[SBU Board] Fwd: Club issues with the expanded Regional schedule

[Tim White]

Please see Nick Tipton's email and Stanley Rpberts' note, below, concerning the Monday afternoon session at Lynnwood.

Let's plan to discuss this matter during District 19 report item on Monday's board meeting agenda. 

Tim

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Stan Roberts <stan.milliman at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Club issues with the expanded Regional schedule
> Date: September 9, 2017 6:03:29 PM PDT
> To: Nick Tipton <nick_tipton at yahoo.com>
> Cc: Gay Parrish <2windstar at comcast.net>, "marv.norden at gmail.com" <marv.norden at gmail.com>, "ralph.wilhelmi at comcast.net" <ralph.wilhelmi at comcast.net>, "dudleybrown at charter.net" <dudleybrown at charter.net>, Tim White <trkwhite at gmail.com>
> 
> Nick makes good points about the health of the bridge clubs. We at
> ESBC had a large loss for the month of August. It would help if, we
> could get Monday back. Please consider Nick's request.
> 
> On Fri, Sep 8, 2017 at 1:47 PM, Nick Tipton <nick_tipton at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> District 19,
>> 
>> Congratulations on a well run Lynnwood Regional.  I heard many good things
>> about it from the hundreds of bridge players that I personally know who took
>> part.  The exception to that were some relatively minor complaints about
>> hard copies of the bulletin.  I suspect that the number of hits on those
>> pages was a bit lower than expected.  There were a number of changes in the
>> event scheduling.  Some were good and some not so good.  One player told me
>> that the Tues-Wed morning Swiss game was cancelled due to sub-minimal
>> attendance, as was the three session morning KO on Thurs-Fri-Sat mornings.
>> I also heard many good things about the Gold Rush Pairs, and that making
>> those daily would have brought more people in.
>> 
>> The purpose of this email is to express my concerns for the change to
>> Monday's schedule.  Adding an afternoon session Monday allowed the Opening
>> KOs to run through Tuesday night without requiring three sessions on
>> Tuesday.  This change adversely affected the local clubs.  I firmly believe
>> that a healthy tournament schedule is important to the health of the overall
>> bridge community.  However, this must be tempered with allowing the local
>> bridge clubs to continue to exist.  All bridge clubs run at or near the
>> break-even point, some even below it.  Mondays are a historically good day
>> for bridge clubs.  Taking at least half of our tables away on the opening
>> day of a regional is adding insult to injury when we must remain closed
>> Tuesday-Sunday of the rest of the week.  Speaking for Seattle Bridge Center,
>> we lost an estimated $1000 in revenue from the week's closure.  Considering
>> that a good month is anything over $200 in the black, this guarantees that
>> August is a month that requires at least 3-5 months of financial recovery.
>> I have spoken with Stan Roberts, the owner of the Eastside Bridge Center,
>> and he has indicated that he has very similar concerns
>> 
>> Of course Puget Sound must have an annual Regional Tournament.  Please keep
>> in mind that although this is the only Regional that we must lock up our
>> clubs for, we are greatly affected by all of the local regionals, whether
>> they are in Olympia, Leavenworth, or farther afield.  Vancouver, Penticton,
>> and Seaside take 30%-50% of our club players in spite of their distance.
>> Just as damaging are the twelve open sectionals (Olympia north to the
>> border) that draw down our attendance.  If you put it all together, owning
>> and operating a bridge club is just barely viable.  If the bridge clubs
>> begin to fail, then tournament bridge will not be far behind.
>> 
>> I am asking, indeed pleading, that D19 return to the normal 18 sessions per
>> Regional.  It probably seems minor that we are losing one more session with
>> this change, but it truly does make a difference to the financial viability
>> of a bridge club.  I understand that you cannot control any of the
>> Sectionals, and that you are unlikely to curtail the number of Regionals
>> each year.  Expanding the number or the length of Regionals is a step in the
>> wrong direction.
>> 
>> I currently distribute fliers for all of the local and neighboring
>> tournaments, but I find myself asking why I am working against myself in
>> doing this.  Is part of the District's mission statement to work towards the
>> benefit of the bridge community as a whole?  I found nothing on the D19.org
>> website that suggests that, and yet I am confident that every member of the
>> board would personally support that idea.  New players play almost
>> exclusively at the club level, sometimes for years, before ever playing a
>> tournament.  If all Bridge Clubs revert to non-profit, twice a week games in
>> church basements, then the available bridge classes will drop precipitously.
>> Within 2-3 years, it will be easily noticeable at the club level, and in 3-4
>> years, 199er games at tournaments will no longer get enough players to
>> guarantee a game.  If that starts to happen at the Sectional or Regional
>> level, then new tournament players will be very few and very far between.
>> 
>> Thank you for your considerations,
>> 
>> Nick Tipton
>> Seattle Bridge Center
>> Alki Bridge Club

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