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Forums Home / Tournaments and Challenges / Open Letter to the USAA Board - World Championship ( View Older Thread | View Newer Thread)

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TWeissman - 02 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 210

Dear Mr. President and Board members,

I noticed on the front page of AirHockeyWorld.com today that there are advertisements for TWO World Air Hockey Championships in 2012, being held 2 months apart. In my opinion, this makes our fledging sport look ridiculous and unprofessional. I implore you to take action on this and clarify to the WORLD what is going on.

For years, I have spoken out against our World Championships being held in Las Vegas, where there is no player base, and where the main sponsor has continued to be allowed to give us a pitance in return for the ability to promote themselves to the Coin-Op industry as some sort of savior for the sport. Once again, I see another event in Las Vegas being advertised late in the game, too late for many average folks with families to make plans to attend. Beyond this issue is the fact that turnouts in Vegas for the "Worlds" have been very low, and not very representative of the breadth of talent which exists in the sport.

Last year I believe a similar situation arose, and the promoters from Houston took a step back and decided to relinquish the World Championship title. Yet, their event was far more of a World level event, with a much greater participation from Adults (both men AND women), as well as Juniors; I believe double in size over the Vegas event.

This year, I suggest the following potential rememdies: 1. Call the Vegas event any of the following: World Championship Warm-Up, World Championship Seeding Event, International Open, U.S. Open or National Open. 2. Allow the Vegas event to call itself whatever it wants, but do not sanction it for rankings and do not allow it to affect seedings at the World Championships being held 2 months after.

Please let the community know as soon as possible what the USAA Board's stance is on this matter, so interested parties can make plans as necessary.

Thank you for your professionalism.

Sincerely,

Tim Weissman

TheAirHockeyGuy - 02 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 472

I agree that we should not have two tournaments labeled as World Championships. Unfortunately, because there is currently no sanctioning process I think there is little that can be done to force either event to change its name. This is exactly why a formal process for sanctioning needs to be implemented ASAP. At this point, the promoters have control over what they call their event when it should be determined by the USAA. As a group, we should decide how many major events we want to allow in a year and ask promoters to apply to host one of the events. For example, we could decide that we have one World Championship and one US Open a year. Promoters would then submit a sanctioning application to the board for the event they would like to host. It would then be determined by the board which promoter gets which event. In regards to de-sanctioning the Vegas tournament, I find it hard to believe that this would ever happen without developing the before mentioned sanctioning guidelines. I don't see how it is fair to tell any promoter after they have already organized their event that we are implementing new guidelines as of right now and sorry, but your tournament doesn't meet them. I fully support tighter sanctioning guidelines but I feel it is something that will not be allowed to take effect until the tournaments for 2013.

This is my opinion and it in no way reflects the opinion of the rest of the board members.

Chris Lee
Co-Founder, CEO
Air Hockey Players Association (AHPA)

goran - 02 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 428

Chris, I believe your opinion represents the opinion of most of the board members myself included. Something should be established so this doesn't happen again. Its great that there's going to be 2 great tournaments this year, but they both have the same name and are 2 months apart. Our 2 nationals should be 6 months apart and have different names. It would be nice if the promoters could work together to promote airhockey, since we know that's why they do what they do. Its not like their doing it for the money.

ajflanagan - 02 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 509

goran said:

You're right... we don't do it for the money. In fact, we invest a great deal of our own capital to make these things happen. But make no mistake, we are running a business. It's our job to look at all the variables in running a successful tournament. Trust me, we have looked at all those variables. Last year, I was too busy with my own business to be involved in the UNAP promotion. So, I cannot speak for the decisions that were made last year in the naming process. Prior to that, I was deeply involved. I will tell you that when the World Championships were being held every consecutive year in March, we did not consider using the "world championship" name to promote our Summer events. When that particular tournament ceased to exist and the MLAH Vegas events were left mostly up in the air... well, we have a DUTY to provide a World Championships to the players. So that's what we are doing. Our sport cannot survive on maybes.

Honestly, we didn't just wake up Tuesday and decide to have a World Championships in Houston. We certainly didn't aim to start a "pissing contest" as Q put it. This has been in the works for some time now. The UNAP team decided weeks ago to make March 1 our final deadline for announcement. Up until the day we posted the "teaser banner", the Air Hockey community had no idea if or when a Vegas event was going to occur. There was no communication with other promotional teams. We made no arrangement, decisions or sponsorship inquiries based on the possibility of a Vegas event... because at that point, there wasn't one.

