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From: "Timothy Rogers" <trogers@srv1.mech.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Mechanical Engineering
To: britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 1999 11:19:36 +0000
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Subject: Ultimate growth
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Precedence: bulk
There's a lot been said about Ultimate's image outside of the sport,
and how it affects the sports growth. I think this is secondary to
the following points.
1) COST -
I think this is the single biggest factor, which affects
the growth of ultimate. At the moment, virtually all revenue in the
sport comes from the players. Some teams in the past have held
tournaments for the purposes of generating revenue for them to play
foriegn ultimate. Note that one of the tournaments in question was a
regional championship, so it wasn't a matter of choice.
Other costs on the ultimate player are applied by the BUF in terms
of tournament and player taxes. Charging ultimate players for
frankly limited publicity simply doesn't make sense. Incidently,
what exactly is BUF money spent on? I'm not being cynical; I just
don't know.
2) Loss of players -
Many players leave the sport after university.
I think that one of the biggest reasons people don't continue is that
they don't have a team to play for. This is an area, which can
easily be addressed. Every year, maybe it would be worth setting up
a roster of all graduates around the country, to make it easier for
them to set up teams. It is often the case that they move to towns
which has no ultimate.
3) Expanding the growth areas
I don't mean to dwell on university ultimate, but it is the main
growth area. Starting teams in more universities. It usually starts
by someone who has played before, moving to a particular university.
This happened at Aberdeen (Petroleum) last year; there now doing
really well and last time we played them they had 15 or so players
come to Edinburgh. In a few years maybe they'll grow to a club of 40
or 50. Supporting these new teams is a priority, and this only
happens by invitations and by keeping tournament costs low!!!
Ok, I've talked for far too long, but my personal opinion is ultimate
needs to concentrate on serving the people who play. A good steady
growth of people who would otherwise be attracted to the sport (this
doesn't mean we should make it cliquey), is much better than a media
driven boom which would be followed by an equally sharp decline.
Finally, just to say that these are just my personal views. I speak
for nobody else.
Tim
Ro-Sham-Bo
S.O.U.P