The Championship Committee accepted the bid from Mesa, AZ (outisde of Phoenix). It still has to be approved by the House of Delegates but I don't think that will be a problem.
Do you know what the facility will be if the meet is in Mesa?
Could be a well attended meet. In 2003 when the meet was in Tempe it was huge and very fast.
Is there only one 50m pool there? If so, what kind of wu/wd space is there? Didn't see much in the way of shade there. Is it like Clovis in that regard?
That's gonna be my last hurrah in 40-44 so I definately plan on being there.
Hopefully Paul Smith will chime in here, but Mesa will have 2 beautiful aquatics complexes. I swam in the newest of these where Paul now coaches and it's a 70 meter pool with an additional warmup pool. It's a nicer, newer pool than ASU where the 2003 Nats were held.
I don't remember the exact amount of WU space beyond the 2 competition courses. I know it wasn't as much as the huge amount of space in Clovis. I think 6-8 25y lanes?
It looks like a nice package: it won out over 2 other bids...I don't remember what those were exactly...I know the state of Florida submitted 3 bids (Ft Lauderdale, St Pete, and Sarasota) but none of them one and I don't remember for which courses.
My main personal problem for the SCY nats in AZ is that it is tentatively scheduled for late-April, so I probably wouldn't be able to go.
Just got the call from Chicago and we are in! 4/28/11-5/2/11 (open water swim Monday).
The newly remodeled Kino facility opened in June of this year and features a 75m main pool with moveable bulkhead which will allow us to run 2 x 9 lane competition courses and also have I believe 12 warm-up lanes (6 are in the diving well of the 75m pool and 6 in the 6 lane x 25 yd pool attached to wading pool and slide).
We have massive amounts of deck space plus we have athletic fields attached to the facility that our intial estimates show would allow for well over 100 pop-up tents. More importantly we have an unprecedented amount of support from the Mesa community (the Mayor attended the convention) which already has secured hotel discounts for events hosted at Kino. We also have our own airport (www.phxmesagateway.org/) which in addtion to Sky Harbor gives a number of lower cost flight options.
On a personal note...the Masters team at Kino was started by Ron Johnson many years ago and Laura & I are honored to have been given an oppurtunity to follow in his footsteps and have a chance to relaunch the program. I hope we will get a chance to see a lot of folks not just in 2011 but anytime you are in town and looking for a place to catch a workout!
www.teamunify.com/Home.jsp
Is there only one 50m pool there? If so, what kind of wu/wd space is there?
It is actually a 70M pool (North to South) with a movable bulkhead. The SCY configuration is East to West though, meaning that the turns and finishes will be at the walls.
Didn't see much in the way of shade there. Is it like Clovis in that regard?
There is a bunch of shade, all of the grandstands have canopies which offer shade during the mid-day and afternoon. The facility is surrounded by grass fields on two sides, which decreases the amount of radiated heat during the afternoon.
All in all, a great facility. The pool is deep and ought to be fast. There is going to be a meet there this fall. Paul Smith will announce it once they have a date set.
