Tournament Hierarchies

It'd be useful to know what players views are regarding their perceived order of importance of the current calendar of tournaments.

Can someone with IT skills some sort of 1,2,3 poll to sort the following list in terms of player/ team priorities (attendance) and secondly as a perceived hierarchy of 'importance' within the UK polo scene.

National Series tournaments
UK Champs
London Open
European Qualification event
Other UK invitationals
European opens
Not interested in organised tournaments

1. UK Champs
   
2. European Qualification event
   
3. London Open
   
4. National Series tournaments
   Other UK invitationals
   European opens
   

Thx Bill, is that list your personal preference in terms of attendance/participation or how you think they should be ranked?

Anyone else care to build this list?

NS
UKC
LO
EC
WC
SCoMM

Worlds
Euros/Euro qualifiers
London Open
UK Champs
International Opens
NS
ShuffleCOMM
ABCCOMM

Try this, I'm not sure how well it's worked, as my work IT settings aren't getting on with it.

Poll here:
http://www.polljunkie.com/5sAHkJ/Poll17496.aspx
Results here:
http://www.polljunkie.com/Xe6AA8/View17496.aspx

What are you trying to establish?

Attendance records

UK Champs
Birmingham 2012: 21
Edinburgh 2011: 18
Manchester 2010: 31

2012 NS
Bristol: 24
Cambridge: 14
Brighton: 28

2011 NS
Brighton: 32
Sheffield : 12
Bristol: 19
Cambridge: 16

London Open
2011: 56
2010: 48

Hierarchy of importance? Eh? Why? Tournaments have very different reasons for existing and to compare them is pretty meaningless in my opinion?

You'd perhaps be better off saying what's more important when it comes to tournaments: finding new players, showcasing the sport, having a good time, finding a winner, giving everyone an equal amount of court time, etc?

UK Champs -> Euros -> Worlds (Finds the best team by region, primarily about competition)
Euro qualifier (Often necessary to source a ranked list of all teams, but the UK Champs could achieve this in the future if the format was changed and if it was always hosted at the right time)
Invitationals (Showcase the top teams/best polo/the sport)
London Open (Committed to never capping the number of teams, grows in size with each passing year)
National Series (Sharing tournament knowledge, growing regional scenes, improving tournament standards, collating the results of existing tournaments)

(There were 56 teams for LO2011.)

1. Worlds
   
2. Euros
   
3. UK Champs
   
4. European Qualification event
   
5. London Open
   
6. National Series tournaments
   
7. Other UK invitationals
   
8. European opens
   
   

^this, with the UK champs earlier in the year, always uncapped and the only way to qualify for the euros.

As well as each tournament having different purposes, each indivudual will have their own reason for attending. Due to the experience each individual will have they will rank things like LO over Worlds or vice versa. I'm sure Neil said 'from the following list' and 'within the UK scene' but straight away you can see that some players interests are not really within the UK scene at all and just progressing their own level of polo to the highest level of participation (nothing wrong with that) and other players prioritise improving attendance and the standard of tournaments in the UK.

I think that each of those tournaments is important in it's own way and couldn't order them. I think all we can do as a community is to work to ensure they happen regularly at the right time in the right places!

what MG said.

As well as each tournament having different purposes, each indivudual will have their own reason for attending. Due to the experience each individual will have they will rank things like LO over Worlds or vice versa. I'm sure Neil said 'from the following list' and 'within the UK scene' but straight away you can see that some players interests are not really within the UK scene at all and just progressing their own level of polo to the highest level of participation (nothing wrong with that) and other players prioritise improving attendance and the standard of tournaments in the UK.

I think that each of those tournaments is important in it's own way and couldn't order them. I think all we can do as a community is to work to ensure they happen regularly at the right time in the right places!

I couldn't agree more with the current reality of these thoughts - how might a UK body perceive and work with the list though?

Only time will tell...

I think essentially in the order they happen in the polo year and the scale of work needed to organise each one. There will be players more drawn to organising one then the other so determining that as far in advance as possible and having them working towards that goal... (once one annual event is finished, next years should be looked into whilst the experience of the previous one is fresh in mind). This happens already on a much smaller scale and unofficially but it seems to be the same people either working on or giving advice to others. It would be nice to attract more people with either the skills or enthusiasm to help out, especially in regards to UK wide tournaments and issues. In the past organisation may have come across as quite insular and newer people may be too scared to come forward or have not been able to due to various barriers.