Clovis in 09??

Michael, I am very confused by this paragraph. Are you saying that consideration for the location of Nationals should also consider the non-competiive USMS members? I am saying that USMS must balance its programs to also consider the needs of the non-competitive swimmers, which make it possible for this organization to exist. USMS does not run nationals. We approve bids for the meets. They are put on by host organizations who have been vetted by the championship committee and voted upon by the house of delegates (your representatives). There have been some bids that never saw the light of day because of deficiencies in the bid (not enough warmup space, bath-locker rooms, etc.), so we are getting the best of the bids that are presented to us. Unfortunately, not many pools are built next door to an amusement park or museum, so we have to hold the meets wherever the pools are. Sorry that Clovis does not live up to your standards, but there will be plenty of swimmers there that will enjoy the experience.

As someone living nearly equidistant from Clovis and Indianapolis, I would rather go to Clovis for the vacation aspect. Not only is it close to Yosemite, it's also close to King's Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. And Death Valley would be on the way if my wife and I drive out. We'd go to nats and then take the opportunity to do some great hiking and sightseeing.

I'm just back from a trip to scenic New York and spent the weekend in Buffalo. Do they have pools in Buffalo? A visit to www.swimmersguide.com came up with about 10 pools are two are outstanding: Erie Community College's Flickinger Center www.ecc.edu/.../locations.asp which hosted a recent NCAA Div 2 championships. While it was closed for the Labor Day weekend, it advertises an indoor 50 meter pool and Two indoor 25 yard pools. Next door, Buffalo was hosting a major indigestion festival (Buffalo Wings). Plenty of parking, hotels and accoutrements. I drove about 15 minutes to the University of Buffalo's Alumni center www.ubathletics.buffalo.edu/.../ was able to swim in their indoor 50 meter pool (moveable floor and bulkhead). Sadly, they dumped the men's program around 1996, but they have a strong womens program. And for the Open water advocates, they have a nearby river with a little waterfall! See you in the water, Philipp

I'm sure nobody cares, but I'm hoping to go to Clovis. If I make it, it will be the first nationals meet that I have attended since getting back into swimming a year ago. The primary reason I plan to attend this meet over the ones this year in Austin and Portland is that I can drive to Clovis (though it will be a long drive...). It didn't look to me as if there is any significant west coast bias in terms of where meets are held. But if there is, it sort of makes sense since the west coast is where the majority of USMS swimmers are located. Size alone isn't necessarily a fair justification for a bias, but it does mean that there are likely to be more large teams on the west coast capable of "hosting" one of these massive swim meets. (Unlike USA-S meets, which have parent volunteers, I'm guessing most volunteers for one of these large USMS meets have to be spouses of swimmers and the "fitness"/ noncompetitive swimmer members of a large team--I'd guess you would need a large team to find sufficient volunteers from those groups.) Also, it's probably easier to have the requisite facilities when everything can be outdoors. Maybe USMS should try relaxing the facility requirements? I remember plenty of USA-S meets where all the swimmers sat in a gymnasium that was a ways away from the pool deck. Can we do the same thing? I think the most important thing is to have sufficient warm-up/warm-down space. Everything else we should find ways around.. I will note that the Pacific Masters LCM championship meet has been held in a pool that wouldn't even come close to qualifying for the nationals standard for the simple fact that it doesn't have a warm-down pool. Seven of the eight lanes of the pool are used for competition with the eighth lane used for warm-ups/warm-downs with absolutely no buffer. I agree that is way less than ideal but if we can live with that, why have so many requirements for nationals meet? (Having said that, I do think it's very important for the nationals meet to have a facility with a separate warm-up/warm-down pool--I'm just saying that we should be as flexible as possible after that.)

Mark, Thanks for your insight. For those of you who are wondering why we can't get a national meet in DC, there are an incredible amount of variables we have to consider. Let me start out by saying that Potomac Valley is now the 4th largest LMSC in USMS by numbers, but the smallest geographic area. Translation: lots of swimmer demand on facilities! That is our first hurdle. In order to host SC Nationals, you need to have 2 25-yard pools, plus warm down space. If we expect 1500 - 2000 swimmers, we would like to see 8-16 lanes just for warm-down. Additionally, we need seating space for 1500 - 2000. We require more space and time (as the length of our days are longer than kids meets) than any other championship caliber meet that I am aware of. For a LC Nationals, you need to have a 50 meter pool, plus 6-10 lanes of warm down space (typically only 25 yard). Additionally, we need about seating for about 1000. Nearly all facilities in our area capable of 2x25 courses have only one small instructional pool for warm-up/warm-down: UMD, GMU, UMBC (with the indoor POS 25y). There are some other 50m-only facilities too, but they do us no good. Spectating is tight at all three, but UMD has the best locker room I've been in across the country. The only place I can think of that would be different would be the City of Rockville's (Public) outdoor 50m pool that has two indoor SC pools for warm-up/warm-down, but that would be an SCM nationals - no bulkheads. Running a LCM Nationals outdoors @ Rockville in the summer in DC would be a challenge. Aside from the fact that the public facility has county programs all summer, we don't have chillers around here, and with two big USS meets and the county's flagship pool for summer league, they're already closed a lot. Renting the place for 5 days could be a challenging sell to them (and expensive for us). Plus, if sessions last anywhere past 3pm, there is a huge threat of thunderstorms. Further limiting the locations willing to bid on our championships is the number of volunteers that it takes to run a meet. In Tempe in 2003 we had about 500 6-hour volunteer shifts to cover. Unless you have a strong team or teams in the area committed to making this meet happen, this is a challenge. Amen! Any meet director will tell you that volunteers are a huge ? for any meet. May and August are tough times for volunteers. In May, school is winding down - private schools (and there are a LOT in the DC area) tend have exams and let out ~a week before Memorial Day. August is prime vacation month, plus parents are shipping their older kids off to college. DC is a ghost town in August - everyone hits the beaches from Carolinas to Jersey. BTW, Baltimore's meet in 2000 was indeed huge - but there were a lot of people who showed up in Catonsville and wondered where the brand new natatorium was (they were looking for our pool, down the road at UMD).

ok, everyone who keeps posting a list - you are leaving out Stanford / Worlds 2006. Though it was not USMS Nationals, it was held in lieu of a "nationals" and treated as such. And in my book, counts as one more for the west coast.