worlds 2010 - where -- San Francisco Bay Area!

acxel22 · Post by **acxel22** » 14 Oct 2009 19:26

IFPA World Footbag Championships are being held August 1 to 7, 2010 in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area.

See: http://www.footbag.org/events/show/1265745512 to start you're planning. more details to come.

I have a fantastic venue especially for freestyle. I look forward to everyone being there.

Chris Ott
_________________

So who's going to be there?

Emily Kulczyk
Mike Hansen
Fletcher Funk
Jeremy Mirken

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 15 Oct 2009 04:52

Here's a bunch of thoughts, in no real order.

1. Throwing Worlds costs money, is difficult, requires lots of manpower, and is largely a thankless job. It can be hard to find a club that is willing to do it.
2. Even ignoring point #1, there aren't that many candidate cities that have the staff and experience to host Worlds in the first place.
3. Last year's Worlds set the bar really really high. I wouldn't expect the same level for this year's Worlds, given that a site hasn't been announced yet.
4. Many years, a site isn't announced for a long time, because nobody steps up to host Worlds. There were a few Worlds which were saved by Steve G stepping in at the last moment and hosting them in SF. One of the reasons 2008 was so bad, was that Dexter had to throw it together in the last minute, otherwise it wouldn't have happened at all.
5. I've heard that Helsinki is planning on hosting 2011 Worlds, but since they want to do a good job again, they're waiting til 2010.
6. Four of the last five Worlds have been held in Europe. Given that a successful Worlds usually requires a strong local club to help run it, that's not a big surprise to me. Currently, there are only two really strong scenes in North America, which are Portland and Montreal. If Worlds is in North Am this year, my guess is one of those two clubs would have to host it.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 15 Oct 2009 05:01

Oh, and before anybody asks about Japan, I'm just gonna repost what I wrote in 2004:

C-Fan wrote:I don`t realistically see Worlds in Japan as feasible anytime soon. In no particular order, here`s why.

1. Housing costs. If Worlds were to be held in Japan, the only place with a big enough scene capable of running it would be in Tokyo. Housing in Tokyo is prohibitively expensive. We could try and counter that by having footbaggers stay at Japanese footbagger`s houses, but this also isn`t very realistic, since most shredders in Tokyo live in really small apartments, or with their families. Beyond that, it would be a logistical nightmare, and not all Japanese footbaggers speak English.

2. Flight costs. Last year, most of my worlds expenses went into my plane ticket. Once I was in Prague, everything was dirt cheap. With Japan, most people`s plane tickets would be pretty expensive. Then, once they arrive in Japan, everything else will also be very expensive.

3. Distribution of top players. Up until last year, Worlds was always held on the North American continent. The reason for this, was that almost all of the best players in the world lived there, and so it was the cheapest, most convenient place to hold a tournament. Recently, the European scene has exploded not just in size, but also in skill level. Holding Worlds in Europe last year was feasible, because there were enough footbag players (and top level players) in Europe that it could legitimately argue that it would best serve a large chunk of the footbag community by having the tournament in Europe.

At the moment, the Japanese scene is pretty large, but not large enough (or skilled enough) to justify inconveniencing such a large percentage of the footbag community to pay for an expensive plane ticket, and then expensive housing once they are here.

I will probably come back and edit this. I personally would love to see Worlds in Japan, but economically it doesn`t seem feasible, especially given the average income of most footbag players. Maybe, if I continue to think about this, I will change my mind. But at the moment, Worlds in Japan seems very unlikely.

The scene in Japan is still large, they have good organizing experience now, and the level is a lot higher, but the logistical points remain unchanged. Japan is simply too expensive to get to for Euro and North Am players, once you get there it's too expensive to stay/eat, and most players would also find it tough to get around due to language issues.

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 15 Oct 2009 08:35

I was actually surprised with the lodging and living costs when I was in Japan. It wasn't hard to get cheap, good food (although getting vegetarian food was hard to come by), and didn't have problems finding a cheap hotel room. I don't know how it's like for hostels, though.

Not saying that Japan worlds is a good idea, I bet many Europeans would skip it, which would suck.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 15 Oct 2009 19:18

I would love to see a Japan worlds, it's somewhere I would definitely like to go, but I think it's still a few years away from being a feasible option. I think it's definitely something that could work in a few years though.

If it will go to Helsinki in 2011, I guess it would be a good idea to have a North American worlds. I think Portland or Montreal could both do a great job of them.

