Let me first say that I had a blast in Atlanta and enjoyed every minute of it (even the last minute of the 1000), so this list is somewhat tongue in cheek:
10. No Starbucks within walking distance of the Hampton Inn.
9. The taste of an Italian soda called "Beverly" at the Coca Cola Museum; it reminded me of viscous lidocaine--what is with that?
8. The stairway access to the pool deck from the stands.
7. Missing out on a medal in the 200 free relay because eight of the teams finishing ahead of us were from "regional" clubs representing entire states.
6. Two swimmers from TXLA trying to recruit my 87 year old father to join their team instead of swimming for Nitro.
5. No Starbucks within walkiing distance of the pool.
4. Turning at the bulkhead, although I nailed all of mine.
3. That one starter who shall remain nameless.
2. Not getting to meet Rich Abrahams, among others.
1. It ended.
Former Member
I fully agree with you. But whenever a cost increase gets proposed, the USMS House of Delegates screams bloody murder that we are gouging. The surcharge has been going up slowly over the years and I'm sure that trend will continue, but any big jumps get rejected. I also agree $10 isn't much incentive to enter early. But it's a catch-22 because while we want people to enter earlier, we also need the revenue! Plus we get the common complaint about not having accurate seed times so far out from the meet. It's a never ending process - hopefully next year we'll have better options than this year.
Why can't you set it up to enter the meet 2-3 months ahead (like I did...knowing I was going to go),state your events and enter in a holding bracket, then update your seed times with a deadline that allows the organiser time to seed events?
I mean yeah it's an extra step but could it be worth it?
I guess it would go like this:
Jeff: "Hi Rich, you're looking really buff and fast did you enter Nationals?"
Rich: "Hey Jeff, you said Julie is going, right? So, I entered the events I am going to swim...just have to log into the database to put my times in after zones."
Jeff: "Good Deal Rich, you're truly awesome!"
:D
Jeff,
On the topic of host teams not making any money, why is Nationals so cheap? If Nationals costs $50 or $200, it has very little impact on my decision to swim.
Good point. I'll end up paying $105 (via early entry) to swim the 1 mile and Gatorman at LaJolla, $190 if I wait until day-of-entry. I know one of the benefits of swimming is that it is a relatively low cost sport compared with triathlons / running races (even with tech suits), but we could probably raise the entry fees with little impact on people's wallets, little impact on participation and make hosting Nationals more attractive for a team.
Jeff,
On the topic of host teams not making any money, why is Nationals so cheap? If Nationals costs $50 or $200, it has very little impact on my decision to swim.
Almost every aspect of my trip to Nationals cost more than the entry fee when taken individually (getting to ATL, get home from ATL, parking at hotel, parking at pool, food, each night at the hotel) all cost more than the entry fee.
As for not having advanced notice of participation, open registration earlier and provide an incentive to make the decision sooner. $10 isn't much of an incentive.
Excellent points, Q. If I subtract out the two t-shirts and parking pass (another great thing about the meet, btw) I swam in one of the world's best pools for 4 days for under $100. You can't beat that with a stick. I realize you don't want the meet fee to be an impediment to participation.
I did bring home my meet program, a.k.a the Encyclopedia Brittanica volumes 1-7, for the recycling bin.
Oh, and whoever thought of putting those large jugs of swimmer body wash and shampoo in the showers should be given some sort of prize. That company now has my business for life, great products.
It is hard to think of 10 things that I didn't like about Atlanta, but, here goes (see my list of 10 things I liked about Atlanta -- much easier to come up with):
1) Putting on my new speedo kneeskin -- never worn one of those things, reminded me of the old paper suits we wore in college, but, just more of it. Very exhausting putting it on.
2) The ugly bruise that I have on my arm from a breaststroke kick that got me in the diving well.
3) That stairwell going up the side of the bleachers.
4) Hospitality. I was fine with the food that they had in there, but, there just wasn't much of it to go around -- they ran out of simple snacks way to often.
5) While it didn't effect me, it was bad to see some folks have trouble with the starting commands/beep. Not sure why they couldn't remedy that throughout course of the meet.
6) That one starter on Saturday, yikes!
7) It ended!!
7, that's all I've got.
Jeff, thanks for the enlightenment...was just trying to think of other possiblities...I remembered the Splash pool and threw it out there.
Like Bill, I had no problems with warm up in Atlanta...just throwing ideas out there...
