sparking interest in ontario

[Pierre Madison]

u guys in ontario should be happy about ur trnmt here in quebec we have the provincial and after that we have sh$$$t

[Deleted]

::)Thanks for the positive feedback Pierre.

[Mikel Gould]

Guy I was kinda hoping its just been quiet cause of the hollidays and New year stuff But I have felt exactly what your saying. I posted the golden horse shoe with 100$ rt and lft overalls as well giving out a couple mgc entries and never recieved a single post. LOL i was thinking some kind a grunt or something.

[Marc Vachon]

Guy, it's an interesting perspective that I cannot honestly comment on since I'm only getting on this board now.

And the reason why I'm here is because the armwrestling world is so interesting now, and my faith in the sport has been renewed. There has been so much change in the world rankings with a huge part as a result of your boy (Ontario), and Canada's boy, Devon.

We just watched M. Todd beat Pushkar live for $15, and three other matches that were pretty d**n cool to watch as well.

Armwrestling is way more accessible than it's ever been.

Again, this is what's gotten me going all over again. I'm even thinking of coming out to Peterborough to clean up some of you punks... (not 100% sure yet though).


Perspective check: instead of thinking why people do not come out, think of why they came on in the first place. Food for thought….

[Eric Roussin]

The Toronto SuperShow tournament isn't 100% confirmed yet, but at this point I would say it is very likely to happen. I hope to have confirmation by the end of the month.

I'll agree that chatter on the message board has died down in recent months, but I'm not totally sold on the idea that interest and attendance is down. This past fall two events had better attendance than usual (Arm Melter 12 and the Westerns), while two had lower attendance than usual -- the Easterns were down a bit and Mark's event drew significantly fewer entries than his previous event (disappointing considering what Mark does and spends to attract the women's round robin talent).

I'm confident that 2012 will be a great year for Ontario armwrestling. However, I'm all for ideas being thrown out there to be discussed.

I'm of the opinion that there's a lot of room for smaller fair tournaments aimed at new/newer pullers. These events have good exposure and are great to get new people into the sport. Entries may be low, but costs should be low as well. The big thing is it takes people to put on these events. I ran about 12 tournaments in 2006, before I had kids. Now I have four kids under the age of 5, and I just can't do as many armwrestling related activities over weekends. This is also why I can't attend as many tournaments as I used to. For many years I hit an average of 15 tournaments a year. Now I can only attend 5 or 6.

[Hugh Brodie]

Having more tournaments at fairs (or similar events like the Brockville Ribfest) would be great - you get a lot of one-event-a-year pullers as well as the regulars. I think of the New England events, such as the Addison County Fair in Vermont, that attracts pullers from all over.

The usual Canadian problem is winter - thus many people (such as me) will be looking carefully at the weather before commiting ourselves to Peterborough, and other winter events.

Another problem is those of us who live in large cities - many of us don't have/need cars and can't always get to the events "out in the country". Maybe more (well-advertised) events need to be held in larger cities (e.g. has anyone approached the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto? There are all kinds of activities, and thousands of people to attract. Unfortunately - rather close to Worlds this year.).

[Eric Roussin]

Tournaments were held at the CNE during the '80s. I agree that it's a great location.

The main stumbling block with many ideas is that there is a lack of people willing and able to put in the effort to bring them to fruition. There are currently few active promoters in the GTA. Mike's in that area, but he can't do everything himself. He already puts on the Classic and has stepped up to run a circuit. It looks like I will probably running an event at the SuperShow, but I can't run several events a year outside of my area.

There are fairs and festivals held all over the province throughout the year. If someone has never run a tournament before, this would be a good place to start. A few guys in Ontario have already done this and I'm pretty sure they enjoyed their experience. Just remember that not every tournament will have a huge turnout, nor do they need to.

[silverback]

If you want the numbers to climb you need the cash. Pure and simple. Lets face it, this sport is far from being mainstream and unless this sport gets major sponsorship then it will remain the same. It's hard work and dedication to get big names such as Gatorade or Nike but unfortunatly that is what's needed. I would love to contact reprensentatives from Red Bull and get some serious cash for an event, you never know, this company seems to love extreme sports. People seem to make more of an effort when there's serious cash, or even when they're on television. Wouldn't it be nice one day to have a contract with TSN or ESPN?

[Ashley Maher]

Jan 18, 2012 22:17:31 GMT -5 silverback said:

If you want the numbers to climb you need the cash. Pure and simple. Lets face it, this sport is far from being mainstream and unless this sport gets major sponsorship then it will remain the same. It's hard work and dedication to get big names such as Gatorade or Nike but unfortunatly that is what's needed. I would love to contact reprensentatives from Red Bull and get some serious cash for an event, you never know, this company seems to love extreme sports. People seem to make more of an effort when there's serious cash, or even when they're on television. Wouldn't it be nice one day to have a contract with TSN or ESPN?

