From britdisc-owner@csv.warwick.ac.uk Mon Mar 23 17:10:05 1998 Received: (from daemon@localhost) by pansy.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.8.7/8.8.8) id QAA11682 for britdisc-outgoing; Mon, 23 Mar 1998 16:54:36 GMT Received: from post.mail.demon.net (post-30.mail.demon.net [194.159.80.130]) by pansy.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.8.7/8.8.8) with SMTP id QAA11676 for <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>; Mon, 23 Mar 1998 16:54:32 GMT Received: from ([158.152.203.174]) [158.152.203.174] by post.mail.demon.net with smtp id 0yHAUW-00011d-00; Mon, 23 Mar 1998 16:54:29 +0000 Subject: Newsletters, reports, making money... Date: Mon, 23 Mar 98 17:01:13 +0000 x-sender: ultimatum@pop3.demon.co.uk x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0, March 15, 1997 From: Paul Hurt <paul@ultimatum.demon.co.uk> To: "BritDisc" <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Message-Id: <E0yHAUW-00011d-00@post.mail.demon.net> Sender: owner-britdisc@warwick.ac.uk Precedence: bulk This discussion has sailed dangerously close to two of my current hobby horses. So for what it's worth... ---------- Reports Yes, tournament reports are nice. But good tournament reports are very hard to write, and require a lot of commitment from the writer both during and after the event. People aren't queueing around the block to write them. My thanks to the few people that do. I agree with Wayne - Having been there myself, I'd argue that TD's are actually in about the *worst* position to write reports as they're always way too preoccupied with keeping the tournament running smoothly to know how the games are actually going. As Roger said, the key is to "delegate". I'm just unsure whose responsibility it should be to delegate this particular job. The TD? Or the newsletter editor? TD's really have enough on their plate already, and editors probably have a better idea of what they need for their publication, so I'd vote for the latter. With the old Ultimatum, Stu Clark was "reports editor". His job was to i) make sure he got hold of proper results and ii) to try to rope people into writing reports. It worked quite well, but then he left the country (probably the pressure, needed a long holiday :-) If anyone would be willing to take over from him, please let me know (note that the job doesn't actually entail WRITING the reports, just finding other mugs willing to write them). With the current state of Ultimate, any report someone writes on an event is a bonus. Try as one might, you simply can't *guarantee* good-quality reports from every tournament. Yes, it's worth trying to organise it a bit better, but at the end of the day we should be grateful for whatever we get. I know I am. ------------------------- And in a related issue... As for the Tour events being "a license to make money".... er, I don't think so. TD's are under immense pressure to keep the team entry fee as cheap as possible. Simply breaking even rates as a success. People forget about the multitude of expenses that have to be met over and above the basic cost of booking pitches (which in the "real" world don't come cheap). It adds up to a lot of cash, and a considerable risk if you get the budgeting wrong, or less teams enter than expected. For instance, unbeknown to the happy campers attending, the Lurkers tournament regularly lost incredible sums of money. Yet it was one of the most popular dates of the old calendar. So I'm frequently dismayed by the wails of objection to paying any more than about 75 quid per team. Ultimate is INSANELY good value for money. I know of no other sport where you can get an entire weekend's tournament play for under a tenner per head. If as players we want the right to "expect" certain things from tournament organisers (e.g. tournament reports, nice pitches, proper showers, good parties, medical cover, scoreboards, pitchside water, etc) I think we really need to be amenable to paying higher entry fees. I get the impression that many players are no longer content with "shoestring" tournaments, and the BUF is sensibly trying to instigate a "minimum standards" for Tour events. But arranging all these extras adds considerably to a tournament director's workload. If at the end of it all, TD's aren't allowed to make a reasonable profit as some kind of recompense, how can we expect them to ever contemplate running another event? Ultimate has a inherited a dubious "it should all be free/as cheap as possible" culture, where everything is done "for the love of the sport". Admirable in many respects, but I think this attitude needs to change a little if the sport is to grow beyond it's current rather insignificant status. Okay, I'm done now. Let me just get my fire-proof suit on... Paul --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paul Hurt Editor, Ultimatum Magazine, London, England editor@ultimatum.demon.co.uk Visit Ultimatum Online... http://www.ultimatum.demon.co.uk