Hopefully I can make it, wherever they are.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 15 Oct 2009 20:27

There are no bids at this stage but the rumour is that Poland will be hosting the event.

Prague put in its bid for worlds 2008 on the 30th of May, 2007 - well over a year before the event was hosted.

max · Post by **max** » 15 Oct 2009 22:50

Jeremy?

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 16 Oct 2009 02:21

Max?

I browse modified occasionally, looking for news and thought this topic was lacking the actual facts.

For the record though Poland and Belgium have both put in bids for Euros 2010, so although Poland is the only place that's been mentioned for Worlds 2010, it's up to you to decide about the likelihood of somewhere hosting Euros and Worlds in the same year. Poland is a lot more experienced at big events than Brussels too, although I obviously have no say in the decision for Euros and don't know the criteria the decision is made on. There is a very underground rumour of a US city interested in putting in a bid for worlds, but I don't even know which worlds they'd be putting in a bid for, and I'm probably getting myself into trouble just mentioning it, but I wouldn't want to rule out a 2010 US hosted worlds.

For some kind of bizarre reason, there seems to be a lot of cities keen to host 2011 - there are already 3 places that have expressed interest and they're all places that have hosted big events before, so 2011 will be tight competition, while this year I think anybody who was serious about hosting worlds looks like they'd get it.

Milan · Post by **Milan** » 16 Oct 2009 05:59

It would be better to have it out of middle europe, it was here two last years

ThisIsFate · Post by **ThisIsFate** » 16 Oct 2009 20:51

I think you can eat something cheap like cup noodles, onigiri, or some easy dishes with rice, hotpot in Japan. Bring a tent and sleep on street or in some park. I remember seeing a video introducing a park where all the homeless people build a tent and live there lol.. That would be the cheapest way to live in Japan

.

btw, im not kidding about sleeping in public, there are some parks occpied by these people, and you dont need to worry about bathing, there are many public bath too.

ThisIsFate · Post by **ThisIsFate** » 19 Oct 2009 23:09

do it in vancouver, after the vancouver olympic

. i think 10 years ago was in vancouver too? 2000?

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 19 Oct 2009 23:27

Well, I think the thing is that... YOU would have to "do it" in Vancouver

Since you are the one from Vancouver.

Zeb Jackson · Post by **Zeb Jackson** » 05 Dec 2009 20:28

portland imo

ShortyDuWop · Post by **ShortyDuWop** » 06 Dec 2009 14:42

Word!

flash · Post by **flash** » 07 Dec 2009 21:29

Portland could be great, but nobody is working toward that end, at least not for 2010.

Maybe we should consider the possiblity that there won't be a World Championships this year.

crazylegs32 · Post by **crazylegs32** » 07 Dec 2009 22:14

HUH? there will be a worlds. It may have to be half assed but there will be a worlds.

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 08 Dec 2009 00:27

It was my automatic reaction too, that a half assed worlds is better than no worlds. But even a half assed worlds is gonna take a lot of work, which will surely go unappreciated and even negatively remembered, and that will be bad for the sport and the people who are passionate about it.

The strongest argument I can come up with for an half assed worlds is for the sake of continuity and the benefits it has for the image of footbag as a sport.

I have no idea how these two considerations weigh against each other so I have no opinion other than, to me, half assed worlds is not an obvious call. Still, I personally wish somebody will pick up the glove, even if it's gonna be the most hacked up worlds ever.

LiamLindop · Post by **LiamLindop** » 15 Dec 2009 08:25

Does anyone know an estimate on what it costs to run the worlds? Thanks in advance.

mc · Post by mc » 15 Dec 2009 09:51

Max K did it in Berlin this year with sponsorship, a more than reasonable entry fee ($90 including parties and catering), and a ton of elbow grease. I don't believe he even accepted help from IFPA.

If you're thinking of putting in a bid for Oakville, put me on the team. I'll help however you need / want.

LiamLindop · Post by **LiamLindop** » 15 Dec 2009 11:37

I've not run foot bag events at a massive scale, but I currently run large events in other scenes so it is not out of my range of skills. What square footage do we need to play?

I'll talk to people like Tom Mosher, Jay Boychuck, Camille, Johnny Sudermon etc to see what help I could get.

And I'd imagine it would be in Toronto, not Oakville. Oakville is like 20-30 minutes west of Toronto (not including traffic) though so its not like its far away, and Oakville is super closer to Pearson International and the Go-Train Line.