Discussion: Who's going where? Idaho or Whistler?

This A-Meet in Idaho is on August 2-3, 2014, the same weekend as the Canadian Champs in neighboring British Columbia. I'm wondering who is planning on coming to the event in Idaho. I'll be choosing to go to Whistler, and I'm worried that the attendance at this event will be dismal.

Granted, it's CTOC's prerogative to host an event whenever they want. And I have nothing against the club or its size. I really like the Idaho terrain, and I went there just for a 2-day local meet in July 2011 (which had 20 starts per day).

Let's take a look at the last time Idaho hosted an A-Meet, in summer of 2009. It was part of the 10-day, 10-race PWNOF festival, with other events in central and eastern Washington. There were 170 participants in Idaho, with some of them coming from:

30 from Seattle
22 from Canada
31 juniors from Texas!

For those of us in Seattle, even though Boise is a "short" trip for us (7.5 hour drive), I think most of us will head up to Whistler in 2014 because a) it's half as far away, b) it's a bigger event, c) it's part of a weeklong festival, d) we're used to going to Canada already, e) we're already promoting the event on Facebook, and f) we're really good friends with our Canadian clubs.

Would you expect any of the 22 Canadians to go to Idaho in 2014 instead of Canadian Champs? I wouldn't. And what are the chances that another 30+ group of juniors from Texas makes a road trip for a non-festival event?

That's 83 of 170 (49%) right there. Let's take a look at the remaining 87:

10 from Boise
10 from Portland
28 others from within a 12-hour drive (BAOC and RMOC mostly)
39 others from the rest of the United States

I'd expect the 10 starts in Boise to stay there. Portland is equidistant from both Boise and Whistler (6.5 hours), so I could see them going either way. For the 67 others, I'm sure that some will go to Boise, some will go to Whistler, and some will go to neither. Let's say that half go to Boise.

Of the 170 in 2009, we're now looking at about 50 showing up in 2014. That's about the size of the 2011 A-Meet in St. Louis, so we've seen attendances this small before. But in Idaho's case, I think they could easily double attendance if they just picked another weekend.

Given the choice, where will you go? Boise or Whistler?

I'm not sure--I'd prefer to go to both. How did this conflict happen, given that there is a planning calendar?

@Eric: CTOC were made aware of the conflict at the time of sanctioning and requested to continue with the date they had selected. Sanctioning did not view it as their job to protect CTOC from themselves (we would have objected had the conflict been with an event in the same OUSA region, for example, one hosted by COC), and nor did the OUSA BOD.

I believe (but am not sure) that the issue is that CTOC want their event in the lead-up to the WRC in ND.

I'd pick Whistler.

Full disclosure: I noticed the conflict several months ago, and notified the sanctioning committee, in case they didn't already know. I didn't realize until recently that CTOC continued with the date, and that's when I decided to take a look at the 2009 attendance.

I agree with Will in that CTOC should be allowed to go whenever they want (since it's not an O-USA conflict). I can see a case to be made for having a lead up of CTOC's event (August 2-3) and RMOC's event (August 9-10) before WRC (August 16-17). Woodland Park, CO is a 14-hour drive from Boise and a 7-hour drive from Rapid City, so it's somewhat "regional". (Direct flights through Denver are easy to find, too).

I just don't know how many people will be choosing that option. My hunch is that it'll be far less than the 50 from Seattle and Canada who won't be going. But I don't know, which is why I thought I'd ask.

I'll be going to Whistler and Kamloops. I usually try attending all of the regional A-Meets (ie anything west of Denver), but next summer, Canada is offering more races, more competition, and more convenience.

Yes. Seems a strange way to divide a pie. We'd like to do CTOC, RMOC, and Whistler, but will have to choose. The Canadians have a junior camp during the week so that might be the deciding factor right there for us. No interest at all in WRC.

For those far enough away that flying is necessary, it doesn't really matter how long the drive would be to one or the other.

My pick is the CTOC event, I'll be coming from the Midwest if all goes well.

All,

CTOC is withdrawing its bid for A-meet in 2014 based mainly on our unfortunate situation with the map. Mapper got sick while in Idaho City this year and couldn't complete any sizable part of the map update. Basically we are not ready.

Additionally, conflict with the Canadian Champs really tipped the balance in favor of postponing the meet in Idaho for later time when we will be truly ready.

Our apologies to the sanctioning committee. 2014 USA Ultra-long champs are available for bidding to any willing club.

We hope it will help you in better and more streamlined trip planning for the next year!

Regards,
Sergey Velichko
CTOC

Hoping to get to a future event in Idaho. Too bad about the conflict with the COCs. Do I recall correctly that the COCs also overlaps with the WRCs?

Do I recall correctly that the COCs also overlaps with the WRCs?

August 2-4 Canadian Champs (Whistler, BC)
August 5-8 Junior camp, other various events
August 9-10 Western Canadian Champs (Kamloops, BC)

August 9-10 RMOC A-Meet (Woodland Park, CO)

August 16-17 WRC (Rapid City, SD)

Bummer, I was looking forward to a CTOC A meet, but more sorry to hear of the sickness, hope all is well now. Thanks for the heads up.

RMOC bid to hold the US champs (classic, I believe), which would be the same weekend as the Western Canadians. OUSA Board should announce soon whether or not they get the bid.