Joey writes:
I disagree cash is only a drawing card for those who " will win cash, and those who think they will win cash".
The rest of the people go for the fun of the sport.
If you take the fun out of the sport then after awhile the people will stop showing up.
Just my thoughts

Joey

[Jeff Kaye]

i agree with this Joey, if $ was the case the mgc pro division would be massive, not every one wants to get there a$$ handed to them by a pro\elite puller, i had the best turnouts from fans and competitors, by advertising prizes.....tvs, ipod,over the top movies...ectect aswell as 50\50 draws.....ppl will show if they think\know there going to win something, we have more spectators this way, what we use to do aswell is get Wally Kapel to come, and he brings all the old world videos from the 70's, which draws even more spectators, and older aw fans??

[silverback]

I was under the impression that some people were wondering on how to improve the attendance at tourneys. This sport is still in the dungeon and I was just giving examples on how to get it mainstream. The more cash you have, the more you can give out to different placings for example if you can spread out decent cash to the top eight or so then I think it would be a great incentive for people to show. This sport is fun to armwrestlers, but it should also be fun for promoters especially if you did not have to worry about attendace numbers being low. JMO.

[Deleted]

Jan 19, 2012 11:42:43 GMT -5 silverback said:

I was under the impression that some people were wondering on how to improve the attendance at tourneys. This sport is still in the dungeon and I was just giving examples on how to get it mainstream. The more cash you have, the more you can give out to different placings for example if you can spread out decent cash to the top eight or so then I think it would be a great incentive for people to show. This sport is fun to armwrestlers, but it should also be fun for promoters especially if you did not have to worry about attendace numbers being low. JMO.

Obviously big $$ fixes everything. Give me 200 000$... I ll get TSN, fly in the elite, pay down to top 25 in each class (to accommodate the novice/ams, your welcome Guy), and have half naked models serve you drinks.... However this is not the current reality.

[silverback]

Why couldn't be? Why do you want to keep things as they are? Is there no room for this sport to grow? Why ask the question and leave it up for discussion then if in REALITY you don't won't to face facts. Remember Over The Top, there was numerous competitions held in order to qualify for this tourney and win huge prizes and cash and of course to get a chance to be seen in the movie. Ask yourself these two questions; why did this sport stop growing after this movie and also why did the promoters of the Yukon Jack lose interest? Don't be so adament to shut down people's suggestions cause I could sit back and complain all day long just to hear my own voice. Sorry if what I wrote was too much for some of you to bare but I'm tired of reading bull$$$t. We all know that it's hard work to promote this sport and my hat goes to those who keep this sport going but to question why we are not at the level this sport should be at, COMMON! That takes even more dedication and quite frankly I don't know anybody who would go that far. We are only limited to what we want to do. The way I see it, our sport will remain the same with the ups and downs of attendance so either get used to it or get out.

[Deleted]

Lol. Do you beleive it's only poor promotion or vision why we are where we are?? Over the top and Yukon jack succeeded at the time strictly due to the fact that in that era a fraction of the mainstream population gave a sh*t about spectating strength sports. It was discontinued to to evolution of society (technology over labour etc). Do u think it's a mear coincidence curling, poker and table tennis draw large enough viewing numbers to justify tv contracts & big purse $$ Wake up from your colorfully dream... Aw is SIMPLY not a spectator friendly sport. Or is it just easier to beleive that promoters have dropped the ball for 20 yrs lol.
Drake put up huge $$ for UAL.. Zero non aw spectators bought tickets... He ll never do it again! Oh we ll have the occasional attempt by a deep pocketed promoter to put on a big big $$ event... And 100% he ll never do it again.

I love aw. It is what it is. We have Provincials, nationals, worlds.. And if ur good enough u can make marginal coin. But I have zero dillusions of the Olympics or big $$$. We are simply an extreme strength sport exsisting within a society that puts very little emphasis on physical strength anymore.

[Deleted]

Ok guys we have some great points going here. Lets keep it less personal. Love the interaction, even heated interaction, LOL, but lets keep the goal in mind. Such as it is, what do you all think of the Medallion thought for the circuit events??? Is this stupid?? Does anyone really want another plastic trophy???
Chris it is my belief that Drenk was an arrogant ass (you know what they are right, LOL), he believed if he said so they would come. He pissed off half the armwrestling world in a few short months. The other half puckered up. I think if he gets off his horse, he could do more with less. Fans?? I think it is a long shot, but slowly it could happen. Neil has quite the following in Europe. But we have more to compete with here. I also like money tourneys, although I dont place 25th , its usually out of the money. Dont know if big money is a draw for me, what I do like though personally is pulling guys out of my league on the chance that I might do something incredible.
Evolution is part of any sport. Maybe it is time for some changes. Trip Elim definitely more bang for the buck. Better yet, Round Robin. I would pull one again in a heartbeat. Conversation and suggestions. Lets keep it around the goal.