That would be SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoo great for ME! Selfish yes, but basically in my backyard. Still an hour or so but very, very close for me. Probably no hotel needed!! And my coach could come. heaven. let us pray...

Oh man. If it's in Hackensack I really need to start skating again.

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Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

You should start skating again, you are a great skater!

Something I've looked at...
Easter next year is April 24. Given that AN is held usually two weeks after, and that would most likely conflict with GC, will AN be before Easter next year?

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

AN usually being two weeks after Easter is a coincidence. It will always be in April, and it will never conflict with any other major USFS event, especially since a lot of the same people have to be at both!

NoVa mentioned hosting next year's ANs in his back yard. I'm all for that.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

a coach from AZ talked about finishing up her bid when I was getting ready to skate

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Champagne in 2005, 2008, 2009 - who's next out of the pre-bronze club...?

Wang chung!

Damn. I can't afford a ticket to AZ as well as another trip to Jamaica (we're going again because we have free all-inclusive hotel due to a big mess in up this last February trip). Can we do Pittsburgh next year then AZ the year after? I'd love to go there, but not next year. Please?

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"The only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary." -- Vidal Sasson

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." -- Unknown

Where in AZ???

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

I don't know, I was getting ready to skate.

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Champagne in 2005, 2008, 2009 - who's next out of the pre-bronze club...?

Wang chung!

How about Seattle? Or Oregon? Any clubs in that area interested in hosting? Any adequate facilities there? Just wondering, because I love the area and I have a number of relatives there.

Come on Mel! Multitask!

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

oh I was multitasking but cannot get into details

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Champagne in 2005, 2008, 2009 - who's next out of the pre-bronze club...?

Wang chung!

We've had Regionals and Sectionals quite a few times, as well as a Jr. Grand Prix a few years ago.

I'm not sure whether it's Coyotes of Skating Club of Phoenix (a much smaller club) that's bidding (if they are at all). I'll have to do some research.

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"Without a struggle, there can be no progress" ~ Frederick Douglass

Hmmmm... actually if it's Arizona, it may either work out well or work out crappy! My company's US headquarters are in Phoenix, Arizona. It just so happens that on my next project my group and I will be working closely with the Arizona engineering teams. There's a chance that I MIGHT be able to fanagle the trip on the company's expense (well, more just the airfare) to the headquarters!!!

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Who actually rents the facility for the different National Championships? (Standard, Adult, Synchro) Is it the LOC or the USFSA?

Just thinking about the monetary outlay for the rental, it might make more sense for the USFSA to pay the deposit/rental fees so that Clubs don't feel as pinched. It would also give the USFSA a little muscle to ensure that the event comes off properly.

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For AN's, it's the LOC who's responsible for the ice time costs, hotel for judges, etc. This is why you can't put a stop to whatever they are charging. They are supposed to do a pro forma P&L in advance and costs are included in the bid package. Someone on the LOC for 2010 said to a few of us that US Figure Skating did not give them the usual grant for ANs.

A few random questions about the business model for hosting an AN

I've never been directly involved in organizing a competition, but when it comes to AN, I've often wondered if it is being approached optimally by a potential LOC.

For basic ice time for example; In April, most rinks have their lights turned out 3/4 of the day as hockey has ended, so when a full week event comes to town seeking full capacity ice (20+ users per hour) at 16 hours a day, doesn't an LOC have a bit of leverage in getting contract ice rates as opposed to retail cost? In fact, I would think that any rink would have a self interest in becoming a 'business partner' with the LOC in hosting the event and would work to make the ice rate attractive....or else go back to sitting in the dark. Similarly, hotel accommodations are bought in discount blocks

Considering that all practice ice is paid for separate, is it fair to say that entrance fees only have to cover a maximum 5-10 minutes of active ice time per entrant per event (and this adding in an allowance for down time between performances) If an AN entrant is paying $120 to get in, can someone give an approximate breakdown on where that money goes?

Not in my area. I swear, hockey never ends.

I think rink involvement with hosting an event really varies from place to place depending on whether a rink is privately owned/operated or run by a city.

