IOS #5 @ Round Lake (October 15th & 16th 2011)

[pickax]

What a great day for disc golf. Clear skies all day.

Results have been posted for Sunday.

http://www.pdga.com/tournament_results/75479

[roman]

You guys are awesome for such quick turnaround of scores. Thanks again for running such great events all year. You really do (unintentionally) make most of the other tournaments out there seem bad. If you can get me out to play a tournament at Fairfield, you know you're doing something right

[stpitner]

I'm curious how come a lot of people didn't come on out this weekend.  I had a good time, and the weather turned out great today.  There wasn't even a Bears game that you would miss out on   Was it because of the possible weather?  The course itself?  Couldn't afford it?  Too many other options?  Just played the Homie and didn't want to do back to back weekends of tournaments?  Just trying to get some opinions because running a 2-day event with 39 and 36 players, respectively, is kind of silly.  Last year we had 79 players Saturday and 50 or 60-some odd on Sunday.  I'm just curious what changed?

[roman]

I'm curious about the same. I remember Fairfield drawing huge numbers just a few years ago.

[whitechocolate]

I didn't make it out because I had surgery on my chest and the skin is not healing properly.  I did not wanna to make it worse constantly stretching it all day.  I do play ring leader for a few other guys that come out for IOS events, and because I didn't make it out to any events this year, neither did they.  Although they tend to fall out on Sundays when football starts (3 REC/INT rated players). 

I'll be back around next season.  That'll generally adds 2-4 players a tourney.  Just been a horrible year for me physically. 

[Dag]

Lack of momentum?

No need to set a grueling pace like last year's 9 event series but perhaps a more compact season could be beneficial? The impact of a two month span between events also may have been exacerbated by the previous event being in a low SSA venue.

[Dan Michler]

I came down with the flu this weekend and am pretty bummed about missing this event, regardless of the turnout.

As for why attendance was down relative to past years, I can speculate a number reasons:

1. Advertisement for the tournament was only a fraction of what it once was.

2. Pre-2003, PDGA tournaments were scarcely seen around here.  A couple years later there was suddenly a half-dozen tournaments within an hour of any Lake County resident.  I think there were a ton of new tournament players that got hooked for a brief period of time and then moved on.  Think about the peak years of the IOS when there were 200 players per event, the number of lower rated players was enormous.  You still get new players cycling in every year, but you'll never get close to the number of players you had during those years, just because PDGA tournaments were new to almost everybody.

3. The amount of competition/the economy....The South suburbs have had at least 10 PDGA events this year.  Rockford has had their own PDGA events.  Kenosha has their own PDGA events.  Terry runs quite a few events just north of the border in Wisconsin.  The number of PDGA events available within a 2 hour drive has exploded over the last several years.  Its easy to see there is a lot more competition for the IOS than there was in the past.  Many players have less money to spend.  They simply can't play every event, so the attendance at alot of the events is going to suffer.

If you want to improve attendance in the future, I think your main goal should be to actively reach out to local recreational players at each course.  Hand out flyers at leagues.  Talk to new players at the course and let them know about tournament play.  Perhaps drop the amateur entry fee and increase the value of the player pack (I think you should be able to afford 1 Champ disc with your player pack).  You've got to get a new wave of recreational players hooked on competitive play.

[jasonc]

IOS Crew,

Thanks for running another great tournament!!!  I had a lot of fun out there in the wind. 

[CEValkyrie]

Whacky weekend out there. Saturday was just crazy with that wind. Sunday ended up being a pretty nice day.

[CEValkyrie]

This will show how tough the course was playing Saturday. The course layout has been very similar the past 5 years since we've dropped the final 4 holes.

Open Winner Score/Year/Player
101-2007--Comincioli
102-2008--Seegert
101-2009--Seegert
103-2010--Heeren
110-2011--Swanson

[Jon Brakel]

I had a great time despite the wind burn! Next year year will be the IOS 10th Anniversary year and we'll have our 50th event. Can't wait!

[smyith]

2 things

1) On the Tournament turn-out. I know alot of people were disappointed this year at the lack of tournaments in the Lake/McHenry County area, as well as the lower WI area (not that you can control the latter). I think this area only had 5 tourns total this year with 1 more left (Cold Turkey). Compared to Joiliet/I-80 area have well into double digits. I can see this having an affect in 2 ways, 1) expenses, having to make so many long trips to play might have emptied out pocket books faster than years past. 2) Discontent, many people were not happy about the lack of tournaments up this way this year and many just choose to barely compete. Heck if my boss wasn't so awesome i wouldnt have been able to play even a quarter of my tourns this year. Now add to that no Crystal Lake or Streamwood tournament, like there has been for many years, and I'm sure people weren't all too happy.
Im not going to infer as to why there was a major lack of tourns compared to years past but i think it may have something to do with poor turnout in the last few months. or it could be that the majority of tournament players currently are college students. <shrug>

2) For those of you interested in the Ashpoo Bag Straps that were given away in the CTPs both days you can email me at info@ashpoo.net or awsmith_84@yahoo.com or call 815-526-3275 (between 10am and 6pm please). You can also see Rich at Chains Disc Golf.
We are working on the bag design as well right now and should have the kinks worked out by November and ready to start selling. Planned features of the bag are 2 and 3 color tone models, 3(possibly 4) putter pocket with its own rain flap, cooler pockets (capable of holding ice...this is the part that is taking a lil time to work out correctly), 22 different spots to attach your straps, a completely redesigned main compartment flap giving you access to the discs on the outer edges without having to remove discs (revo users know what im talking about), and water shedding. Once we get this finished we will begin working on the new backpack designs we have as well. All of our stuff is designed with the competitive player in mind and we always are looking for feedback.
Also, if any of you are good at website design please email me. Maybe we can work out a deal with free gear and you could help me out with getting this pesky website finished (they make it sound so easy...it isnt...lol).

