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Tourney Attendance

Posted By: Daniel Murphy
Date: Friday, 25 July 2008, at 3:46 p.m.

In Response To: Tourney Attendance (Chuck Bower)

One thing that isn't reflected in your list (and I'm not volunteering :) is TOTAL attendance in main events (so including Advanced, Intermediate, Novice, or equivalent). I think the US directors use this more as a metric.

I agree that total attendance is important at most tournaments. Players in intermediate and novice/beginner flights are future championship players. Growing attendance in lower flights bodes well for the future of our game.

Some other things the numbers don't show are entry fees and prize pools. The Monte Carlo 2008 entry fees generated a prize pool of about US$318,000; at Nordic Open 2008, about US$173,000; and at Michigan 2008, about US$22,000.

One thing the numbers do show is that the health of our game depends a lot on a handful of motivated and competent tournament directors, and on the excitement, publicity and financial support of sponsors. ABT tournaments in Florida and North Carolina have attained respectable numbers in just a few years. Under new direction of the WBA, the long-time City of Venice tournament seems to be growing again. Partouche tournaments have been successful, especially for new tournaments, and WSOB coverage seems to have helped attendance at the 2008 Nordic and the 2008 Partouche Riviera tournament in Cannes.

It appears by my eyeball scan that there was a sweetspot in the 2000-2003 span where the big tournaments in both Europe and US peaked in open attendance.

Total attendance at Monte Carlo peaked in 2002 (470) and 2004 (474); at the Nordic Open, in 1998 (525).

I'm missing Monte Carlo Intermediate, Beginner and Super Jackpot figures for 2001, but except for those, here's the total attendance picture for eleven years of Monte Carlo and twenty years of Nordic Open:

NORDIC OPEN, DENMARK

Year	Flights	In all	Championship	Advanced	Intermediate	Novice	Beginner	Championship Prizes
1989, 1st	3	133	57	--	25	--	51	Main 1 2, Cons 1 2
1990, 2nd	3	188	52	--	55	--	81	Main 1 2 3/4, Cons 1 2 3/4
1991, 3rd	3	237	69	--	59	--	109	Main 1 2 3/4, Cons 1 2 3/4
1992, 4th	4	215	45	47	64	--	59	Main 1 2 3/4, Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
1993, 5th	4	310	57	56	125	--	72	Main 1 2 3/4, Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
1994, 6th	4	390	76	75	145	--	94	Main 1 2 3/4, Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
1995, 7th	4	485	92	130	183	--	80	Main 1 2 3/4, Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
1996, 8th	4	481	113	128	188	--	52	Main 1 2 3/4, Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
1997, 9th	4	488	106	119	199	--	64	Main 1 2 3/4, Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
1998, 10th	5	525	118	121	147	94	45	Main 1 2 3/4, Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
1999, 11th	5	465	107	100	124	87	47	Main 1 2 3/4, Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
2000, 12th	5	412	99	93	98	80	28	Main 1 2 3/4, Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
2001, 13th	5	423	106	99	120	61	28	Main 1 2 3/4, Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
2002, 14th	5	387	92	94	116	62	23	Main 1 2 3/4, Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
2003, 15th	5	398	91	88	114	60	45	Main 1 2 3/4, Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
2004, 16th	5	392	87	99	102	57	47	Main 1 2 3/4, Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
2005, 17th	5	327	61	79	82	53	52	Main 1 2 3/4, Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
2006, 18th	5	231	64	65	51	38	18	Main 1 2 3/4, Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
2007, 19th	4	298	81	77	73	--	65	Main 1 2 3/4 5/6, LC 1 2
2008, 20th	4	389	154	78	78	--	79	Main 1 2 3/4 5/8, Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2

WORLD BACKGAMMON CHAMPIONSHIP, MONTE CARLO

Year	Flights	In all	Championship	Intermediate	Beginner	Super Jackpot	Championship Prizes
1998, 23rd	3	360	220	76	64	64	Main 1 2 3/4, 1Cons 1 2 3/4, 2Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
1999, 24th	3	379	231	93	55	80	Main 1 2 3/4, 1Cons 1 2 3/4, 2Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
2000, 25th	3	432	267	114	51	128	Main 1 2 3/4, 1Cons 1 2 3/4, 2Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
2001, 26th	3	452 (?)	288	?	?	?	Main 1 2 3/4, 1Cons 1 2 3/4, 2Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
2002, 27th	3	470	281	114	75	128 (?)	Main 1 2 3/4, 1Cons 1 2 3/4, 2Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
2003, 28th	3	457	271	121	65	128	Main 1 2 3/4, 1Cons 1 2 3/4, 2Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
2004, 29th	3	474	276	108	90	128	Main 1 2 3/4, 1Cons 1 2 3/4, 2Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2 3/4
2005, 30th	3	370	238	78	54	64 and 32 and 16	Main 1 2 3/4, 1Cons 1 2 3/4, 2Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
2006, 31st	3	340	216	76	48	64 and 16	Main 1 2 3/4, 1Cons 1 2 3/4, 2Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
2007, 32nd	3	342	218	76	48	64	Main 1 2 3/4, 1Cons 1 2 3/4, 2Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1 2
2008, 33rd	3	298	199	58	41	32	Main 1 2 3/4, 1Cons 1 2 3/4, 2Cons 1 2 3/4, LC 1

Messages In This Thread

• Tourney Attendance
  Daniel Murphy -- Friday, 25 July 2008, at 9:00 a.m.
  • Tourney Attendance
    Chuck Bower -- Friday, 25 July 2008, at 1:45 p.m.
    • Tourney Attendance
      Daniel Murphy -- Friday, 25 July 2008, at 3:46 p.m.
  • Tourney Attendance
    jdg -- Friday, 25 July 2008, at 2:30 p.m.
  • A few things...
    neilkaz -- Monday, 28 July 2008, at 5:29 p.m.
    • A few things...
      Daniel Murphy -- Monday, 28 July 2008, at 9:20 p.m.