European Bike Polo Championship! London?

Vote for London!!! Berlin has bid against London to host. Sign up and check out both bids, decide which city is better, and vote (for London) here:

www.ebpc2009.com

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So lots of discussions in Zurich turned to the realization of a proper big-ass EBPC!!
I think I'd like to pitch London for it but obviously the London bike polo community needs to be excited and motivated by that idea and also willing to dig in and sort out a fantastic tournament the likes of which Europe has never seen before.
I'd be happy to head it up if you'll have me, but no matter what it will need a big division of labor so I'd need some people to volunteer their life for the next 6-8 months in order to pull it off. To an extent, the more people we have the less time each of us will have to spend on it.
I know that Berlin has shown some interest in throwing the tournament as well, and they're German, and motivated, so I'm sure it'd be fine, but I think London is where the EBPC's have to begin.
London has the biggest, most organized bike polo community in Europe, and as of yet there has not been a bigger BP tournament in Europe than Shoreditch. It is likely that London will send the most teams to the EBPC's than any other city.
That said, having the tournament on mainland Europe would probably make it cheaper for most players. They will have the choice of cars,trains, or planes to get there that way (without need of a ferry). Plus London is an expensive city (F*ck!! Zurich kicks London's ass in taking your dosh though!)
I think, given time and organization, we can make London cheap for our traveling friends ( I have lots of plans).
But Germany as a whole has loads of teams (and good ones) and having the tournament in Berlin would be cheap for them.
All of that said, I don't think it should come down to just money concerns. I think it needs to be who has the drive, experience, and desire to throw a kick-ass EBPC.

So what do you guys think? If you want to have the EBPC's here, than my plan of action is this:
I have registered http://europeanbikepolochampionship.wordpress.com/ (there's nothing there yet.). I would like to make several discussions on it, first and foremost would be that London would like to host. Then once that's decided it can be used for discussing rules, finding housing, planning dates, etc... It would basically be a space for Europe to discuss EBPC's.
I originally thought that using the bike polo forum would be better but I think we will need so many threads that that's just going to get to crowded.

I will email my Shoreditch email list and the Zurich email list and announce this page as the discussion ground.

The first volunteer that I think London needs is someone that can man this webpage. Additionally we will need a proper website, to gear sponsors and the like to, we need someone who can manage this as well.

Ok, so I have loads more ideas and really want to get this thing off the ground, but most importantly above all else, does the rest of London want to host the first ever European Bike Polo Championships?!

Hell yeah! I'm sure plenty of people will be willing to help as much as possible to get this off the ground. count me in.

I volunteer gabes & em

obviously im not joking.

i would volunteer shins, but he's a useless twat.

meeeow!

oh, an yeah, on a serious note, i'll help out with this if it happens. would be great!

specifically I see needing a specialized division of labour. Something akin to having one person that is in charge of keeping everyone else together and then one person in charge of each independent section of the tournament:
Court- find& build we need at least two, side by side or a two-day tournament. This person needs to work with the council etc to get the courts and get a crew together to build it. They need to work closely with the sponsorship person to make sure that they get what they need to make the court happen.
Refs - biggie! Hard work, no thanks. We need refs that really want to make it a proper tournament. Zurich had one guy and lots of decisions were made by mob rule. Just doesn't work well and people won't be happy with the results of the tournament.
Housing- source, recruit, placement
Sponsorship -super biggie!! This will probably be the most full on role of all besides the head producer. We need someone with experience here. (besides the obvious I want to do more interesting things like carbon offset every mile traveled to the tournament and a bike workshop on site supplying instant fixes of bikes during the games)
Press- working with sponsorship person and on-line person- like it or not, we get better sponsorship if we get great press
On-line presence - Again, someone who does this for a living would be great. This would be managing a website, discussion board, etc..
Design- web and print - all merch, flyers, website... Doesn't all have to be one person but we do need this to be consistent.
Food- working with sponsorship person, but my plan is that all players/volunteers do not need to pay for food (or hugely discounted) the entire time they are here.
Party- again, working with sponsorship person. - we need a killer party!!
Additional Activities- I see there being an entire weekend (or fri-mon) of events. Alley Cat (I know Rob & Mike have thoughts on this), Tour of London, Dinners, Brunch/English Breakfast, Roller Race (?), etc... -please post ideas for additional events!!

Of course on top of someone being responsible for each of these sections we'll need lots of people who can support them.
So please feel free to put yourself up for one of these roles, or state that you don't want to be responsible for anything but you're up for getting a call at midnight and needing to source 8,000 zip ties by 6 am. (you know what I mean...)

On-line presence - Again, someone who does this for a living would be great. This would be managing a website, discussion board, etc..

I'll do that bit then...

Gabes, PM'd you.

So what do the rest of you think?

i'll be happy to ref, but as much as i'd like to, i won't be able to put a huge amount of work in prior to the tourney, my disserataion is looming ahead...

by the way, roxy, did you and mike get your absentee ballots? just got mine today!

also, cavendish will gladly be a sponsor if this goes through.

One major thing Roxy forgot to add is the fact that the ECMC will be in Berlin which they are planning a tournament for. This has always been considered the European Bike Polo Championship but much of the conversations over the weekend seem to be in agreement that polo should be and actually is completely seperate from a messenger event. Maybe 20% of european players are messengers and even less in London and practically nil in Paris.

I'll handle the court.
I run an installation business so have experience in project management (logistics, installation, people management etc)
Also, I can be pretty persuasive so that might help with the councils/sponsors :)

I'm happy to be a ref and/or general dogsbody who can be called upon to build courts and pester/charm people into giving us stuff.

When is this proposed for?

I'll handle the court.
I run an installation business so have experience in project management (logistics, installation, people management etc)
Also, I can be pretty persuasive so that might help with the councils/sponsors :)

Brain flick - Hannibal

tomasito is face man.
gabes BA

i piddy da foo!

right, domains are registered

www.europeanbikepolochampionship.com
www.ebpc2009.com

hosted on my server, there's now a forum set up on there for discussing, but it's not open to you lot just yet.

I'm happy to put myself in as a ref. Can help with on the day management too, although that's a long way off I'm sure.

I can lift and shift.

Fuckin'A.
This is an awesome idea. I can't devote much time due to work constraints over the year end/start period but come February I'll be in a better place to help out.

As for a date I'm thinking either May or August. May is better weather but August gives us more time.

As for Refs, great that you're volunteering. We'll need proper training days down on brick lane or something for you guys. It's hard work and takes practice.

Brain Flick, can you email me?

Dogsbody's -yep this is great to volunteer for, we'll need lots.

Ok, I still need more feedback here. We need way more people involved if we're going to pull this off.
This is going to take the entire community!

Also if we're to do this, we need a temporary logo for the sites. Doesn't have to be perfect just something that looks decent for the top of the threads. Come on designers!!!

Rox, great idea, I am sure that there are enough interested people to make this happen in London.

One thing missing from your list is either a budget or someone who will take responsibility for the budget ie making sure that there is some sort of projection, that it is updated regularly, and bears some sort of relation to reality.

Also, my biggest question is: who will control this? Will it be like the league and be owned by the players? Or will it be controlled by some other entity?

i think it's a good idea to have it here. To my knowledge London has a kicking vibe to its polo community and it would be fun.
So what that messenger Champs have a tournament as well ? - i agree that it feels like it's mostly for messengers, and as we all know not that many people made the effort to go over there out of non-courier teams.
My vote is a yes to the idea.