Frank's tournament musing

[Giraffe]

We're all biased in that we are more likely to go to local tourneys. But I'm hoping the majority of bloodbowlers would accept a few compromises to ensure this event was available to.those on even a fairly limited budget. And I hope.not just so that there are more coaches.attending who.have less experience of tourneys

To make a tourney like this BIG and successful, you need to offset the AVERAGE distance that we ALL would have to travel by making it packed with extras, such as free transport, food and cheap beer, different rules for each round like the Lutece guys do so well, planning things well in the evening so people are included and have lots of options.

[Wulfyn]

If you want it big then you have to attract international coaches coming. North London would be the 'central' point.

UK
Rail to King's Cross : Edinburgh 4hrs ; York / Manchester 2.5hrs ; Southampton 2hrs ; Birmingham / Bristol / Dover 1.5 hrs
Coach to London : There are various cheap options with local networks (Berry's gets you from Somerset to Hammersmith for £18 return and takes about 3.5 hrs)
Car to London : For car travellers there are some good park and ride options (such as to North Ealing where parking is about £8 per day and is a 40 min tube trip to King's Cross)

International
Air : Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stanstead, and London City Airports are all 1.5 hours away from King's Cross
Rail : Eurostar takes you right to St.Pancras (which is the same station)
Car : Ferry to Dover is then 1.5 hours by rail, or park and ride from south east London


For a venue there are a lot of hotels with conference facilities about 15 mins out of the city that can be quite cheap. If booking off season there are some decent (2* / 3*) hotels that can cost as little as £30 per person per night (based on a booking.com search for 15 rooms for 30 adults, and you should be able to beat this with a block booking). Most conference facilities are booked during the week when people are working, so you should be able to get a good deal at a weekend as well. For example there are some good options in and around Wembley. If you do it right offering a hotel 150 guests + conference hire for 2 nights on a weekend in the off season will make their eyes roll over with $ signs.

The downside is that to make it really work you'd need to guarantee 100+ people, and that might be tough for the first one, but if you advertise well it should be feasible, and international travellers would also be able to combine it with a UK holiday if they wanted to. Also November is Eurobowl / World Cup and people might not want something big a month before that either so Oct/Nov is out. Dec is never going to work. We already have the excellent UKTC in Jan, and we have Letuce and Dungeonbowl in March. So that doesn't leave much of the off season to fit it in, but some regional tournaments might be interested in moving to come to this instead maybe? Also beer might not be super cheap (although much better than central London).

[Giraffe]

You sound like you know what you are doing booking venues - do you have experience in this role? And would you be willing to consider joining a team of dedicated people to organise something on an all-inclusive basis like this?

If enough international coaches applied, it would make sense locating the venue more southerly, but I think for the first year it would be mainly uk attendees, so as I believe most are midlands/ north located, the venue would probably be more central.

Saying that, its all down to average journey times for ALL coaches, hence why the survey is so important to get right. Accurately predict how many from where, and you ate more likely to achieve the best overall location. Plus hopefully with enough supporting helpers, we could staff the venue ourselves, hence removing a large chunk of the cost. However, if there are not enough willing to help, or with the right skills, or if a conference centre turns out to be the most cost effective option, then its possible we could go that route.

Is there a map of the UK showing the population density of bloodbowlers anywhere?

[sann0638]

Is there a map of the UK showing the population density of bloodbowlers anywhere?

Nope, not afaik.

[Giraffe]

(sann adds to his NAF "TO DO" list)?

Ideally with an option to PM all NAF coaches within x miles of your event?

[sann0638]

That would be amazing. But not in my remit/ability to implement.

[Wulfyn]

You sound like you know what you are doing booking venues - do you have experience in this role? And would you be willing to consider joining a team of dedicated people to organise something on an all-inclusive basis like this?

If enough international coaches applied, it would make sense locating the venue more southerly, but I think for the first year it would be mainly uk attendees, so as I believe most are midlands/ north located, the venue would probably be more central.

A bit, and definitely happy to help out. I do agree that the first year is the hardest (there is nothing as strong in negotiations as being able to point to a track record!), so elsewhere in the UK could be both more convenient and cheaper I agree.