Any interest in a West Coast North American tourney?

[chiang]

Hey to all you polo folks...I just returned from Vancouver Island, BC where they hosted a really fun mini-tournament over the past weekend. And I thought that it might be fun to have something here in the Seattle Area for all the west Coast since the BC people could easily get here.

I wanted to know if there might be any interest before I go looking for pool space. I looked onto Southwest.com and it seems that roundtrip flights from Oakland could be as low as $150 to about $300. I suspect that the flights from LA would be comparable.

If you played the cards right, people could actually fly into Seattle from Austin for as low as $250 round trip. The Canadians could drive from BC...only took me 2.5 hours last night to get home from downtown Vancouver.

Seattle and Gig Harbor are in the develomental stages and would really benefit from other clubs experience. So I am thinking about trying to make this work if possible.

Please post comments or email me if there is interest:

tc2berkeley@gmail.com

Cheers,
--TC

[chiang]

There are a few pools outside of Seattle that might work for a weekend tournament. The pool that the Gig Harbor club uses is 25 m long but a little narrow for a full pitch game (though it can be done). The great thing about this pool is that they are willing to work with the club for a weekend rental as low as $400 USD and we get the pool from 11AM - 6PM both days (they usually rent at $55 hour), so this is almost half the cost of the hourly charge.

I could look for some larger pools, but that would increase costs. At this point, if we can get at least 20 people to join us, we are looking at $20USD for the weekend. Not to bad for a first time tourney in my humble opinion.

As an aside, I found out that the Aquatic Center in Federal Way is available for rent as well...this is the pool that was used for the Good Will Games a few years back so it is a full sized Olympic pool. I think that if the Seattle Area can ever host the US Nationals or the Continental Cup (or in some crazy messed up universe, the World Cup), this would probably be an ideal venue. It would be very expensive, but we would get a state of the art aquatic center to use.

Anyhow, the pools usually get booked for winter well in advanced, so I am considering making some reservations. Let me know if there is still any real interest.

Cheers from Seattle,
--TC

[chiang]

So I found a pool in Kirkland/Redmond that is 50m x 20m and it is very nice. It is located at the Juanita High School and I can get it for the weekend of Jan 22/23. The cost is a bit more than the $20 USD that I had hoped for with the smaller pool. It will be $64 USD/hour. We can get the pool for 6 hours each day from 11AM - 5PM for that rate (we can actually rent the pool longer if we wanted). If we get around 25 people, we are looking at about $30 for the weekend (a bit more if we want the pool for longer). I am hoping to scare up some folks from Vancouver, Alberta, etc....the more people we get the more time we can get for the pool and still pay around $30.

I told the administrator that I would get back to her within 10 days as she penciled me in as a tentative reservation (which is cool since she is not requiring a downpayment for this). I just need some confirmation from the people who are interested on this post for that weekend.

BTW Kirkland/Redmond is 20 minutes east of Seattle.

Cheers,
--TC

I will check on local hotels and hostels and B&B's and such and post those as well.

[mrkeeg]

That could be cool. I'd travel to support a new tournament, and for a 50m pool, if it worked out with school and $.

That must be 2 wks before the cup of the North?

Keep up updated

Keegan

[chiang]

Got the word from Sam that BC and Sooke will come down with at least one team if not two. I am working on the locals to field at least two teams. Got some emails from other Canadians and Americans, but don't have any for sure confirmations...so please respond to me via this thread so others can see the interest.

Looks like this might work. I am working an trying to find a hotel that might give group rates for people travelling. I can billet up to about 7-8 at my house and would rather do so for students and/or those coming from way out of town who need to spend $$ for travel. Will ask others about billeting as well.

Cheers,
--TC

[Monica]

Hey Tony, so where are you at concerning this tourny? Leslie from Cali was asking about it and wanting dates. I am going to give her your email addy so she can get in contact with you personally, but I am also going to give her the dates you have posted. Let us know any more updates, as I have some miles to use up!

Thanks for the work.
Mon.

[Albert]

What is going on?

Update, I am ready to buy tix.

Will need a loaner boat.


albert

[chiang]

Give me a few more days...insurance is harder than I thought it would be.



What is going on?

Update, I am ready to buy tix.

Will need a loaner boat.


albert

[evo]

can you go with usack or aca?

Give me a few more days...insurance is harder than I thought it would be.

[chiang]

I am terribly sorry for being so bad about keeping people informed. Here is the latest scoop: American Canoe Association has lost its capabilities to insure these sorts of events; USA Canoe and Kayak is giving such a run around that I have given up on them. I am working through a local kayak/outdoors guides to get insurance through them. We will be having a meeting either Monday or Tuesday morning and I will post a final answer then. Everything else has been finalized. Pool, goals, etc.

I am also looking at local Inns and Hotels that can give discount rates. I will be able to billet around 8 people myself, but none of the other locals here are into billeting since they are unsure of taking in strangers. It is different since the locals players have rarely travelled and been accustomed to billeting. I would rather billet those flying into Settle to defray their cost.

I spoke with the O'Briens at the Pacific Coast Championships and they might make it down here as well. This might turn out to be more of a Canadian tournament rather than an American one =)

People who are interested:
2 Teams from Vancounver, BC
5-6 people from Alberta
3-4 people from California
1-2 people from Texas
1-3 people from Colorado
5-8 local Washingtonians

Thank you everyone for your patience. Good News or Bad, I will post by Wednesday, latest. This should give one month to find tix for those flying.

Cheers,
--TC

[Monica]

Hey Tony. Well, everything was looking good up until Friday when I took a little joy ride to the ER. You're going to have to count me out of this one I am afraid. I am no longer in working order for this tournement. But I am still planning on CTN in Feb, so look for me there. Have a great time and I really hope you pull this off so we can get it going again next year. :)

Take care.
Monica.

[chiang]

The date for the tournament will have to be postponed. I could not get anyone to cover the for insurance. I am very sorry about this.

Tony