First I'd like to thank and recognize the time and efforts of Tim and Frank. That said, this is a tough problem to solve. I think entry fees are a part of it. For example, let's have a 200 entry fee tourney, same 10-14 boats will show. Can't advertise, no budget, that would come from higher fees! Lower fees and you cant pay out anything or provide/do anything for the teams. I just read a post by robin about time constraints, this, like entry fees are also a factor. I think the answer is not about the 10-14 teams, but all the other teams. Sponsor giveaways are nice, good payouts and more places paid also nice. But much of this depends on entry fees, go back to square one! Comerodery seems to be key at EF, but they only get the usual 10-14. How do we get next gen involed? (see netman in training post) If we are ever to solve this, this forum is a good place to solicite ideas and hash them out. I'm in for whatever. Here are my ideas :
- get sponsor money get free entry.
- volunteer get free entry
- create org. So volunteers can write off fuel & time
- give aways & hot dogs after weight in
- pay big to win, then stretch money to pay further down
- 4 mega tourneys, one in each quadrant of state, no classic
- teams given flyers to distribute or post
- get news print involved, it's free advertisement
- don't let Larry fish em, he wins too much.....just kiddin