How is your local attendance?

[mjbine]

Our attendance has dropped from about the average of 50-60 shooters to 20-25 shooters. We had our annual fun of July match last month and only had 40 shooters. Last year we had about 110 local shooters shoot the match but last year Summer Blast wasn't the same weekend. We are trying our best to attract more shooters both new and old. How has your attendance been? What are you trying to do about it if it lower than normal?

Thanks

Mike

[Al Capizzo]

Our match attendance is as good or better than its ever been. Yesterday was light but I believe that was weather related (forecast for 103 degrees).

However there has been a little news lately about job cuts, layoffs, etc. That can't be a good sign.

[glock34insa]

we had 21 shooters show up on saturday for the match at my local club

[Mick]

Our attendance has dropped from about the average of 50-60 shooters to 20-25 shooters. We had our annual fun of July match last month and only had 40 shooters. Last year we had about 110 local shooters shoot the match but last year Summer Blast wasn't the same weekend. We are trying our best to attract more shooters both new and old. How has your attendance been? What are you trying to do about it if it lower than normal?

Thanks

Mike

We have noticed a decline in the number of shooters willing to drive over 100 miles to matches including me. With $4 a gallon and high ammo prices not to mention match fees, it gets hard to spend $100 every weekend for matches unless they are close.

Look at the 3 gunners. It was hard to find .223 for much under 50 cents a round and then need 100 rounds for a match and ammo for the shotgun and pistol.

We had 30+ on Saturday but that was a match that was 30 miles or so

Edited August 4, 2008 by Mick

[joseywales]

I think that the price of gas is a big contributing attendance factor in the DFW area.

We've definitely seen a decrease in folks willing to make the 150-250mi round trip trek for a 5-6 stage USPSA pistol match.

We've seen a marked attendance increase in the local DFW steel matches (it's gone from 20-30 shooters, to 45-60 shooters - TWICE a month).

The steel club is a much shorter drive, is still shooting fun (though not USPSA fun), and you're done in a 1/2 day.

To your question - what are you trying to do about it?

There's a million reasons it seems that folks either choose to attend or not attend.

After a year as club president & match director, I found that you can only do what you can do - advertise/promote the time/place/cost, and make the stages as interesting and fun for your audience as you can within the limits of your range, props, and available help.

Folks will attend or not, largely depending upon their level of interest in the game, and their unique life circumstances (available funds, kids/no kids, other hobbies, etc.)

Edited August 4, 2008 by joseywales

[Coolduckboy]

I still believe that all matches in the Columbia Cascade Section don't have lower than 50 people at the matches.

[ChuckS]

The weekly match at Norco typically has 70+ shooters. Last Saturday there were about 103 signed up but some of those were re-shoots.

Later,

Chuck

[HoMiE]

I still believe that all matches in the Columbia Cascade Section don't have lower than 50 people at the matches.

Not over in Bend, we are getting less than a dozen shooters for our steel and USPSA matches, just a couple more for IDPA. Last year we had 20+ at usual match.

[Mick]

The weekly match at Norco typically has 70+ shooters. Last Saturday there were about 103 signed up but some of those were re-shoots.

Later,

Chuck

YES but that is California and we know how that can be!

Norco is famous for running and gunning!!!

[John2A]

At Sir Walter Gun Club in Creedmore there were 100+ shooters for 7 stages.

It was hot as hadees but some great stages.

The other local matches are running between 30 - 40 people.

We have started having better and better stages.

Some of the people are buying their own materials to build props ect.

[Nik Habicht]

Mike,

attendance could depend on a lot of factors --- in our busy months we get 55-60; in slow months around 30. Factors we've noticed:

Weather -- we shoot year round, people skip matches in the heat, the cold, or rain

Competition -- we notice a drop off against matches like the Summer Blast, World Class Steel Challenge, other big events on the same weekend --- sometimes even if they're 100s of miles away.

Factors at the club level -- things that in our experience can cause a drop off:

Cancelling matches --- probably the #1 reason. If you're scheduled and it's not a hurricane or blizzard, put on the match for whoever shows up. Have a good time doing it.

Be nice to people --- let them reshoot a bad classifier run -- they're supposed to be representative of the shooter's ability -- for submission, not match score. Help people out, don't beat them over the head with the rulebook, but apply the rules consistently and fairly.

Thank people for showing up, for helping, for playing with you.

Design a variety of freestyle stages. Avoid taking Level 1 exemptions or designing things that conflict with the principles of stage design as outlined in the rulebook. Try to offer stages that can be shot in multiple ways. Try to limit gimmicks to 1 stage in the match --- almost anything is fun once, but if every one of your stages has a non-shooting or non-freestyle gimmick, it stops being a fun match.

