World's-What's your guess for meet size all sports???

Originally posted by Its a slow show I believe Riccione had 8000 total all sports. Getting the soft-ware up late for online entries hurt Stanford a little bit (7 week delay) 2004 Worlds - Riccione Italy 8130 participants from 68 Countries

I totally understand the situation and there is certainly no blame meant here. My point is every year more and more people are using and more confortable with online purchases etc. How do you explain the added entries that came into Mission Viejo when it was extended?? I think it was a no brainer to extend the online entries when it became apparent that they would not be up when scheduled. I think it hurt attendence. Thats my opinion.

I will also say that if the meet attendence is around 6500 which is certainly alot of people, then the projections for Stanford were way off. There is no way it should be any smaller then Riccione so I will once again say that the delay in online entries hurt. Some people were projecting 10,000 which probably would be to much but 8500 seems like the reasonable figure the way the meet is spread out with two courses. I think the online system should be re-opened for two weeks.

I will take credit for "hoping" aloud for 10000 entrants, but it was never a projection. I am interested in boosting the membership of USMS and what better way than to tout the largest organized aquatic event in the history of the entire world? The parting of the Red Sea by Moses would rank higher in raw numbers, but most participants were not there to compete in a friendly manner. I totally agree with Jim M, reopening entries would only serve to aid the local people who really should have entered a year ago if they were really interested. International entries would be impossible, and US entries out of California would have to make last minute travel plans (not easy or cheap).

Jim and Michael: It is easy to be dismissive of the late entrants to the meet after all they are just local entrants those who are barely worthy to swim in a national or world championships. They should have entered the meet much earlier, unlike the other 800 or 3600 swimmers who entered in the last week of the meet. Well, those entries are providing the profit for the meet organizing committee. Swimming meets are heavy to fixed costs. Adding 1 or 10 more swimmers to a meet does not cost anything so they provide pure profit to the meet. Mel Goldstein has said that if it was up to him, if someone came to him the day before the meet and had a big enough check book, Mel would get him in the meet. It is also the local people that are providing the volunteers for the meet. All the meets depend on a strong cadre of unpaid workers to get the job done. It is just right that the locals get to compete if there is extra time at the meet. While many Masters swimmers have made their hotel and travel reservations, I can assure you that many have not made them, either traveling from within the United States or intercontenientally. There are many seats available on the airlines available, albeit not at the cheap prices of earlier this year. We also have hotel rooms available at the same price we were offering earlier this year. But what are we doing this for? or whom are we doing this for? Nancy Ridout, Pacific's registrar said she was getting upset at all the people who were calling her and emailing her on the last week to either register so they could compete in the games or to transfer team registration so they could compete with their new team. As you may know, Pacific is the largest LMSC with a huge registration base to start out with and any problem that another LMSC registrar has is magnified by three times with Pacific. Nancy said she was getting very upset. People were calling her saying they needed to register NOW so they could register for the championships. They were overnighting the application so they could register for worlds. Calls and emails were coming in all day and into the night. It gets very frustrating - why couldnt the swimmers have done this on time? Then she sat back and thought about it. We are bringing back swimmers who have not swam in a masters program in years to US Masters. There are people, who are really looking forward to swimming here and competing. When we bid for the championships, we said that one of the goals of the meet was to spread Masters swimming, both in the United States and through out the world. When she thought about it in this manner, she said her attitude change and she was excited to answer the next call, to bring it the next swimmer into Masters swimming To everyone else: It was not the LOC that turned off the switch to register electronically on June 5th. The LOC asked that it be kept on for a few days. For me personally, the minutes of the USMS Executive Committee of June 5, 2006, will make for interesting reading. If you had problems entering on line, the cookie problem came up, there were problems with the Internet connection, or the dog ate your entry, please contact me at info@2006finamasters.org - we will see what we can do. The LOC met last night, while there is a lot of work to be done, we are excited. The pools will be fast, the competition keen and we know the swimmers will have a great time. With the exception of the 800 day, the days do not look too lon. We hope you all will be there. michael

Originally posted by michaelmoore With the exception of the 800 day, the days do not look too lon. Uh oh, I guess I better not get Giants tickets for Friday night! Any idea at all how late the meet willl run that day?

Why make an entry deadline in the first place if you're not going to adhere to it? I'm sorry, but if people wanted to enter the meet they should have entered by the entry deadline. If anyone's "hardheaded" it's the people who waited too long to enter the meet.

From what I understand a request was made to keep the entry system up for awhile longer but the "committee" refused. If the demand was there and room available (particularly since the World's probably won't be back for another 12 years or so) the decision is simply ridiculous. Who cares??? really if its open a while longer. Jim rationalize all you want but its just afew more swimmers wanting to participate. Why do you care??? I really don't understand it.

Jim nothing personal meant at you though it might have sounded that way. You do a fine job and its going to be a great event!

Another one of those situations where: "if you snooze, you lose!" Can't wait forever or nothing will get done fer crimminy sakes.