My rink has recently hosted 2 JNs and a lot of local competitions, and we were the practice rink for US Nationals in 09. Particularly with the larger competitions, the actual management company that runs our rink was involved in running the thing to some extent. 09 Nationals, they were charging admission to watch practices, their staff were the ones collecting money, and the club made little/no money off of that, it all went to the rink (which is fine, the rink itslef offers tons of figure skating ice time aside from the 8 or so hours each week the club has). When we've had large production-type ice shows in the past, it was the rink that sponsored them (and hired the coaches who produced the show and provided the ice time and all that stuff), not the figure skating club. The club still gets involved in various ways and makes some money off of it, too, but it's more of a partnership. For any event, there are certain things the club always seems to handle (volunteers, hospitality rooms) and certain things the rink staff handles (advertising/PR, collecting admission, much of the setup/teardown, and obviously making sure the rink is spotless). For smaller competitions we host, the club pretty much does it all aside from the obvious scrubbing down the rink beforehand and cutting the ice (no joke, I think they clean my rink too much, it usually reeks of cleaning supplies, which I guess is better than hockey smell, but whatever they use to obsessive-compulsively clean the glass does bother some skaters' allergies).

I think in many cases the city-run facilities are stretched thin (i.e. can hardly pay their two zamboni guys, front office person and skate guard, who all hardly make above minimum wage, and you're lucky if the bathrooms have toilet paper/paper towels) and even though the city can potentially make money off of joining forces, they don't want to be bothered and the club will have more control. I worked at a rink in high school that, while I was working there, went from city-owned/operated to being run by a private management company, and once that change happened, the actual rink itself became much more involved in cooprating with the figure skating club/hockey club for events we hosted, whether fig skating competitions/shows or hockey tournaments. Same with another area rink--the company that runs my rink took it over from the city and they've gotten a lot more involved in what goes on there compared to the city's actual participation.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

My club's rink is owned and managed by the city and it's just about impossible to book ice time outside of club time for test sessions and other events. But it wasn't much easier when a mgmt co was running the place a few years ago, b/c they didn't give a hoot about anything. What we really need is a mgmt co that sees the potential profit to be made by keeping a rink up and cooperating with the various organizations that use it.

I think the difficulty finding clubs to host AN is about logistics and money, not the reputation of adult skaters (borrowing from the other thread). The timing of AN (April) means that pretty much any club that hosts a summer comp is not going to want to bid, unless they have a very large and involved membership. For most clubs, running a nat'l event while they are planning their own comp at the same time is too much. That leaves clubs that don't host a comp, and they may not meet the facility requirements (or even want to plan a big comp). And then there are the costs the club has to put out to bid and run the event - yes, AN can be profitable, but clubs have to be able to front a lot of expenses.

AN is less prestigious than kid Nats - no nat'l TV broadcasts or print articles showcasing the city. AN doesn't attract hundreds of out-of-town spectators, plus a whole entourage (parents, siblings, multiple coaches) for each skater, that bring millions of dollars into the host city. Yes, AN does provide a financial boost, but it's going to be much smaller given that most out-of-towners are participants that spend their days (and mealtimes) at or near the rink. The LOC for AN is not going to attract the partnerships and sponsorships from local and civic groups like a kid Nats would. With less of a financial upside, it's no wonder that the clubs that have the know-how and volunteers to pull off a big event successfully would rather bid for Nats or even JN or SA.

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Terri C is a Bronze lady!
Gold Moves, here I come!

Based on these observations, it would seem then that municipal rinks then should rarely if ever be considered for any major event like AN.

The main product a rink sells is ice time and only a tiny minority of all rinks end up hosting the big events. If overhead and energy costs were assumed to be roughly equal within any given region, then any large event in April should be a boon for the rink. Most rinks keep some hockey year round but its far diminished from it's high season and could be shuffled around for 5 days

My rink is municipally run and we've successfully hosted Regionals and Junior Nationals. Not all municipalities are the same ...

Around here, hockey runs from July to May. The main season ends in March, but there's always spring teams. Hockey rarely to never gets shuffled around - it pays the bills. We are a huge hockey area, though.

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"The only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary." -- Vidal Sasson

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." -- Unknown

I wonder if pushing ANs to later in April or first week of May would make it even cheaper.

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I don't think we are a huge hockey area at all- but that's how the rink makes money. Heck- they gave our synchro team FREE ice during an undesirable time just to get us to vacate our paid for, but barely, spot to a hockey team.

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
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