I was so looking forward to watching the event on TV. If by some off chance it gets moved to Long Beach, Ca. I might even take a trip down there to see it in person.
www.swiminfo.com/.../8731.asp
Former Member
I agree. With all the momentum for swimming following Athens and the Short Course Worlds, it would be terrible to skip the second-most important international meet the very next year.
I wonder, if they're canceled, will the US Long Course Nationals become the focal meet of the summer with the best international swimmers attending??
Long Beach issued a statement when the whole thing about Nationals came up, and said they absolutely would not host it, because they hadn't enough time to prepare, and had nothing set up.....so I'm not sure what'll happen if Montreal backs out.
I can't imagine, given the short amount of time they'd have to throw something together, that anybody short of crazy would be willing to accept the open seat. If they did, it would either be hastily put together and sloppy, or underfunded and weak.
Originally posted by LindsayNB
I was surprised at the planned budget for the event, why would it cost $60million dollars to put on a swim meet? It is a huge sum of money but in all fairness it is much more than just a swim meet. There will be swimming, synchronized swimming, water polo, and diving. The event goes on from July 17-31 so I suspect between the number of events and the length of the entire event as a whole, a large sum of money will be needed to make things happen. I would really like for the event to be moved to Long Beach because that is within driving distance from my house.
I think that this will have a Big impact on future planning of meets overall, probably will only go to countries that can afford to host/have the money/have a HUGE swimming programs. OK who have the money. This will probably impact the athlete the most from countries that have smaller swimming programs nationally.:(
They are also complaining about low ticket sales but who wants to buy tickets for an event that might not happen. I'm planning on going but I'm not going to buy tickets till I know for sure it's still on. I'm sure alot of people are like that. I was going to treat it like a vacation and go up there for the week.
It looks like Montreal didn't pull it out. FINA pulled the competition out of Canada...see swiminfo.com for details. They are taking bids for an alternative site. Some possibilities floating around include Athens, Berlin or Munich, or Rio. Long Beach continues to be mentioned, but it sounds like there's no way they would put in a bid. I wonder if it will happen at all. I would think you'd have to be crazy to bid on this championship with such short notice.
I wonder if a big meet like this one can really be done. It seemed so ambitious. I think maybe some big cities coudl do it but woudl it really matter? I've heard nothing on any news, including ESPN about this. It shows just how under the radar swimming is in the USA.
So many peoole thought that Michael Phelps would boost popularity. I think that's a pip dream.
