You're a Bunch of Factors

Played the FTT @ the Emu on sat 14/2/ attendance was very average 163 from 400 not good for the venue.(yes I know their choice)and it was Valentines day, but maybe you should have a survey on whats the best day & time for the majority to play.suggest you draw up a form ie day am or arvo and get all TD's to poll their players which may give a better idea which is more suitable.This in turn will save in set up time and wages.

I played at the Vic Metro and only 148 of around 400 too.
It does seem that less than 45% of people seem to participate in the every regional finals.
Maybe worth considering dropping and just putting the prize pool somewhere else.

Don't think they should be dropped as we had a great day at the EMU, and gives players a chance to meet people from other venues, but the staff spend hours & hours before and after these events and I think they need to find out which day will bring more players.

We used to have huge night in Sunbury when we had 4 venues going, based on the NPL leaderboard and the top 100 were invited to participate in a venue final.

I know I seem to have a lot of ideas but here is another one.
Make the season just 9 weeks. The 10th week is a venue final.
The top 40/50 depending on average number of regular players make it, but also have a side tournment running with players that have not finished high enough. The winner of the side event gets onto the final table of the venue final with a stack equal to double the big blinds.

Money from the regional finals could be given back to the venues.
The winner of the veune event gets a larger venue prize ie $250 instead of $50. and a plague. Anyone who wins and hasn't qualified for the state, also gets into the state final.
Would mean a player who was unable to finish in the top 5 during the season would also be encouraged to play in the venue final.
Also a near guaranteed full house in the last week of the season.

Not a bad idea, maybe Garth and crew could have a think about this as an alternative.

I would've turned up, but it was Valentines Day. I think that, and the fact that a few weeks before everyone was suddenly allowed to go (read: not a dig), screwed with the attendance.

As I said it was the venues choice not much NPL could do about it.

AceLosesKing wrote:I would've turned up, but it was Valentines Day. I think that, and the fact that a few weeks before everyone was suddenly allowed to go (read: not a dig), screwed with the attendance.

Aaron, i just re-read the finalised changes to 2009, and it NEVER stated that the regional ftt events were only for regional players. I suggest u read it, and interpret it another way.

Thanks all.

As with all re structures it does take some time for the majority of the market/consumer base to adapt.

I feel it is the same way with the FTT Challenge structure. I am not willing to scrap it at this time if the trend remains the same then I will look to reinvest those prize pools in another area.

As to surveying what days/times are suitable for events: we would never get a definitive result one way or the other across a whole market survey. And we definitely could not run a survey every time we went to run a special event.

I can tell you this:

Players generally want a Sunday event, during footy season, they want it to start at around 11am and finish by 8pm at the latest.

psst, and not during exam periods either

Saturday 20 June to Saturday 4 July 2009 for Uni SA's (and everyone else I'd suspect) mid years