I'm thinking the potential problem I'm trying to fix is getting more of the top shooters attending the National championships... I thought I made that clear...
.. and possibly increasing attendance of all competitors by having a "special place" that seems to me to be unique in the US where we can have three full courses to handle up to 180 contestants. I don't think any of the existing clubs have a venue available to them that can meet that standard.
The other benefit I can see is that it would not be a venue that the locals shoot all the time... making it a more fair match in my opinion.
Also, it would open up hosting the match to more clubs that don't have any venue to host a GP or National Championship.
Wayne
Thanks for the clarification. I don't concern myself too much with the top shooters attending Nationals because it's such a small sample size. Of the top 20 FT shooters in the US, half are going to have something better to do that week than fly somewhere and compete for a plaque regardless of where the match is located. Hell, the Nationals were an hour away from me 10 years ago and I didn't go because I was busy.
I think the way to increase attendance for the "top" shooters is to increase attendance for ALL shooters. Make the event something special that people don't want to miss. More manufacturers and vendors with demo tents. More pageantry (if you will). More Youtube videos.
Use EBR as a model for how to get people interested in going to an airgun match. (But ideally without the big prize money, which has turned me off of EFT).
Or leave it the way it is, which is fine. A small National championship for a small niche sport. Bigger isn't necessarily better.
Upon reflection, I think it's safe to say that with the current structure of AAFTA, there will not be significant growth in the Nationals or US FT in general. Not saying that's a bad thing or calling any of the current board members out, they are doing a fine job. I'm saying that all of the big-time shooting sports have paid staff and a for-profit mentality. They have to grow to a certain level to sustain themselves. AAFTA is a small, volunteer organization and the National championships reflect that. Again, there's nothing wrong with that, that's just reality. I'm not saying that a little "sporting clays" style growth wouldn't be good, though. Our sport is always in danger of "aging out".
Two examples of sports that have declined due to lack of growth: skeet and silhouette. Skeet died (or is in the process of dying) because younger shooters with families and jobs couldn't justify attending a 3 day shoot when they could have as much or more fun at a 1 day sporting clays shoot. I was in the middle of both sports when this happened. (Side note: There is no "qualifier" for skeet or sporting clays Nationals. You pay your money, you show up, you shoot. Adding roadblocks to attend the biggest event of the year would be idiotic from a business perspective.)
I don't know as much about silhouette because it died before I got a chance to get involved, but I suspect it was a combination of the sport having a steep learning curve and the greater availability of other styles of shooting (PRS, 3 gun, etc). Looking at the rise and fall of silhouette shooting would probably teach us some things about how to keep FT viable for the future.
Back to the point (kind of), the way to grow the sport is to get younger. I'm not talking juniors (although that helps), I'm talking people in their 30s and 40s. I'm not sure how you get that age group into FT, but I suspect that better social media at the local match level would help. We have been word of mouth for too long. Every time I go to the range (where we have monthly FT matches) I have to explain field target to people that have never heard of it. Yep, members of a shooting club that hosts monthly matches, GP matches and an annual airgun show have never heard of field target. So I think, from a short-term grass roots perspective, it's on me to grow my local matches. Get enough new people hooked and that will increase regional GP attendance. Once the new shooters are committed to local matches and regional GP matches, the talent pool for Nationals is that much bigger.
To summarize: The status quo is fine. If you want more shooters, you need to make more shooters. "If you build it-they will come" only works in the movies.
