Tournament Attendance Analysis

[Eric Roussin]

I did a bit of number crunching to compare tournament attendance levels between 2011 and 2012. I counted all paid entries for all Ontario events for which I’ve found full results. I did not include youth classes, overalls, or supermatches. Here’s what I’ve found:

• In 2011, 17 events had 1,457 total entries, for an average of 86 per event.
  
• In 2012, the 22 events held so far had 1,379 total entries, for an average of 66 per event. Arm Melter 16 and Gravenhurst are still to come, but are unlikely to significantly change the average for the year.
  

So it looks like 2012 will have approximately the same number of total entries, but spread over a greater number of events. So it may not be a case of fewer competitors, but because of more choice, these competitors are being more selective in which events they attend.

I think almost everyone would prefer higher event attendance. I’m looking for ideas on what could be done to get average attendance back up. If you have any, please share them.

[Joel Goodsell]

maybe we need to limit the number of tournament we have a year. and stop with the 2 tournaments on 1 date. that right there cut to your numbers down by half.

[Jeff Kaye]

I think it's all about respect to the promoters, as in u support us, we will support u but that's jmo

[Deleted]

I think you answer your question in your analysis. 22 events in 12 months is possibly too many, and is watering down the quality of many events. The easterns (over the last 3-4 years) has always had around 100 or more entries (as far as I can recall).

Does the ArmWrestling success of a province/state rest in how many events it can push out in one calendar year, or does it rest in the quality of all its events?

[Joe Gould]

Joel, (or anyone) we can't really limit how many tournaments there are. Or, how could we? We can choose to put a limit on how many events are sanctioned, but that doesn't stop someone from running an event, and may just stop them from having sanctioned refs etc.

Jeff, can you elaborate?

I think, generally, everyone wants to see 100+ entries at the circuit events, and certain big events we want to see have lots of entries. But, there should be room for lots of smaller events too. The smaller events are good to get new people involved - and we shouldn't worry too much about having a small turn out at these events. I just ran a novice event with 14 entries. The event raised a little money for the Movember charity ($300) and a few people tried the sport for the first time. And, the bar owner loved it.

I have always done my best to work with the schedule to have my events at least two weeks away from previously scheduled events. I strongly agree - it is wrong to promote a tournament on the same day as someone else. But, we live in a big Province. Northern Ontario, like Timmins, Thunder Bay, and places like that, it's a little different.

[Eric Roussin]

It can be argued that there are too many tournaments for the current number of active competitors. But what are the possible solutions? How can we effectively limit the number of events? If someone really wants to put on an event, he's going to do it.

Growing the armwrestling base would help address the issue. But most people who are new to the sport are typically first interested in competing in tournaments that are close by. Reducing the total number of events would likely limit pulling opportunities for these people.

[Dave McEwen]

I all ready said centralize some of the events to cut down on the distance . I could not get anyone interested in going to Joe's on Sat mainy because of distance and reciprical attendance, The feeling is out there boys, stop with the blind eyes ,bring your Oaa back in sink ,it's an easy fix.

[Eric Roussin]

Dave -- How do you propose this is done? We can't force people to put on events in some areas, nor can we prevent people from putting on events in other areas.

Over the past 8 years I've put on events in over 15 different cities and towns, all over eastern Ontario plus Brampton, Toronto, and even one in Vermont, but I shouldn't, nor should any other promoter, be expected to travel to put on a tournament. If someone is unhappy with the number of events in a given area, then they should do something about it and put one on. If added to the schedule far enough in advance, there could be a decent turnout.

[Dave McEwen]

Your right eric, it will come down to promoters and OAA working together to maintain reciprical turnouts , or by the recent resuts the east and west tourny's will likely cease , A25% decline is dramatic ,promotores who love the sport will only go out of pocket so long before they have had enough , end of problem i guess , but then you loose the exposer for the sport everyone has worked so hard for . It seems to me the OAA mandate is to promote the sport so why not try to pull the regions back together again. We have good promoters that put on world class tourny's that at times don't get full support by the membership, it really needs to be fixed to have a healthy growing sport. An age demografic of the top 20 pullers might be scarey as well , hats off to the promoters bringing in new blood alot more is needed .

[Hugh Brodie]

You can't limit the number of tournaments - I would go to a tournament every week if there was one within (let's say) 4 hours distance (from Montreal), and that it was easy to get to (me: no car, so location is a priority if I don't get a lift - thus places like Ottawa or Kingston would have priority over Prescott and even Belleville (now that they cut the Saturday evening train to Montreal).