It's a pretty steep learning curve this time, but we are figuring things out. People on Facebook say he looks like an athlete for the future, with good footbag legs...
I would love to see a Worlds in New York some day, maybe one day when I could go. I think the first step is it would need a strong organising committee. So that would mean more than one person...
I responded to Ted's post in the Events section, under the title of "this sport is becoming a joke". Of course this was probably a waste of internet breath, however there were some key thoughts I wanted to get down and hopefully they came through in that.
Here is one mention of footbag in the NYT, from 1984 -http://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/12/us/fl ... ampus.html - the year I was born..."Floppy Little Footbag is Big Game on Campus". There is also a mention of "Footbag Basics Workout" (1987), but no information there. And here is an article about Rod Laver that Ken posted on this very forum five years ago. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/sport ... ports&_r=0Ted - the big question is who are you fighting? Who is fighting with you. Nothing can be done with a one-man army. Of course footbag leaves a lot to be desired in terms of professionalism, however the IFPA (despite not being recognised by the IOC as an international body, which greatly affects chances of funding at the national level (from sports ministries, but not from other orgs such as culture, youth, health, etc) is one of the key indicators of professionalism.
Something interesting is in that a lot of sports, Worlds doesn't happen every year. The non profit status part doesn't make any sense either. Being registered as a 501(c)3 in the US opens any organisation up to a huge range of possibilities, which are not being exploited, for a variety of reasons, but mainly in the lack of coordinated organisation in the US (huge distances, small amount of people), but keeping that maintained gives more potential to the travelling teams you mentioned.
The fundraising concepts are quite simple. A professionally run event will attract sponsors, or even better these links will already be in existence. In regards to the thread title, I don't think the sport is becoming a joke. A lot of the things you mentioned will be up and running in the coming months.
While we're talking of stepping up, how much of your own money are you planning to put into these kind of projects? I also disagree that the sport's eggs are in one basket. Worlds should be the premiere event, but I don't think it really was last year. There are events all over the world, people are going on TV practically every week somewhere.
Of course, the venue for Worlds should be known by now, for the simple fact that almost everybody is an amateur, and needs to take time off work, and get the flights while they're cheaper. However, there's still about 6 months to go, and if anyone is planning on going, they should have a good chunk of money saved up to prepare for all that (or a good credit card limit).
There are many of us working on interesting footbag projects with great potential. If they don't work out - no need to blame the whole world and put them offside for the next project.
Last question - would Worlds have been in the New York Times if it was in New York this year? I have my doubts.
Speaking of tennis, Chile has been sucking badly in the Davis Cup. They were up against Barbados, who had one player ranked about 450 (Chile's were between 289 and about 400), the next guy from Barbados had a doubles ranking of >1000, and the next two guys were unranked. The same ranking as you and me! Chile won the first game, but it all fell apart from there and not only did they let Barbados in with a chance, they lost the series. It was 3-2 in the end, but they had already lost it after the fourth match. And this is in the "Americas Zone Group II". Chile dropped to this after they lost to Dominican Republic (who were also all ranked lower than the Chilean players). They had to stay in that playoff because they lost to Ecuador, the rankings were pretty similar there. Barbados, on the other hand, won the playoff to stay in Group II against Puerto Rico. So now Chile will play Paraguay here in April, in order to stay in the group.
There's something people say a lot about Chilean sports, particularly non footballing ones - "Estamos en la B". Which is like saying "we're in reserve grade". It will be much worse than that if they drop down to the Group III - which is the very bottom of the pile. Speaking of sports, a few of us went to the hockey last week. Chile vs Argentina. It was a four nations tournament, pretty good quality teams, some goals and a reasonable crowd, as well as free entry.
One thing more to say on potential funding for footbag. This rapid explosion of "good deeds for small sports" from the "Dogecoin Foundation". Not only the Jamaican Bobsled Team, but now some Indian competitors, who have to compete under the Olympic flag because their Olympic Committee is banned by the IOC. If you think our sport is a joke...
