What can we do to make USPSA grow?

[Bunchies95]

The latest census shows the the USA has ~375 million people. Polls have shown that ~25% of them are gun owners. According to this link that was dug up on another forum, there are ~23,000 members of USPSA. That is only 0.03% of the gun owning population! I highly doubt that the population who shoots competitively across the various disciplines even reaches close to 1% of gun owners. There is large potential for growth.

Sure we can continue to try and attract shooters from other disciplines, but that is a small piece of the pie. What about the shooters who have no knowledge of USPSA? I know I was one of them until a year ago when I was introduced to the sport by a co-worker. The people who have no knowledge of our sport are the ones who should be our target audience. That much is clear. So now how do we takle this monumentous task?

I feel there are things that can be done at every level within the organization from the individual members all the way up to the Board of Directors.

Grassroots Movement

This is where every member falls. Invite your friends, neighbors, co-workers out to a match. If they don't have a gun, let them borrow your spare. Many will probably try it once and decide it may not be for them, but if each of us can just get one person hooked, our numbers double.

Club Level

Here we have the ability to be more organized in our marketing approach. My club has a member who goes to the pistol line once a week and invites someone to the action bays. It is usually somone who looks bored with standing and shooting. Have them shoot some steel or leave a small stage set-up. He has a very good rate (~50%) of getting them to attend at least one match.

Every club has people who shoot the match who are unaffiliated with USPSA. This is just a very small piece of the pie, but anything is better than nothing. Usually they have no interest in attending bigger matches. There needs to be some sort of incentive for them to join USPSA. What that is, I do not know yet. I do not think that having match fees differ for USPSA members and non USPSA member is the answer though. I do think it needs to be more than the magazine and having your classifiers tracked.

CHL numbers are on the rise, at least here in Texas. My range is teaching CHL classes every weekend. We are thinking about setting up a short stage, with no movement, table start, etc. for them to shoot after their quals if they want to. They alrady show that they want to carry a gun, so USPSA is a good step to getting proficient with their weapon of choice.

Gun shows. Every town has gun shows. I think this is where we can get maximum exposure. If the local clubs get a booth every once in a while, play some videos, hand out some promo material, basically just talk to people in general, I think the match attendance will steadily rise. Granted this may be outside of most clubs budget, so this where the upper USPSA management needs to come in.

Board of Directors

The BOD should come up with promotional materials for and send them to clubs to hand out. Flyiers, videos, etc. These need to be of very high quality and appear very professional. I think there may be a small budget available for this, but I am not sure.

USPSA could also take out advertisments in NRA magazines or whatever gun friendly media we can find. The goal is to get as much exposure as possible. Facebook would be another avenue for advertisments, but I do not know what their rules are.

I believe that most of the benefits will be seen from the club level, but the upper management needs to be there to help as much as possible.

If we can get our numbers to double or even triple, infrastructure will become a problem. I do not think that the "if you build it, they will come" approach is the best answer though. We need to create the obvious demand for more action pistol ranges before it will start to make business sense.

I think this is the right time for this discussion, especially with the Executive Director position opening up and having a new president recently.

Thought? Ideas? Am I way off base?

[Nik Habicht]

As far as getting folks to become USPSA members, the Mid-Atlantic Section has a policy in place to allow new competitors to join at a Level 1 match and shoot that match for free. The MAS also charges $5 more for non-USPSA members to shoot matches -- an incentive for those who shoot more than 8 matches per year to maintain their membership....

[NMBOpen]

A local New Mexico CCW instructor takes a break from the classroom portion of his class to bring the students over to observe a stage or two at our Level 1 match, explaining what goes on and interacting with competitors. Don't know if any students have become participants, but it has raised awareness of USPSA.

[Sarge]

I personally don't want EVERY gun owner on a stage with me. I mean, really, have you seen some of these guys walking around at gun shows??

I think the sport is doing just fine. Those that want to find it, will find it. I did.

[konkapot]

Bunchies95 you are not at all off base, but many of these ideas have been tried. Repeatedly.

