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Who Cares! ** long **

Posted By: Barry Silliman
Date: Thursday, 14 November 2013, at 6:46 p.m.

In Response To: Who Cares! ** long ** (Stick)

Thanks for responding, Stick. I'm glad people care! ;-)

After my post I received emails from two tournament directors who shall remain nameless who expressed how impossible it is to work with Bill if it isn't his way and that nothing will change as long as he has the reins

That's interesting, since in essence, ABT tournament directors are regarded as "independent contractors" and are free to run their tournaments as they see fit as long as a few minimal criteria are met (e.g. two- or more days, etc). Some do legal moves, some don't, some do clocks required, some do clocks preferred, some do clocks on mutual consent, etc. Some are swiss, some are double-elim, etc. If he's holding the reins it's a pretty loose rein I think. Of course maybe there's more going on behind the scenes than I know but I have the utmost respect for Bill Davis both as a person and for what he's done for backgammon in the United States.

I would absolutely love this btw. If this were in place I'd attend more tournaments than anyone and then nobody would be eligible.

Well I put that in just to see if anybody read down that far, but it looks like I've accidentally stumbled on a way to get you to more tournaments!

There's always room for improvement, but given that most people in the backgammon ecosystem that are providing venues for players (whether online or with live events) are in essence doing volunteer work or working for way way under minimum wage (the chapter on running a medium-sized tournament in the United States is missing in the "How to Get Rich Quick" book), people should realize that any change is probably going to be gradual and will probably come about organically, through improvements introduced randomly and ad hoc by people who are willing to donate their own time and effort to it for the sake of the game, not through the top-down dictates of some worldwide organization.

For example, I was intrigued by Jeb Horton's tiered entry fee structure in Carolina. It seemed like a good way to get more people who may not have deep pockets but want to play live backgammon against top-notch opponents. I'll admit I didn't take the time to understand it completely and I haven't asked Jeb how he feels that system worked out or how it impacted attendance, but that's the sort of way things will improve- somebody tries an idea, and if it works out and catches on, more and more people will try it.

Especially in the United States, where you will be hard-pressed to find anybody who will tell you that a backgammon tournament with entry fees is even legal, I think it will be difficult to create a governing body (such as the USBGF) that could actually be prescriptive, rather than just suggestive, on how things should be done.

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