Try to squad people with their friends if at all possible. If that's not possible, try to break up a large group of friends into two smaller ones.

Deliver all the scores to the competitors --- whether you deliver a zip file of all the results that EZWinscore is capable of, or whether you insert the data into a Word document. It allows competitors to see how they did in their division, and how they did against their friends in other divisions. Yeah, it's a few extra mouse clicks --- mut it's not that much extra work.

Try to spread the work around and recruit new people to help --- it'll keep everyone from burning out, and ensure that the worker bees are having more fun too....

I learned most of this from Dave Marques, Jim Norman, Dave Olhasso, Bucky Pollard, Howard Krams, Vlad, Raz-0 and a host of others from Old Bridge when I became the Central Jersey match director five years ago --- a job I recently turned over to Vlad. When I started we were averaging around 27 shooters a match, now we're closer to the low fifties. It took a lot of time and effort from everyone involved in those monthly matches; I couldn't have done it without the help I received. If I had to do it all over again, I'd focus on recruiting more people earlier --- that would have made life a lot easier.

[Jim Norman]

I will second what Nik said above!

Probably the number one thing is to get people involved with the match way beyond just showing up to shoot. When better than 50% of your shooters are helping to build a match, you have people that have taken the match as theirs. When the shooters take ownership, they will come out. As long as they are going to some one else's match, they are open ot all sorts of things taking precedence. If YOU have a job to do, build a stage, design a stage, deliver a special prop, bring the water, whatever, YOU are much more likely to make sure YOU get there. The more of YOU there are the more people that will be at the match on match day shooting it.

And along that line of reasoning, THANK YOU to all the people that ran Old Bridge two weeks ago while some of us were off shooting in another state.

Jim

[HuskySig]

I know for the club I run that match attendance is up a little bit over last year. I think last year we averaged 52 shooters per match. This year we're averaging 59 shooters. Of the six matches I've put on so far this year only one had less than 60 shooters and that was due to horrible weather.

mattk

[vluc]

Attendance is down, no question about it. I've noticed that shooters who use to make every match (self included) now do not. They may make 2 matches a month. Those who used to shoot Saturday and Sunday, only shoot one or the other.

Our section has 8 clubs, 4 off them clustered around the Pittsburgh Area, the other clubs 70+ miles away (one-way!). I drove to one club on Saturday - 140 mile round trip and they had 14 shooters. Granted they are a new club only 4 months old, but attendance could have been better. Sunday I did not shoot, but usually would. Other things had to take precedence.

Weather, fuel, components, all play a part. I can provide no hard and fast answer as this is the first time I have really seen this happen. Mission count in the prior 5 years has risen and fallen at all clubs, to one degree or another, and some clubs have disappeared. Next year will tell us a whole lot more if we see that same pattern developing.

[Jim Norman]

We, USPSA, have to compete, not only with all of the other shooting sports, but with all of the other outside interests that our members may have.

I know of several people that used to travel every week to shoot a match, then their kids got older, they still travel every weekend, even further, but now it is to Soccer Matches or other things.

Recently I have skipped a few matches I would have normally shot. I am taking family time as my daughter gets a little older. When school starts back up, I will not be taking the same time away and will be back at those matches.

Also, and I suppose our local shooters are fortunate, one can shoot more different disciplines at two of our local clubs than there are days to shoot them. I can travel and shoot probably 5-6 USPSA matches in an month, but have to spend all day and every weekend. I have and will again. But, I can also split my time between two local clubs and shoot USPSA, Steel, High-Power Rifle, Trap, Silhouette, Cowboy, Bianci and IDPA. Truthfully, I can't actually shoot them all since there are more matches than days. Since they are close, I can opt to shoot these rather than make the 150 mile round trip for a USPSA match.

One thing that is critical. If we want our people to come out and shoot, we have to give them what they want. If they (the local shooters) want a 5-7 stage match with 170 rounds, they will soon stop coming out if all that is offered is 4 stages of stand and shoot.

If people buy in, and help, they will come. If they are not made to feel a part of the local match, they will likely not come.

Jim

[Flexmoney]

Probably the number one thing is to get people involved with the match way beyond just showing up to shoot. When better than 50% of your shooters are helping to build a match, you have people that have taken the match as theirs. When the shooters take ownership, they will come out.

+1

I've always said that involvement = commitment.

[mjbine]

We have a very good crew that help set up, ro and tear down. We are always looking for more help and we will not turn it down. I have noticed like Vince said that a lot of shooters are only shooting two matches a month instead of four. I believe that we put on some of the best matches in our section and we will continue to do our best. Hopefully the word will get out and more shooters will come and see what we are about.

Thanks for all the replies.