It takes a certain personality of person to want to compete in a particular discipline; I lift weights, but don't want to compete as a bodybuilding/powerlifter.

I work in a gun environment; to date of the 12 people I've gotten to come out to a match only 1 came out twice. He got DQ'ed the second time and hasn't been back.

The CHL community (in my opinion) has been a bit of a dissapointment in terms of interest in USPSA/IDPA; heck many of them don't carry regularly. Many (most?) of those folks are still under the impression that you have to have a "fancy gun" to shoot USPSA.

I've spent a fair amount of time working gun shows.......and handing out lots and lots of those flyers USPSA sent me. Not a single taker.

I shot at a range in the Seattle area that "back in the day" held many many USPSA matches; shot there for 6 years and never once had anyone bring up USPSA. Shot at one in Arizona that was (I later learned) was managed by a USPSA shooter; shot there for 3+ years, and never had anybody bring up USPSA.

Your intent is marvelous, but there is a lot more to getting more shooters than gun shows and flyers.

Hopefully whoever they pick as Executive Director is a marketing genius.

FY42385

Edited July 26, 2012 by konkapot

[ima45dv8]

If we can get our numbers to double or even triple,....

Good Lord, I hope not.

Hopefully whoever they pick as Executive Director is a marketing genius.

Good Lord, I hope not.

[CZinSC]

My question to the OP is why? Explain to me why USPSA should grow? I'm actually asking, because you are not the first person I have seen propose this, but you are the one I have responded to. Why do you think USPSA should grow?

Are your local matches not taking long enough? You want more members to show up and turn a three hour match into a six hour match? And like Sarge said, have you gone to a local gun show?? I'm not so sure I want half those people owning guns, much less coming to a match and waving a loaded firearm around me!

FWIW, I have personally invited at least 5 people to our local club match that are gun owners, but not USPSA members. Not one has taken me up on the offer.

Sorry if the second part sounds snarky. I apologize. But the first part still stands. Why does USPSA need to grow? I'm curious. Your answer may be the smack to the head I need to say "He's Right! USPSA does need to grow!"

[HuntingPaper]

I think if USPSA grows it would generate better and more matches, not without growing pains for sure. I've seen how our local matches have grown in number of shooters and became longer to the point that MD had to impose capacity limits on them but I believe that if it keeps growing it can allow to do more matches and with more shooters it also will come more stage designers and builders. I try to bring people to the sport and I hope there's more like me and the OP

[Sarge]

I think if USPSA grows it would generate better and more matches, not without growing pains for sure. I've seen how our local matches have grown in number of shooters and became longer to the point that MD had to impose capacity limits on them but I believe that if it keeps growing it can allow to do more matches and with more shooters it also will come more stage designers and builders. I try to bring people to the sport and I hope there's more like me and the OP

Where are you going to hold these matches? Every club around here has one every month. To hold more matches means more facilities, more land, more everything. Our match this month had almost 80 shooters. Plenty if you ask me.

Granted, there may be places in the country that don't have much going on matchwise but you and I sound like we don't have that problem?

In a given area you can really only have one match per weekend or they start competing against each other and one will most likely grow weak and die. Maybe in some of the shooting mecca's you can run two each weekend day because of the shooting population but those places are the vast minority.

Golf used to be fun too until a certain golfer made it all the rage for every guy in America to go to walmart and buy a set of clubs and a dozen XOUTS and hit the course in his cutoffs and wife beater teeshirt. And overnight 5 and 6 hour rounds became the norm.

NO THANKS!

[dogtired]

Growth of all the shooting sports should be encouraged, especially with ladies and kids. Why? Because in reality they are dying! Trap is mostly dead, Bullseye dying, probably PPC, bowling pins etc. Action sports are the growth area because they are fun. But how many shooters are moving to CAS or IDPA and away from USPSA because they want a new form of fun? The shooting sports are expensive also. How many new shooters can afford to jump in and include the wife and kids too?

