3 Games a day

Surely excluding countries of a lower standard takes us back to the reason why most of us aren't supporting the Bari Championships?

I suspect that if the sport (at both an national and international level) continues to look for "cheap" options for hosting tournaments then the sport will slowly but surely suffer. Instead, shouldn't more efforts be focussed on ensuring these elite competitions receive government funding, sponsorship, and media coverage. It would be a shame to take a step back from what was achieved in Sheffield - instead it should be built upon.

I know in Australia the fact that our national team receives little, if any, funding or sponsorship is because there simply hasn't been anyone who has put their hand up to promote the sport and present a professional sponsorship proposal to potential supporters (hrmm..) Before we start cutting costs, and corners, shouldn't it be the responsibility of the individual countries to actively seek sponsorship.. and perhaps it should be the responsibility of our governing body to put together a well-packaged product (the tournament) that will entice potential sponsors to support our players? You only need to look at the FINA World Championships that was recently hosted by Melbourne to see a well-packaged event/product.

If a country doesn't have the skills or expertise to seek sponsorship, should our governing body provide support/information on how to?

Sorry guys... that's taken a wee 'lil step away from the topic... just so you know, I support the "three-games-a-day-would-suck-big-time" view

In 1992, people started complaining that the world champs took too long to run. This was mostly because it was played in a single court. The solution, use 2 courts for worlds. Here we are in 2007 again complaining that the worlds takes too long to run. So why don't we just insist that a host has 3 courts? The Durban pool is big enough to deal with it, or if not I'm pretty sure the Serbian complex has enough space for 4 courts (incl. warm-up space).

Seriously, if worlds is extended because of the number of teams attending, how is three games a day going to solve anything? When are we supposed to play this third game, 3am in the morning? 2 games a day would have shortened Sheffield by a good 4 or 5 days...

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i totaly agree with benson.

i was on that team that benson managed and played in both games.1st game was in round robin and we won,second time we met,we were on our 3rd game and they were on their 2nd(this was the real important one as it was a seeded game)i can remember that 3rd game vividly

and more to the point i can remember the fustration we had after the game and still grind my teeth to this day,knowing that we were better but physically/mentaly exhausted.

ok big deal its a high level tournament
but

i think that as benson says we should all meet on equal terms eg that each team have played the same amount of teams that day

making the sport grow
well that was our first major tournament ireland were introduced into a 3 game per day scenario.
surely it would be benifical to the sport that when new teams see the sport at such a high level for the first time,they are not actually tortured in the process.
AND THEY COME BACK FOR MORE TOURNAMENTS
thats the idea right
3 games a day is torture - im not a pussy and i'd play them either way but it just goes over the point of enjoyment to unenjoyment
after all every team have spent months previously in torture training for it.

so two games a day and do the damage..

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Upon further thinking about this I have to say I agree with Alexandra's last two posts 100%. I suppose I had not fully thought about the impact of 3 games per day on the body, over a weekend not so bad... over a week or more at worlds... not so good.

But as well I thik Gav brings up a good point about worlds may not be the best place to introduce new countries to the sport... but I also don't believe we are in that place YET. If what we wanted was only the top 8? or 10? to attend worlds why leave CMAS? one court, no masters or junior divisions over in 5 days with only the best of the best.

Hopefully there will be a time when we can limit the number of countires attending the Champs to ~16? for ease of brackets. And with that there would be some kind of continental or regional qualifying tournaments. But at this point we're just not that big, and as Alexandra points out we need to develop ways of lessengin the finacial burden on the individual athletes first, when that is done the sport will grow. With growth maybe we will have an increase in competitiveness rather than three or four "tiers" of teams. At THAT point maybe we can change the participation. I don't think we are that far off from this, but maybe leaving CMAS will allow us to have more/better control over gaining proper INTERNATIONAL sponsors.

I don't know about the States, but I don't know of the last time Australia fielded its "Best/strongest" team. Many players are unable to attend on a biannual basis simply because of the financial burden, so often it ends up being a handful of players trying out who are able to afford to compete, this occuring more so in recent years (obviously we had a kick-arse women's team last year though!) Maybe this conversation could be started in a new thread moderators?

Ummm... Alex you're an Admin.

Queen of the Board, Super Admin, all-powerful, top of the heap.
Mod's report to you, you are it etc et
You start the thread and the rest will follow

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eh... I'll wait till a new thread gets started... had typed up a bunch of response but I'll just say yes, for all of the US's history and in the last several worlds as far as I know EVERY country has been represented by those who could afford the trip, and hopefully were good enough. What I had meant by best of the best, was countries rather than individuals.

Tuck,

maybe start the new thread for Alex.

I know she doesn'y always have internet access right now.

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The thoughts are swirling in my head. If I can get it down in a some coherent manner I will start a thread with some new thoughts.

Back on track, I'm reading some of the stuff about the 3 games a day and it looks right now as it is a for sure going to happen in Durban. Is this true, or is it still remaining to be seen. I think there has been some very good points about it being not a good idea, but can we get a more official word (WTD??) on this one?