockville pool on another thread. How about Germantown Masters host LCM nationals there?
The Rockville facility is intriguing, four pools in one area... If that pool got selected, warmups should not be a problem.
Sorry Doug. No good pools in the Philly area. When I win the Power Ball lottery, I vow to build a state aof the art swimming facility in the Philly area and put in a bid for Nationals. Until then, it'll be lots of travel.
Jeff was referring to Germantown, Maryland.
Maybe if Eagles fans would stop booing Santa Claus, he might give the good boys and girls of Philly a state of the art aquatics center ;-)
...and I have no idea where Germantown, MD is. Baltimore area?
Hey, maybe Michael Phelps can help a pool in the Baltimore area get a Masters Nationals.
It could happen...
I mentioned the Rockville pool on another thread. How about Germantown Masters host LCM nationals there?
Yeah but you also mentioned the major issue with regards to holding it in August. Thunderstorms.
It's on the list tho but who wants to go to a location where you have a good chance of 90/90 days? 90 degrees and 90% humidity?
I will be bringing up the 'what's to prevent us from putting a Nationals bid together' question at Mason next month.
Yeah but you also mentioned the major issue with regards to holding it in August. Thunderstorms.
It's on the list tho but who wants to go to a location where you have a good chance of 90/90 days? 90 degrees and 90% humidity?
I will be bringing up the 'what's to prevent us from putting a Nationals bid together' question at Mason next month.
True that. One time when I was in Age Group (circa 1985), our team traveled to Omaha, NE from the Twin Cities. The pool was outside and was a HUGE meet.
Then on Saturday afternoon, a tornado struck not far from the pool. Everything got blown around, the pool was evacuated and our shelter was ripped to shreds...
The meet started up again about 45 minutes later and we got our tent back up with some field repairs and electrical tape.
If you are in an area that has thunderstorms in August, indoors is where you wanna be for sure.
They did exactly this when SCY nationals were held at Chapel Hill in the early 90s. There is an indoor 50m pool that was divided into separate 25y courses for men/women, and an outdoor temp pool was used for warmup/warmdown.
Interesting. Where did they put the temp pool? Parking lot? Grassy area?
I guess I could see a 25 yard temporary pool. I was thinking of a 50 meter for some reason.
Hmmmm, that would be interesting too. Whereabouts is that facility in relation to Philly?
Sorry Doug. No good pools in the Philly area. When I win the Power Ball lottery, I vow to build a state aof the art swimming facility in the Philly area and put in a bid for Nationals. Until then, it'll be lots of travel.
Jeff was referring to Germantown, Maryland.
The temporary pool at the 1992 nationals in North Carolina was a one of a kind type. Hill Carrow was the meet director and would know more about how they did it. If I remember correctly, it was build with cement forms and a vinyl pool liner.
The modern temporary pools like the one used in Long Beach are a completely different story and cost prohibitive. You use them one time in a temporary setting and then break the welds between the plates, take it apart and install it permanently at a later date. Cost for this type of installation runs in the low millions.
Inflatable pools like the one used at Rutgers stand a better chance of working. the only concern there is if they are durable enough to allow us to use them for warm up at multiple events.
How much do the high-quality temporary competition pools (e.g. Long Beach; Omaha Trials) cost to set up and run for a week? How do the temporary venues deal with the warm-up/cool-down pool issues?
For Worlds, we thought about a temporary pool for warmup and warmdown. The two temporary 25M pools for FINA Worlds at Indianapolis were about $750,000 apiece. That was worth a quick smile and we moved on. (For nationals that would be about $375 each with 2,000 competitors)
I thought I heard that the construction part of the pool was about $150,000 but that was four years ago and the memory is not was it was.
Great ideas about places to hold the championships.
michael