My personal suggestion is to encourage shooters to shoot Steel Challenge with a rimfire. You can involve the whole family, does not break the bank and it is a hoot! Grow your local Steel Challenge program and your club will benefit. Then those who want more fun, drag them over to a USPSA shoot.

[Flexmoney]

Great points about Steel Challenge!

[bgary]

Board of Directors

The BOD should come up with promotional materials for and send them to clubs to hand out. Flyiers, videos, etc. These need to be of very high quality and appear very professional. I think there may be a small budget available for this, but I am not sure.

These kinds of materials are already available. A call to the USPSA office will get [anyone] a bunch of brochures, membership applications, Front-Sight annual issues, etc. There are club program manuals. There are point-of-sale materials which a retailer can put on the counter and can benefit both themselves and USPSA by signing up members. Etc. Perhaps what USPSA *really* needs to do is make sure that members and clubs know what materials and resources are already available and how to take advantage of them...

[Jim Norman]

One other problem with growth is that most clubs are not USPSA clubs but rather gun clubs and the facilities are used by many disciplines. AN example is Old Bridge. We have Steel Challenge, 'Real Steel', Knock-down steel, IDPA, Rimfire Action, High-power, Shotgun (2x), Muzzle loader and we need some open time. There is simply no range time to run another match.

Also we have within 2 hours of our club 9 total USPSA matches. That is already more than one per weekend. Run it out a little further and you get two per weekend day already. And none of these venues has open time for another match.

[remoandiris]

My question to the OP is why? Explain to me why USPSA should grow?

What business/sport/entity/activity remained stagnant and survived?

[Glockman1000]

All valid posts! I would love to see practical shooting grow in general. I've invited people out but they don't really show any interest, in my observations there are always misconceptions that people come to their own conclusions about practical shooting. It's the attitude! For instance, and I'm pretty sure we've all seen it. These are my personal observations.

The "Know it All" the person who seems to be a gun encyclopedia, & thinks owning a gun & knowledge makes him an automatic expert in everything gun related & doesn't need to display his expertise.

The "Tactician" No gun game will help them improve their proficiency & toss it off as time better spent honing their tactical training.

The "PC crowd" who think anyone who owns or speaks of guns or shooting is a neanderthal that needs to be lobotomized. "OMG! You run around with a gun?"

There are other types, but this is just the ones that irk me.

We've had people come out to shoot once & never return, I think these are the ones who are intimidated by what they see or feel it's just not for them. Each to his own.

Maybe it's cost prohibitive? Start up could run up the credit cards up pretty high.

We shooters recognize it as a sport, not the general populace. Remember Kimberly Rhode? What an injustice that a multi-gold US olympian gets noted in the books but not the general media. Shooting sports just don't get the coverage they should. Which is my opinion on why growth isn't what it could be.

I like the people in my club, all level headed & good people in general sharing a common interest from all occupations & walks of life. Practical shooters are a breed apart & it shows a certain character. We are few & far between, maybe not in your club area but I like being part of the 0.03%

Hey Sarge! Golf? What's a good golf course in Ohio? I'd play a round there & probably think to myself after, Hmmmm......5 field courses here, 3 speed shoots here, ahhh....the rifle range!!!...

[Nik Habicht]

One other problem with growth is that most clubs are not USPSA clubs but rather gun clubs and the facilities are used by many disciplines. AN example is Old Bridge. We have Steel Challenge, 'Real Steel', Knock-down steel, IDPA, Rimfire Action, High-power, Shotgun (2x), Muzzle loader and we need some open time. There is simply no range time to run another match.

Also we have within 2 hours of our club 9 total USPSA matches. That is already more than one per weekend. Run it out a little further and you get two per weekend day already. And none of these venues has open time for another match.

I don't think we're talking about expanding existing matches beyond their capacity, or asking existing clubs to hold a second monthly match. Now, if we could get more clubs onboard, and allow you to shoot somewhere within one hour every weekend day, and if match staff/range officers/shooters materialized to actually fill these new venues, then we'd grow the sport....

