At risk of "beating a dead horse"....at least in respect to broaching this topic again! I had a number of conversations at convention with people who would like to see USMS move to a 3rd Championship meet in the fall for short course meters.
There are some great Zone meets going on...when you have 600+ going to Long Beach or New England why not up the ante a bit?
Thoughts?
Chris, a well run meet with 1000 swimmers should be able to net over $20,000...I consider that significant.
I'm glad that to is plenty for you...3 doesn't "hurt" anyone and simply gives our membership one more option to attend a national championship at a time of year that maybe works better than spring or summer. Plus...you can't set world records in SCY so we have more opportunities to match up against other countries around the world.
Sure, but the question is whether the extra swimmers they may get by declaring it a national championship is worth the extra hassle. You've seen the packets people have to submit just to make a bid for nationals...it isn't trivial. There are extra hoops to jump thru when you run a national championship meet that aren't there when you run a "regular" meet.
I guess my point is that this isn't a slam-dunk decision. No one knows exactly what the "market" is for a national championship meet in December, and since the NE meet is already at capacity, the payoff isn't clear. Even if they could add another day, that doesn't mean they can handle 33% more swimmers; the meet already ends pretty late.
For example: last year the NE meet was also a zone championship; I don't think there were any more swimmers than the year before, when it wasn't (it certainly didn't SEEM so from my perspective as a participant, but I don't have the numbers handy).
Agree that a SCM national championship would be cool for the international aspects; that's why I think a spring nationals meet (which I bet has the prospect of better attendance than a meet in either Aug or Dec) would be nice if run in a SCM course. When can we expect a bid from Mesa?
Chris, a well run meet with 1000 swimmers should be able to net over $20,000...I consider that significant.
I'm glad that to is plenty for you...3 doesn't "hurt" anyone and simply gives our membership one more option to attend a national championship at a time of year that maybe works better than spring or summer. Plus...you can't set world records in SCY so we have more opportunities to match up against other countries around the world.
Sure, but the question is whether the extra swimmers they may get by declaring it a national championship is worth the extra hassle. You've seen the packets people have to submit just to make a bid for nationals...it isn't trivial. There are extra hoops to jump thru when you run a national championship meet that aren't there when you run a "regular" meet.
I guess my point is that this isn't a slam-dunk decision. No one knows exactly what the "market" is for a national championship meet in December, and since the NE meet is already at capacity, the payoff isn't clear. Even if they could add another day, that doesn't mean they can handle 33% more swimmers; the meet already ends pretty late.
For example: last year the NE meet was also a zone championship; I don't think there were any more swimmers than the year before, when it wasn't (it certainly didn't SEEM so from my perspective as a participant, but I don't have the numbers handy).
Agree that a SCM national championship would be cool for the international aspects; that's why I think a spring nationals meet (which I bet has the prospect of better attendance than a meet in either Aug or Dec) would be nice if run in a SCM course. When can we expect a bid from Mesa?