I 100% agree that the USAA needs to adopt official tournament sanctioning guidelines and procedures. Let's focus on that and let the promoters do their thing.

Thanks!

Andrew

fupersly - 02 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 231

Andrew - the pissing contest here isn't really about who announced what first or what each event should be called. This kind of thing always ends up revolving around people touting the merits of each event and trying to woo players (directly or indirectly) who need to travel to choose one event over the other (and, in the process, potentially cannibalize player numbers from the other event).

I'm not sure why everyone is always so hung up on the issue of "short notice" when we all know it works this way with the Dynamo-sponsored events, but even with 6 months notice, there's no way to guarantee that everyone you want to draw in will be able to go. I'm sure it increases those odds, but I'm also sure that if anyone really wants to go to Vegas with 2 months notice, they can make it work.

It would be great if everyone could just be happy about the fact that Air Hockey is strong enough right now to support two events that will draw 50+ players and not worry themselves about which event is going to be worth sanctioning or playing in. The players will vote with their mallets (and wallets), and I'm sure both events will be successful in accomplishing their ultimate goal of providing the best possible experience to those who do choose to attend.

Mike C - 03 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 459

It is great that there will be more than one major tournament this year and many of the seeding issues addressed with the approved rating system. I hope everyone that attends Vegas or Houston has a good time. I'm happy to know that my seed in Houston won't be effected if I don't Attend Vegas. My rating will speak for itself and my effort.

TheAirHockeyGuy - 03 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 472

Mike C said:

Well that's not entirely true. The people that attend Vegas will have the opportunity to collect more points so many people could improve their rating causing you to fall below some people.

Chris Lee
Co-Founder, CEO
Air Hockey Players Association (AHPA)

brain - 03 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 578

UNAP has been circulating information locally that we would host a World Championships as of early December when we held a local promotion that raised significant funds much of which we are choosing to invest in hosting this event.

In the spirit of providing accurate information, our 3 consecutive annual events held around the same time (late July / early August) have been 100+ competitors in Open Singles and, in our first event we had 200+ total participants in all of the events.

Marketing is defined by numbers and metrics. Some people in this community have said it is not important. You are entitled to your opinions. Marketing 101 (taught at every college in the world) says otherwise. Therefore we are going to choose to continue to align ourselves with standard business principles and seek to expand the market and participation as best we can with the resources at our disposal. We believe this is the path that leads to the sustained growth. Anybody who feels that there is a better way is welcome to invest their own money and time and do it their way. That is the beauty of living in a free market society.

brain - 03 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 578

As for cooperation among competitors, I couldn't agree more. On our end, we have been overly cooperative in all 3 years with MLAH, taking a step back and choosing a lesser title in 2 of our 3 events. 2 years ago, when the long standing Vegas "World Championship" held every March since 2003 fell through, we welcomed a collaboration with MLAH for the World Championship in Houston, and Zwack (the title sponsor) UNAP and its affiliates, and MLAH all worked together to hold a great event. Last year MLAH changed its tournament date to May and announced its intentions to be the "World Championship" despite the fact that we had hosted it the previous year. MLAH did not contact us to discuss in the spirit of cooperation. They simply exercised their free will to claim the prized title. In the spirit of "cooperation", we did not contest. In fact, we cooperated even more so by withholding announcing our event until the Vegas event so as not to impact decision of players to attend Vegas in lieu of Houston. We have been overly cooperative in our business affairs. In our opinion, MLAH should be doing the same, and to date they are not. Nobody reached out to me or contacted me to discuss and negotiate. That is not in the spirit of "cooperation". Cooperation suggests negotiation and take and give in the spirit of balance and fairness. To date, it is my colleagues and I that have been expected to do all the giving.

brain - 03 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 578

Here's the deal. We are holding our World Championship event as we have for the past 3 years. We hope you all will attend. Those who have the budget to afford the trip to Las Vegas, please be my guest. The Vegas event has always and likely will be enjoyable. I assume that Valley-Dynamo is providing tables and room resources. Thus players have the option to compete for 2 World Titles this year. Having options is nice. Those who only have the budget for one will simply have to choose.

My colleagues and I have no issues working to convince the airhockey market that our event is worth attending. We will work hard to provide quality tables, excellent communication, a solid process, and work towards our goal of filling a 128 Open Singles bracket with current and new players and to continue to grow our Youth event. We hope you will choose to be a part of it. If not, we wish you the best. Either way, there are 6 billion people on this earth, and we plan to reach as many of them as we can to get the word out about our sport and our event and to entice people to travel from near and far to Houston to see who is truly the best airhockey player on earth!

