Florida Open

[dmshozer1]

What has happened to the Florida  Open match,

Match attendance was way down last year and looks like according to Practiscore it

is going to be way down this year.

115 shooters last year compared to 250 or so the previous two years.

[dmshozer1]

17 hours ago, dmshozer1 said:

What has happened to the Florida  Open match,

Match attendance was way down last year and looks like according to Practiscore it

is going to be way down this year.

115 shooters last year compared to 250 or so the previous two years.

I guess the reason is bad if nobody has the answer.

[waktasz]

The most expensive Level 1 (or even 2) match in the country, and Shannon Smith is no longer the MD. The shooters caught on to their scam last year and this year although they reduced the price a ton has not bought back a lot of good will.

 

I don't think they run local matches there anymore either so there is no local group of dudes to show up and pad the numbers either. 

[Boomstick303]

7 minutes ago, waktasz said:

The shooters caught on to their scam last year and this year

 

What is the scam?

[waktasz]

Being the most expensive match and not receiving value in return for the fee. 

[Boomstick303]

Ah, thanks.

[dmshozer1]

Thanks WAKTASZ,

What was the entry fee?

[waktasz]

Looks like this year it's a level 1 with 10 stages for $150.

In 2021 when I shot it it was $275. Not sure if it was a Level 2 then or not. 

[dmshozer1]

25 minutes ago, waktasz said:

Looks like this year it's a level 1 with 10 stages for $150.

In 2021 when I shot it it was $275. Not sure if it was a Level 2 then or not. 

Got it,

Thanks

[Haywizzle]

My GF and I shot it last year for the first time while on vacation. We were debating the Open vs the Florida State and we chose wrong. It was pricey but we had heard good things. Unfortunately, as Waktasz said, that was during the Shannon Smith era and was no longer the case. It was advertised as a level two match but they bumped it to a level one. Excerpts from my GF's FB post:

 

$220 for a “major match” at Universal Shooting Academy that was supposed to be split squads Saturday AM/Sunday PM or Saturday PM/Sunday AM.

A week before the match, squads were consolidated into Saturday/Sunday (with no times listed) and no notice given. 48 hours before the match, everyone was switched again to Saturday only with a “start time” of 7:30 and a statement that there would be no match book. My emails regarding whether 7:30 was registration or first shots went completely unanswered. Thank heavens we knew some staff to ask or we would have been completely in the dark. 

12:53 pm on Friday, another email was received stating “Registration is today from 13h00 to 17h00”…nothing like 7 min notice about registration. I reply almost immediately that we won’t be making it to registration since we are hours away. The only reply is “yes” to a question I never asked. 

We arrived at 6:45 am to find that registration is meaningless. There is no swag bag, no tshirt, nothing.

Starting at 7:45 and going through 11:45, we shot 9 of the 10 stages. None of which had movers or swingers or anything remotely technical.

As we began to prep for our 10th and final stage, they called a hard stop for ONE HOUR for lunch. They didn’t serve lunch to shooters…only staff. That last stage, including the hard stop for no lunch, was 1 hour 45 min.

[gmantwo]

I worked the match once when Smitty ran it. We were on our stages from 6:30-6:30, no break for lunch, no paid meals. They paid high schoolers more to help paste targets than the RO’s were paid. And no room provided. Then the military shooters took all the guns home. As I said, I worked it once