[SBU Board] Thoughts about Kent sectional

[Michael J Ring]

Hi all,

I wanted to send the Board a few thoughts and notes about this weekend's sectional while they are fresh in my mind. 

As you are by now aware, attendance was disappointing. Total table count was as follows below. I've included the attendance from the 2015 fall sectional in parentheses. It's not a perfect apples to apples comparison given the site (Bothell) and date (3rd weekend in October) were different but it will give an idea about the drop off in attendance:

Friday
 Afternoon
  Open game 30 tables (Bothell October 2015: 36 tables)
  0-200 game 11 tables (16 tables)
  Afternoon total 41 tables (52 tables)
  
 Evening
  Open game 26 tables (28 tables)
  0-200 game 4 tables (4.5 tables)
  Evening total 30 tables (32.5 tables)
  
 Daily total 71 tables (84.5 tables)
 
Saturday
 Afternoon
  Open pairs Qualifying  24.5 tables (30 tables) 
  0-750 game 12 tables (18 tables)
  0-200 game 9 tables (12 tables)
  Afternoon total 45.5 tables (60 tables)
 
  Evening
  Qualifying final 13 tables (13 tables) 
  Consolation 12 tables (14 tables)
  0-750 game 9 tables (14 tables)
  0-200 game N/A (6 tables) 
  Evening total 34 tables (47 tables)

 Daily total 79.5 tables (107 tables) 

Sunday
 A/X Swiss 16 tables (19 tables) 
 B/C/D Swiss 17 tables (24 tables) 
 Total for day 66 tables (86 tables)

Grand total 216.5 tables (277.5 tables)

Bottom line is attendance was down over 20% compared to Bothell last year. One possible problem is the proximity of this weekend on the calendar to other tournaments, whereas the October dates have fewer overlap. Unfortunately Kent Commons has limited availabilty in the fall. If I recall correctly, this was the only weekend in this time of year that we were able to hold a sectional when Kent Commons was free.

It will be interesting to see the demographic data by city to see if the attendance dropoff was more the result of local players not showing up or North Enders/Eastsiders not coming down.

Other observations:
-As was the case last year, Kent Commons staff were extremely responsive to our needs.
-Personally, I received one positive comment and no negative comments regarding the quality of the venue.
-I received a few negative comments regarding distance from Seattle/Eastside and traffic.
-The day of tournament phone came in handy. I received two calls - one call from a player stuck in traffic and one general inquiry about schedule.
-Lunch break was slightly more than 1 hour (start time was 2:40 and my slow 3rd match ended at 1:30). My team went to the Ram (sit down brew pub) and it was just enough time for us.  
-There was a little confusion regarding the number of boards for Sunday. The directing staff was initially setting up for 7 board rounds. I asked for 7 rounds of 8 boards as is the usual procedure for A/X. Since we all needed to break for lunch, I also asked for 7 rounds of 8 in B/C/D so we would be breaking at the same time. However, is this something we should generally leave to the directing staff? Given we were breaking for lunch one movement I definitely did not want was 8 rounds of 7 - I don't know if Jeff's plan was 7x7 or 8x7. One recommendation Jeff had was to run 6 rounds of 9 boards, which is becoming popular in District 20, especially if the flights are fairly small. With 16 & 17 in the flights yesterday that probably would have been a good format but we didn't want to change it on the fly. However it's something to consider for the future.

Thanks, Mike
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