Brian Accrocco
President and CEO
United Airhockey Promotions, LLC

Mike C - 03 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 459

TheAirHockeyGuy said:

Mike C said:

Well that's not entirely true. The people that attend Vegas will have the opportunity to collect more points so many people could improve their rating causing you to fall below some

Its entirely true as Ill continue playing and effecting my own rating. If you want to take that argument, I may be able to move my rating above some people if they get upset in Vegas. My rating will always change.

tableman - 04 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 690

As someone who spoke to both promoters before they announced, I did what I could to try and resolve some of the issues, such as naming and more importantly, scheduling. Unfortunately there was no "meeting of the minds" between the promoters this year.

I agree that it looks stupid to have 2 USAA-sanctioned events labeled "Worlds" so close to each other. Ideally the USAA would have gotten involved way earlier and mandated who could use which name for this year. I'm sure this will be addressed by the Board for next year. Meanwhile, I don't think it's worth getting into a huge battle over naming rights, at least for this year. If both are sanctioned, as is near-certain, we'll have a "Vegas Worlds" and "Houston Worlds".

Yes, having our two Nationals/Worlds just 2 months apart is not ideal. I implored both promoters to look for alternatives. In their defense, their options are limited by forces they can't control.

For years, we were lucky that even one promoter stepped up to do all the work and spend the money and time needed to put together a Nationals. Now we have two promoters willing to do so. We know their track records and we know that each will put on a quality event that respects USAA rules. I agree with Phil, Billy, and many others who feel that, despite the issues that Tim has raised, and the imperfect scheduling, it's much better to sanction both these events than to turn our back on one or the other.

For 2012, I will be busy testing and introducing the new Gold Standard AH tables, so it will be too early to get actively involved in tournament sponsorship and organizing. For 2013, I expect that to change, and as both a Board member and possible promoter/sponsor, I will do everything I can to bring a more coherent and sensible approach to how our USAA-sanctioned Championships are named, sactioned, and everything else.

Mark

ajflanagan - 04 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 509

Robbins said:

I can't speak for everyone, but the negative spin you place on the shoulders of all the promoters involved is not appreciated and not necessary.

I think the general consensus is that the USAA has failed. The USAA has lacked organization, concise leadership, guidelines and procedures for a long time. That is the only negative to be taken away from this situation. Take that to the next board meeting and figure out how to make it better. But do not try to place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the generous players who DONATE THEIR MONEY and VOLUNTEER THEIR TIME to make these events a great success for everyone.

Andrew

carolina phil - 04 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 1084

TWeissman said:

Dear Mr. President and Board members,....

Rest assured, the officers are in daily communication concerning resolving these issues. In fact, since the close of our vote on "ratings for seedings," the officers have been working on USAA SANCTIONING CRITERIA to submit to the general board of USAA for a vote. Since this impacts our players, promoters, and sponsors now and for years to come, we are doing the job right.

In the meantime, we have two major "World" events on the immediate horizon. It stands to reason that each would like to be sanctioned by USAA. Therefore we are expediting our sanctioning process by reviewing any request for sanctioning that each of them submit. The sooner, the better.

I am in the process of reviewing one sanctioning request this weekend, and will send it to the other officers for their comments. After which, we will submit it to the USAA Board for discussion and vote. Upon receiving the second request for sanctioning, we will do the same.

I feel confident that both events will move forward with USAA approval since they are organized by experience promoters and ah veterans. From this sanctioning process, USAA will be able to develop a Criteria List for 2013 that can be published on this website.

May each tournament this year mutually excel one another,

Phil Arnold
President, USAA

Davisl - 04 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 168

Pretty simple, going to have to rotate:

2013: Vegas US Open Championships, World Championships at Houston, Gold Standard Open Air Hockey Championships

2014: Vegas WC, Houston Masters, US Open by Gold Standard

2015: Vegas Open, Houston US Open, Gold Standard WC

tableman - 04 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 690

Davisl said:

My future intention is to cooperate and not necessarily compete with existing promoters. If there end up being competing proposals for events, I trust that the USAA will take all factors into account and pick the best ones to sanction.

Mark

tableman - 04 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 690

ajflanagan said:

Robbins said:

I can't speak for everyone, but the negative spin you place on the shoulders of all the promoters involved is not appreciated and not necessary.