Mike

[vluc]

I can only second Mike's comments about the quality of the matches they put on at McDonald. They were the host club for the Western PA Sectional last year and drew 145+ shooters (a WPA record)!

They are the host club again this year, and we hope for a similar turnout - and will get it if we can get some more members of the Enosverse to come on out!

Call Mike now and reserve your spots. If you have friends in teh Western PA area, tell them to get signed up as well! October is not that far out!

WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA SECTIONAL INFORMATION

October 10, 11 & 12 2008

USPSA Level II Tournament

7 Stages — 180+ rounds

On-Line Squadding Available

Match Fee: $50

Application

Map

Match Hotel Information:

Days Inn Pittsburgh International Airport

2500 Market Place Blvd

Coraopolis, PA 15108 US

Phone: 412-859-4000

$49.00 for any room except King Bed rooms.

$59.00 for King Bed rooms.

When making the reservation, let them know you are here to shoot the Western Pennsylvania Sectional Match.

[joecichlid]

The club I shoot with runs matches every week. All winter and into the spring we avereaged 32 shooters but during the summer the number dips into the mid to high 20s.

Joe W.

[chemepharmd]

Our local club is relatively small (~12-15 on average), and a good day is 20. We have noticed that in the summer, the heat, vacations and other activities keep some people away. Fortunately, we have a good group, and everyone helps with every aspect of the match.

In order to promote the sport, we have a "Friends and Family Day" every year. This match is free to anyone who shows up, and we also provide food afterward (last year it was boiled shrimp, hamburgers, etc.). We try to have this match when the weather is nice (spring or fall), and family members can come and watch / talk while we shoot the match. We also have a club policy that the first time someone shoots in one of our matches, their match fee is waived.

These ideas may or may not work for other clubs, but we've found that they can help get new people to the range. As people left for various reasons (burnout, costs, moving out of town, etc.), we've at least been able to find others to replace them.

I also agree that there are many good comments in the posts above.

[Barrettone]

We're holding our own here at our club in Michigan. We used to get 50-60 shooters at our once-a-month match. Now we have to work twice as hard though, as we are doing two matches a month on seperate weekends and getting the same numbers with 25-30 attending each venue. Luckily, our multigun is going strong contributing 30-40 shooters a month as well. It is definitely not the hay days of the late 90's and early 2000's, but we'll take it. It does accelerate burnout though in your volunteer ranks if you don't get fresh blood involved. Fortunately, we have signed quite a few new members lately, and the fresh injection of people helps. The U, D, C, and B class shooter are the bread-and-butter of our sport and the local clubs, without them, we would only have about 25% of the attendance we currently enjoy.

Edited August 5, 2008 by Barrettone

[ebg3]

We had 90 shooters shoot on Saturday. I did notice there were fewer cars this month. People are carpooling to help with $3.75 gas.

I burned over $90 in diesel, plus ammo just for a "local" match. I must be crazy.

[Jeff686]

Here's one thing that will help general match enjoyment. NO TEAR-DOWN.

I think we pay an extra $3 per shooter, but don't have to help tear down the gear. I LOVE IT! It's great to finish up and hurry home to a family activity without guilt of skipping the tear-down.

[scirocco38s]

We have been fortunate that we have a strong club and attendance spiked up again last year and has held steady at85-90 shooters/match. People are carpooling but thats a good thing also.

Give the shooters a good value and they will come back every time. We shoot 7 stages and approximately 150 rounds. We charge 20 bucks for the match and you are expected to help tear down. The shed for the props is less than 100 feet from the stage so its not hard to do and there are plenty of things to help carry the heavy items.

Division as well as class winners get match bucks so the cost of the match is less when you place well. If you come out the day before and help setup you get a free shoot also.

Also someone mentioned apply the rules fairly and evenly but dont beat the shooters up with the rules is very accurate. If someone makes a mistake and enters the wrong division, just go ahead and fix it in the match. We charge for second guns on classifiers but not reshoots. But your first try is for match score. your best run goes to uspsa for classification.

We also have a junior program that serves food at the match now and that helps as people know that they can get something to eat at the match as well as plenty of cold beverages and gatorade.

But the biggest thing is to have a well run match with a good mix of stages that challenge the shooters but are doable by all that attend.

Another factor in the increase in attendance is also that some of the smaller clubs have closed down due to various reasons and so the shooters have fewer options for places to shoot

[Franklin D Wolverton]

Here in Milan we charge $10 for 5 stages. Round count usually around 100.

We have been averaging 50 shooters per month, plus about 10 of those guys usually reshoot.

We could have more, but there are 4 other clubs within a 2 hour drive of us and they all shoot on the same weekend usually. BOD won't let us move dates because the club is so dang busy.

Frank