[Tom McManus]

2 things

1) On the Tournament turn-out. I know alot of people were disappointed this year at the lack of tournaments in the Lake/McHenry County area, as well as the lower WI area (not that you can control the latter). I think this area only had 5 tourns total this year with 1 more left (Cold Turkey). Compared to Joiliet/I-80 area have well into double digits. I can see this having an affect in 2 ways, 1) expenses, having to make so many long trips to play might have emptied out pocket books faster than years past. 2) Discontent, many people were not happy about the lack of tournaments up this way this year and many just choose to barely compete. Heck if my boss wasn't so awesome i wouldnt have been able to play even a quarter of my tourns this year. Now add to that no Crystal Lake or Streamwood tournament, like there has been for many years, and I'm sure people weren't all too happy.
Im not going to infer as to why there was a major lack of tourns compared to years past but i think it may have something to do with poor turnout in the last few months. or it could be that the majority of tournament players currently are college students. <shrug>

This makes absolutely zero sense. Because there were less tournaments people chose not to play? Too many tournaments would make sense, but choosing not to play because of a lack of tournaments is ridiculous.

[smyith]

This makes absolutely zero sense. Because there were less tournaments people chose not to play? Too many tournaments would make sense, but choosing not to play because of a lack of tournaments is ridiculous.

how does it not make sense? if there are no tournaments you may loose interest at keeping your competitive play up. tournament comes around and you dont feel like getting your butt handed to you so you let it pass. most people play to win, if they dont think they have a legit chance they wont play. especially if youre stuck with a rating above your current skill level. the 30-50 people who play often no matter what the conditions are the ones who are there more for the competition more than the pay.

p.s. if one person can think of "it" that means many others already have.

[pdga#7648]

This makes absolutely zero sense. Because there were less tournaments people chose not to play? Too many tournaments would make sense, but choosing not to play because of a lack of tournaments is ridiculous.

how does it not make sense? if there are no tournaments you may loose interest at keeping your competitive play up. tournament comes around and you dont feel like getting your butt handed to you so you let it pass. most people play to win, if they dont think they have a legit chance they wont play. 

I know I'm getting my butt handed to me at 90% of the tournaments I pre reg for! but I still play because of the competition! to not play because of someone in that division, would just mean you pay to cash and not for the competition?

[Dan Michler]

p.s. if one person can think of "it" that means many others already have.

You just blew my mind!   

[Jon Brakel]

Tournament history tells us why attendance is down. When we held the first Illinois Open it was the ONLY PDGA tournament in Lake County that year. There had not been a PDGA sanctioned tournament in the county in over 10 years. We had over 100 players for that first event. At the peak of the IOS attendance in the mid to late 2000s when we were getting 100 players per day, the IOS events were the ONLY PDGA tournaments in Lake and McHenry county.

Brett crunched some numbers a couple of years ago when IOS attendance started to dip. In the last 5 years the number of tournaments in Illinois and northern Illinois in particular had doubled or tripled. At the same time the number of players increased by less than 25%. Tournament attendance was up but tournament attendance at any one particular event was mostly down. If you look at attendance this year at all Illinois events you will notice a decrease in attendance. The only events that I've seen in the area that have not had a decrease are Illinois State Championship and the Homie.

When the IOS was starting and at its peak there were way fewer events in Northern Illinois. IOS ran 3, Gary ran 5 and Bryan ran 3. That's 11 events. This year I count 30 PDGA events in northern Illinois. The number of tournament players has not tripled in the last 9 years.

I think these are the factors to decreased attendance at Fairfield:

1) player dilution
2) weather
3) the economy

Players have to make choices. If you can only play one event in the month of October because you don't have as much $$$ as last year are you going to go to the Homie or to IOS #5? I think everyone's answer is the Homie. If you can only play half as many events this year as last year are you going to come out in weather like we had last weekend or hope there's better weather for the Joliet event at the end of the month?

I don't think its that hard to understand the choices being made. There are some things that the IOS team needs to work on. When Brett was involved in every IOS event he (and some of his playing friends) did at least 90% of the publicity for the IOS events. We will probably never find someone who is willing to put in as much time as Brett did for the IOS. I used to have a job that was 2 miles from home and I got 3 weeks of vacation every year plus 6 holidays and 1 personal day. For over 3 years now I've been working as a consultant. I drive 76 miles round trip per day and I get no paid time off. I'm glad to have a job but the reality is that I have much less time for hobby and recreational activities. For those reasons it seems that we are not developing many first time players or building much excitement.

[Chainmeister]

Damon and Ron fighting for the MG1 crown at Fairfield.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd4VMYAMa3A

[Jon Brakel]

Damon and Ron fighting for the MG1 crown at Fairfield.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd4VMYAMa3A

Nice but it must have been difficult to play with all the guitar music!

[damonshort]

In Ron's defense, the putt he missed on #2 was a lot tougher than the one I choked on #1