[Bunchies95]

There are way too many posts that need a direct reply to; so rather than work on individual quotes with incoherent statments, I will do my best to respond as a whole.

Why Should We Grow

I grew up racing karts, an expensive hobby on its own. There were various disciplines as there are in shooting. Each one would become popular for a while, but they all inevitably reached a status quo where it was mostly the old guard coming to the races. You would get new people to stick around for a few years, then quit.

I see the same issue with shooting. We need to market ourselves just to keep up with the natural atrition rate. It would be interesting to see the membership over the years, I would bet that it has not deviated much from 20k for the past 5-10 years. This is not growth, or even stagnation. As a whole it is a loss in terms of market share.

In San Antonio, we have 3 matches a month that are attended by 50-70 shooters. They are mostly THE SAME SHOOTERS attending these matches. Out of a city of 1.2 million, only 50 go to matches on a regular basis? Kinda crazy. We have planty of room to grow without adding matches.

But I still haven't answered the question on WHY we should grow. Yes we need to be able to keep up with the natural atrition rate. By growing, we will be better able to endure periods where people stop coming to matches. Another reason is, and I am sorry this is somewhat political, that by having more shooters in the national orgnization, it makes it easier to defend our second amendment rights. But what is really going to pose a threat to the longevity of this sport is insurance. Now I am not on the financial side of running matches, but I would expect that it is getting more expensive and harder to find a company to insure our matches. This means we either need to raise prices, or have more shooters.

Why we shouldn't grow

Those of you who are saying that we shouldn't grow, I am going to guess that you have been in the sport for quite some time. You have found a rythm and you like it. That is fine. But I respectably disagree that there is no need for growth. There are challenges that make growth very hard indeed. The clubs that have had to limit the number of shooters that attend are in very good shape. Just becasue we have reached our current capacity doesn't mean that you should say "Ok we have reached our potential". You obviously have more demand than you can currently handle. Figure out a way to increase supply then. More ranges and more matches can present a problem, but the latter is not impossible. I'm just spitballing with this idea, but what about a "tee time"? Have the start times staged a bit instead of doing a shotgun start.

General Gun Owning Population

I agree that competitive shooting is not for everyone. But 0.03% of the gun owning population? That number has got to be much higher than that. I think I would be very conservative in guessing that it is more likely 5%. Sure you will get the majority who come out and try it, decide it is not for them. Fine, we gave it a shot.

I have gone to the gun shows and watched people on the public shooting ranges. Some people do SCARE THE HECK out of me! But don't you think that the gun community as a whole would be better off if we educated on safe gun handling rather than completely excluded them?

The "Tactical Timmys". Now this is a fun bunch. They talk a bunch of talk, bash USPSA, but many have never been to a match. Those who have, got their butts handed to them and realized that their crap does indeed stink. All their keyboard knowledge means nothing when it actually comes time to perform. I have made it my personal mission to try and convert as many Tactical Timmys as I can. It is a long and rough road, but I try to endure.

CHL Crowd

CHL numbers are on the rise. If the pre-concived notion is that they need space age guns in order to compete, shouldn't we try to change that notion? Almost everyone can compete with their carry gear, some just may need to buy a few more mags. I am not in favour of changing the divisions or creating a new one which makes CHL gear more competitive. But we need to convince them that the more they shoot their rigs in differing enviorments, the more proficient they will become should they ever actually need to use it in a defensive situation.

Edited July 26, 2012 by Bunchies95

[Flexmoney]

It would be interesting to see the membership over the years, I would bet that it has not deviated much from 20k for the past 5-10 years. This is not growth, or even stagnation. As a whole it is a loss in terms of market share.

That is a false assumption. And, it is one which you are using to define your premise. I don't have the numbers handy, but did a few weeks ago and I ran a quick and dirty progression. The growth curve has not been flat, at all. It would be prudent to assume 5% annual growth.

