Partecipation at Tournaments

[the deacon]

Looking at the canoe polo calendar for the Year 2004, one notices that there are many events stretching nearly over the entire 12 month period, and these tournaments are fairly spread across nearly the whole of Europe.
It would be interesting to know what would be the frequency of club teams partecipation in these tournaments "abroad" excluding the travelling they do playing in their own national/regional league matches.
Keeping in mind that travel expenses which include air fares/petrol & highway expenses, not to mention food and sleeping charges, be it with sleeping in tents or hotels, do weigh on ones personal budgets; I would guess it is rare that many of the teams are totally financed by their clubs when on transfer.
So the question is: How many tournaments does your club go to "abroad" on an average, in any given year?
:cheers:

[Martijn]

From The Netherlands is great... easy travelling to some major tounaments.. from our club approx.:

Essen 2 hour drive
Mechelen 2 hour drive
Charleroi 3 hour drive
Ieper 3 hour drive

I can imagine that it's harder for clubs far away from the action :)

[the deacon]

Who's that lucky guy who has managed to go to 8 tournaments in a year?
Bragging rights are for free on this forum, so for those guys who go to more than 5 tournaments a year, scribble a couple of lines to let us into the big picture and let us know to which travelling club you belong to. :gun: :gun:
:cheers:

[Curly]

I think that the Meridian team has been to more than 5 international tournaments per year for the last 20 years. (some years a lot more than 5)

Yes we are very lucky, but you do make your own luck a bit!!

In the early 90's we played in 7 countries in 8 weeks!!

France
England
Wales
The Netherlands
Germany
Belgium
Italy

For us the travelling polo has always been the most enjoyable, and we have made many friends over the years!!

[MarkP]

Hi All,

Like our clubs 1st team we also like travelling a lot and our team intends to travel to the following competions this year.

Malaga
Helmvaarders dutch comp
Arques St Omer
Madrid
Essen or Prague (awaiting a reply from the organisers of Essen)
Liverpool
Hull
Udine
Veurne
London
Ypres/Ieper
Acigne (still under debate)
Kilcock
Bologna
Setubal

The team is made up of some very young players who are very eager to play polo and improve. which hopefully we will do with all the exposure that we should get this year.

Like the 1st we are very lucky as our location in england gives us good transport links for flights and ferries.

For us the competions are as much about making new friends as the polo.

[AsgerS]

The club I played for last year participated in 6 danish turnaments and the following international:

Göttingen 4x4
Niedersachsen Pokal (Göttingen)
An invitational in Hamburg (Schwalbe)
Hannover (Machseecup)
Kiel (Kielerwoche)
Helmond
Bremen (fun)
Greven (fun)
Hamburg (Frühjahr turnier)
Ieper... Clubchampionships
Berlin (Indoor)

Most of the team also took part of Essen Internation, London International and the Europeans as NT players

From the Danish Capital we have between 5 and 10 hours of driving to do (each way) including either a boattrip or a pay-bridge.
Because we don't pay the carowners in full, and because the club help out with the fees, we pay between 40 and 80 euros pr. turnament not including food.
We travel 5 persons in a car, and sleep in tents. So ... low budget.

[clyde]

Just to add to both Mark and Curly's points, I don't think the Deacon's post is that clear.

While in Meridian, we actually have many teams in Open, Youth and Women's classes, our club does not pay for anything for our polo teams to travel / compete. Nearly all our players entirely own their own kit.
Our younger members are supported entirely by their parents (or maybe a paper-round) who like the senior players pay for travel, entry fees, accomodation and equipment.
We also don't have any club mini-bus and we share part of our boat house with people who don't care to keep it clean and tidy.

This is an expensive sport, so please think about that when you start increasing your entry fees if you run an event.

But - we do like doing it !

[the deacon]

Just to add to both Mark and Curly's points, I don't think the Deacon's post is that clear.

While in Meridian, we actually have many teams in Open, Youth and Women's classes, our club does not pay for anything for our polo teams to travel / compete. Nearly all our players entirely own their own kit.
Our younger members are supported entirely by their parents (or maybe a paper-round) who like the senior players pay for travel, entry fees, accomodation and equipment.
We also don't have any club mini-bus and we share part of our boat house with people who don't care to keep it clean and tidy.

This is an expensive sport, so please think about that when you start increasing your entry fees if you run an event.

But - we do like doing it !

Clyde, I could not agree more that what you have posted above!

Compared to 'the old days' when my club used to tour both Italy and the rest of Europe, all expenses were 100% paid by ourselves and although it was at times very expensive for us to travel to tournaments, (I particularly as in those days I had to spend a lot of money just to get a visa to go to that particular country, not to mention time wasting in the process).

Nowadays, in my opinion considering the Italian teams, very few clubs from any given division travel having to pay for their own expenses if there is no expense contribution from their clubs; only the 'more weathy' clubs seem to be able to fund the teams travelling expenses going to selected tournaments both here and abroad.

An alternative solution working towards resolving this problem could be that tournament organisers could contribute towards some of the travelling costs incurred, by putting up at least half the money received for entry fees and dividing this amount proportionally to the first three teams in each category.

I believe this is the current usage in the European Cup Championships, so if possible, this could also be an incentive for some of the Internationals organised around Europe to give back towards the canoe polo community if the organisers could afford to do so.

Would anyone care to comment on this?

[the deacon]

One perculiarity which Italian tournament organisers have to face is that there is a law (one of the 66,000 in the country :D ) which states that during any official sporting event, there must be a medical doctor and an ambulance on stand-by on the premises for the entire programme. The minimum price to pay for this service is € 600.00, which makes a very large dent in the entry fee intake, and at times leaves very little cash to go towards other organisation expenditures.

There is no question at all that entry fees should be hiked to adjust to this 'medical' expense, so basically the entry fees charged are pertinent to what is the current fee at most of the other international tournaments which is I believe € 70.00 per team.

:twocents:

Cheers!