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Bosnian example

Posted By: mtuhtan
Date: Monday, 4 April 2011, at 3:15 p.m.

In Response To: Farewell, Finnish Backgammon (Phil Simborg)

Here in the U.S. I believe that at least 80% of us who attend tournaments do not do so with the expectation of making money or making a profit--even if you are an occasional winner it would be difficult to cover travel and hotel and entry fee expenses. Most of us are in it for the love of the game and the competition. In fact, if the entry fees were lower and there was NO PRIZE MONEY for all but the Masters, I would be willing to bet, over time, we would have far more people competing.

One argument I hear against this is if we do this, how will the organizers make money? Silly argument....there are people who make a living running bridge studios that have many games a week and they can even pay the rent on a building to house their clubs. If you get enough people, you can make plenty of money on the small entry fee because you get to keep the entire fee (less expenses).


In Bosnia, they play traditional tavla.
Entry fees for their national tournaments? US$ 7.00! (Yes, seven US dollars)
Number of players in their last tournaments? 146, 150, 114, 118

(Have in mind that total population of Bosnia is less than 4 million people - less than some cities in USA; and people are mostly poor so I suspect there would be even more players if their financial status were better)


So, why there aren't big cheap BG tournaments in USA currently? Cannot somebody of you 80% players organize such event?

In USA you have three divisions on every tournament. Why not try with only one division? (There was discussion about that in this forum couple of months ago)

If that's too radical, I think you should try to make intermediate division players feel more important so maybe more of them will start to come to the tournaments.

For starters, why don't you make some interviews with winners of intermediate division tournaments?
We all know who are JO'H, Neilkaz, Ray Fogerlund, UBK, Mary Hickey (latest tournament winners in ABT), but why not make interview with some of these guys: Ben Friesen, Ramez Abi-Akar, Stewart Pemberton, Jonathan Leusden, Murray Bryntesen, etc. (intermediate/advanced winners on same tournaments, from: http://chicagopoint.com/results.html)

Maybe just to listen their opinions (not only winners, also include other intermediate players): why they don't play in top division (do they think they are weak, is it too expensive for them, etc.), what would they like to see in ABT tournaments, what they do and don't like in current tournaments, how they think backgammon can grow, etc.

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