That said... I, for one, appreciate the exchange of ideas. Thanks for kick starting the topic!

Edited July 26, 2012 by Flexmoney
ETA, some idea of growth.

[Bunchies95]

It would be interesting to see the membership over the years, I would bet that it has not deviated much from 20k for the past 5-10 years. This is not growth, or even stagnation. As a whole it is a loss in terms of market share.

That is a false assumption. And, it is one which you are using to define your premise.

That said... I, for one, appreciate the exchange of ideas. Thanks for kick starting the topic!

Ok, so we are growing. Deep down, I think I should have been able to guess that. But at what rate, and is it enough? Luckily this is one of those topics where one bad assumption does not invalidate the entire discussion.

[Poppa Bear]

Some of you East coast and West coast people can send your shooters to the Midwest. I saw a thread not long ago about the numbers in each area. We have the room to expand, we just do not have the people. Of course living in a state whose total population is smaller than most major cites does have a bit of an impact on total shooters at a match.

I would love to have 3 or 4 matches within an hours drive of me, instead it is a 4 hour drive to other venues.

[retarmyaviator]

What are the other incentives to join USPSA other than participation at the higher level matches and a quarterly magazine? I belong to USPSA but of late have found myself asking why. My local club shoots three matches per month and is 15 minutes from my house. Am I interested in participating at higher level matches? Not all that much, I enjoy shooting with friends at the local matches and it is more about that than the competition aspect of USPSA. Can I do that without USPSA? Yes, so what is USPSA to do to increase the interest of shooters like myself to join?

Please don't get me wrong, I joined USPSA months before I ever participated in a match and I feel an obligation to belong since USPSA provides support for the game. Shooting in these matches is a hobby for me, not a life style which puts me in the position of being able to enjoy this with or without USPSA.

The first question to answer is does USPSA want to grow or is it happy with the current state of things?

Second, what do they offer the shooter that only participates in local matches?

And third, what are they doing to keep the members they already have?

[outerlimits]

Growth = dues and mission count...Nuff said.

[Flexmoney]

Where are you going to hold these matches? Every club around here has one every month. To hold more matches means more facilities, more land, more everything. Our match this month had almost 80 shooters. Plenty if you ask me.

In my mind, THAT is the real question.

It is the human resources too. USPSA matches are intense on all the resources. And, matches have got pretty good (in the decade or so I have been around)...thus they carry high expectations.

Sarge recently took over as MD for one of the Ohio clubs. He sent me a message, asking for the play book. And, while there are some resources, there just isn't an absolutely fantastic answer to getting clubs and MD's onboard and heading in the right direction. I think we can do better on our internal marketing and collaboration.

I'd really welcome thoughts and ideas on getting more clubs and helping guide those that will be putting the matches on the ground.

[BillD]

I shoot USPSA at 5 different ranges. Almost all of them are having their best year ever. 80 shooters, 65 shooters, etc. Most of these clubs have 4-6 bays available. You can start pushing 15-18 shooters per squad, which means a match I used to shoot in 3 hours will now take 6 hours and I don't get any more shooting.

Without significant dirt work (expensive dirt work) these ranges won't have bays available for more shooters. Very few facilities I have seen have the bays or personnel for a 100 person club match. The same MD's and RO's, setup crew, etc will be working on this.

The same scores guy/gal will now be doing twice the work. This is a volunteer sport, people get burned out. No shotgun starts? Then the staff gets to stay there until after dark to finish tearing down stages?

Poppa Bear, this is in Indiana, as Midwest as it gets.

[Flexmoney]

What are the other incentives to join USPSA ...

I have a great answer for that. I think I even have it on a bumper sticker on my home laptop (can't find it at the USPSA store or I'd post a pic). It says something like...

I support the sport. USPSA.

If you like shooting USPSA (and Steel Challenge, and Multi-gun)...make sure to support the organization. Be sure to get in the mix and help out at matches. After all, other than the home office, Prez and DNROI...we are all volunteers. The matches and the organization don't happen unless we make it happen.