who is going to the nationals?!?

damn, judo guy owns the numbers...

Does anyone have any info on what the weather is like in Virginia Beach in April? Also, is there anything to do while you're there during that time?

The other side of spreading the nationals around the country is that it gives a little bit of exposure to judo in other regions, although I don't think for a second they will ever make any impact in increasing numbers. Also, for juniors in particular, it's part of the judo experience to travel to different parts of their country and visit regions they may never see. These are things they remember long after their competitive judo careers are over.

JG: It's going to be less than 80 degrees, so you'd better bring a sweater :)

Financially, the Masters competitors may be as or more important than the regular senior divisions. I'm not sure about kata, but there seem to have been more and more over the years.

Ben R.

Hi Sojourner,

For the record, I've been known to brave 55 degree weather while wearing a windbreaker. Not for extended periods of time, but long enough to get from the car to the house.

I agree that its a good thing they move the location around every year. Even if keeps me from personally attending.

Ben Reinhardt wrote,

"Financially, the Masters competitors may be as or more important than the regular senior divisions. I'm not sure about kata, but there seem to have been more and more over the years."

Oh yeah. The leverage is nearly 100%. So much of the costs of running a tournament are fixed, that the added revenues from Masters are huge in determining the profit/loss of the tournaments. I imagine it helps also in negotiating hotel rates, shuttle services, meeting rooms etc, bringing the overall costs for Sr. Nationals down for the senior division contestants. Without Masters divisions, I doubt many of the nice locations we've had for Sr. Nationals would have been feasible.

The Master's divisions are what usually makes or breaks the tourney. The numbers get alittle fudged with kata, because they count each kata as one so if you and your partner do three katas that counts as 6 entrants. Believe it or not if you have 500 contestnats your going to make a nice profit. My partner and I broke even in Cleveland although we rented the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame for a welcoming party we produced a tv commercial that aired 60 times on local cable (mostly during WWE and Smackdown) and did a direct mail to high school's and jr high schools with 10 tickets per each mail out. Unfortuanatelly Cleveland is not a hot bed for judo. USA Judo Dave did a radio spot with me the day before the tournament and we had are club and a few people I knew do TV morning shows all week. We did the promo but it didnt work. We had Fox and a contract almost set up to air the tourney in 8 major markets in the US but unfortuanatelly 911 hit and a major sponsor was an investment firm. The markets were Chicago, San Fran Orlando Cleveland Boston and heck right now I can't remember the others that is was awhile ago.

The problem is that it's hard work 3 years and I can rant right now but those who have put on Nat'l tourneys know what I'm talking about.