Andrew

No negative spin; no positive spin. Just the facts to the extent I know them.

Mark

sleepy-e - 06 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 46

Hi everybody,

At risk of highjacking this thread -- and not wanting to start a new thread -- I just want to commend the Houston promotional team on the great design work. The poster for the upcoming event looks terrific! The best artwork since Billy's 2004 Illinois tournament, in my opinion.

Nice job.

"The World Champion of Nothing"
Eric D. Anderson
Director, Way of the Puck

ajflanagan - 06 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 509

sleepy-e said:

Thanks Eric! I appreciate the nod! Hope you can try and make it to Houston for the big event. The t-shirts will be equally cool :)

jsbritton - 10 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 421

i have always felt a bit uncomfortable with the title "world championships". it stands to reason that if this were really the case, then there would be a lot of people from a lot of countries arriving. it always feels a bit strange to explain to a curious bystander that there are only two or three countries taking part. a tip of the mallet to promoters who have helped bring in international players, but we all know that until sponsors are paying for the travel, it is just not realistic to expect a full showing as if it were the olympics or something.

i feel the same way about the "world series" in baseball.

i wish we would do away with the term, but there is no need to remind me of the marketing value etc. i get it.

still, i wish there was another good title that was a bit more accurate. Wimbleton doesn't claim to be the world championship. it just exists as it stands... a great tournament. i don't follow tennis, so if that isn't 100% accurate, then please fill in the blank with your own example from another sport.

to sum these thoughts up, i wish that no promoters used that title at this point in time.

jsb

TheAirHockeyGuy - 10 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 472

jsbritton said:

I agree with you James, the "World Championship" in any sport is typically the finale after a series of events leading up to it. If this isn't the end all be all event to determine the best in the world for that year, it should not be labeled this way. That would be like having the tennis World Championships between Wimbledon and the US Open. That wouldn't make sense.

Chris Lee
Co-Founder, CEO
Air Hockey Players Association (AHPA)

ajflanagan - 10 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 509

Not to be rude, but... you guys are welcome to built a promotional team, organize events and call them whatever you want. You are also more than welcome to be active members of your sanctioning body and work to create better guidelines for promoters to follow. In the meantime, we are going to continue to promote the sport we all love following the rules and guidelines that have been set forth. Despite all the negative spin placed on the situation that inadvertently came up this year... competition is a good thing. Even among promoters. Situations like this push us to become better at what we do and offer superior events to our players. Talk is cheap. I've been saying that for years. Some people just like to talk I guess.

TheAirHockeyGuy - 10 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 472

ajflanagan said:

My statement is a recommendation to the USAA. I made a general statement. James also just made a general statement. Please point to where either of our statements mentions the words "Texas" or "Houston". Being active members of the sanctioning body and working to create better guidelines is EXACTLY what we are doing. We have no choice but to "talk" at this point. It is not up to us to make these decisions on our own. It needs to be talked about and then voted on.

It's great that the promoters have the freedom to act on whatever they want. The USAA does not work this way, there is a process. I've also had just about enough of your accusations of all talk no action. I petitioned the board last year to become a senior member of the board so that I could run for president of the USAA. That request was denied even though I had the support of many board members as a presidential candidate. I will petition again in May and in August if I need to. if that doesnt work then in 2013, I will have met the last requirement for me to be a senior member which is to hold associate level status for two years. I have already met all other qualifications. I have done everything in my power to put myself in a position to take action on the changes I would like to see happen.

Chris Lee
Co-Founder, CEO
Air Hockey Players Association (AHPA)

ajflanagan - 10 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 509

My recommendation is to take this "talk" to the private USAA section of the forums where it belongs. This is clearly a USAA matter that will only be resolved by the active USAA members. All the negative spin - regardless of who it's pointed at - is bad for the sport and doesn't need to reach the eyes and ears of the players, fans and sponsors who aren't interested in the politics of Air Hockey.

For the record Chris, I didn't imply your were pointing fingers at the Houston based promotional team. My statement is a general one intended to defend any and all promoters as well as the USAA. Everyone is looking for someone to blame. There is no blame to be placed here. The USAA was not prepared for a situation where multiple promoters were hungry and actively seeking to grow the sport. Now, they know. Now, they can discuss it and fix it. Preferably... behind closed doors where it and this entire thread belongs.

TheAirHockeyGuy - 10 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 472

ajflanagan said:

I still dont get where James or my statements was negative. Suggesting we revisit the title of World Championships is not negative.

Chris Lee
Co-Founder, CEO
Air Hockey Players Association (AHPA)

EShoukry - 10 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 67

First I would like to commend both tournament teams for taking the initiative for putting together world caliber events in both Houston and Vegas. I personally am a big fan of the Vegas nationals because I felt like Vegas has become a melting pot for many unique and exciting events. (i.e. boxing, entertainment, etc)

Air hockey is one of those unique and exciting sports that deserves to be showcased in such a city. I think many will agree that Vegas gave us our first opportunity to play air hockey in a hotel banquet room rather than arcades and such which was the trend of 90's. For that, I am also very thankful.

Houston is my hometown so I will always support my fellow players who selflessly put together tournaments week in and out. I do agree that we need to work together on creating a naming convention that makes our sport look more professional in a spectator's eyes. I'm not even concerned about the two tournaments being two months apart, but it does looks silly to have both named the world championships.

As players we need to all be on the same page and not be confused as to which tournament is our world championship. Afterall, both will be great events. One marketing consideration for the Houston guys is to consider calling their tournament the same name every year. This helps to create an identity to the Houston nationals. I wouldn't jump on the idea of calling it a world championship just because the name was available. Stick to a brand that you duplicate every year. Just my opinion.

I know it's a lot of work to put these events together so I support everyone's effort who has the patience and dedication to invest in this type of event. Thank you for helping air hockey to thrive.

Ehab

jsbritton - 10 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 421

well stated ehab ... i don't think i could possibly agree more than i do, with everything that you just said.

jsb
air hockey player.

ajflanagan - 10 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 509

OK Ehab... since you called out the Houston team specifically, let's beat the horse a little more. You guys seem to keep glossing over the facts of the situation.

It's sad that I feel like I have to defend my team for doing the sport a service. But Ehab, you perpetuate the negative spin by insinuating it is the Houston group that will not compromise. You couldn't be more wrong.

As promoters of Air Hockey events, the UNAP members believe it is our responsibility and passion to provide top notch events to the players. The core group of players making up UNAP have done that successfully for several years.

In late 2011, discussions began about a 2012 event in Houston. By January, no information had been made public about a March event in Las Vegas or by any other promoter or any other event for that matter. As I mentioned, we feel it is our responsibility to provide a World Championship to the players. So that is what we set out to do.

Let me preface the rest of this by saying, in previous years, the core group of UNAP (previously TAG) did in fact make event arrangements while keeping other promoters' events in mind. Event naming and scheduling was done carefully as to not conflict with other events. In 2009, we held a US Open as not to conflict with the final Vegas WC event in March. In 2010, the World Championship name was used for the Houston event. So, there is a precedent for us using the name. I cannot speak for 2011 as I was not directly involved.

In January, nothing at all had been announced about any events to be held in Vegas. At that point, UNAP started putting the pieces to the puzzle in place. What does that involve? Well, a tremendous amount of planning, budgeting and delegating to start with. On my end of things, I can say for a fact that the tournament designs have been done since the end of January. As you can tell, those designs weren't just slapped together in 5 minutes. Presentation is everything. We held out on announcing officially until we had a 100% confirmation on the schedule with our venue sponsor, SRO Sports Bar & Cafe. On top of that, things were lined up with our table sponsor, Valley-Dynamo and several other event sponsors that will be discussed at a later date. Our company website and event registration website has been under construction since that time frame as well. Our sponsor kits and press kits have been assembled and ready to distribute. In short, a ton of man hours and money had been invested in the event long before anything was announced.

Approximately 24 hours after announcing the 2012 Air Hockey World Championship in Houston, MLAH announced an event in May to be held in Vegas. Now... who should be compromising? Why not suggest to MLAH that their new event, at a new location, in a new time frame have a new name? Why not call it the US Open or Wimbledon or whatever else you want to call it? Why are you calling out the Houston promoters to make a change this far into the process?

jsbritton - 11 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 421

i personally didn't find any negativity in his post, and aren't really sure or even curious what exactly you are referring to ... but i will state once again briefly, that i wish both tournament promotion groups would change the names of their tournaments.

ajflanagan - 11 Mar 2012
Total Posts: 509

Suggesting that we need to change the name of our event is certainly NOT POSITIVE.

It's not going to happen. Too much is set in motion. Too much time and money has been invested. Sponsors are lined up and have invested in the event. A name change is simply not going to happen on our end.

I'm done with this topic. Continue to debate if you wish. Or just participate in the EVP currently being discussed. At least that will actually have some impact on reality.

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