GNT 2010 District Finals - Recap

Mike Cassel, GNT 2010 coordinator, has taken the time to provide us with a comprehensive recap about this year's Grand National Teams.  Mike congratulates the winners, explains much of how the movements worked this year and thanks the many people who contributed to this year's District 14 finals being such a success.

In addition, Mike also addresses some of the difficulties that arose, and muses about potential changes for the event in the future.

I would like to add my own thanks to all those who played a part in 2010 GNT, from the many volunteers, the club owners, the directors - and, of course, you the players!  Finally - a huge "thank you" to Mike.  Mike has put in an enormous amount of work and thought into trying to make our District GNT finals the best it can possibly be.  We are all grateful, Mike!

Please check out Mike's recap.  If you would like to add your own thoughts and suggestions, we encourage you to do so.  Either leave comments below, or feel free to contact Mike directly.

Download Gnt2010recap2

Comments

[Rich Newell]

Your proposal to have venue for the next GNT finals located in MN to coincide with the second 4-session KO at the Gopher Regional seems very sensible. But the question occurred to me: why not run all of the flights at the Gopher regional while you're at it? Then there would be no need for a separate event. I think you would get a boost in participation, and the GNT event would get much more visibility when everyone is seeing the finals play out. You should get some posterboard and have the results for everyone to see.
A couple questions come up thought:
1) This is a District 14 event, so people from outside the District would be excluded. You'd probably still have an open pairs going on the first day and side games and swiss teams. After people are eliminated, you could run a compact KO the next day.
2) Is it GNT table counts or Regional table counts? GNT dollars or regional dollars? I don't know how that works.
3) Thanks for mentioning the Iowans that carried out a unit final. We had 22 tables, 3 more than the 103/178 unit final and that was exclusively B&C flights. The next time the District final is in the Twin Cities, I think it would help get a few Iowans up there if we could advertise that they would enjoy the regional simultaneously. But the prospect of driving four hours for 1-2 days of action isn't as enticing. It probably would have been enough reason to get me up there.
4. Thanks to everyone who put on the District final, particularly Mike Cassel for taking an interest in this important event and not allowing it to go neglected.

[Peg Kaplan]

I think that adding on the District 14 Finals to the Gopher is a reasonable idea. But I do not like the idea of doing it in the middle of the tournament.

Some teams have different line ups for GNT than they do for the Gopher. It would be a hardship for these teams to rearrange in the middle of the regional to accommodate the GNT. Also - it might be a turn-off for some other teams who aren't even eligible for GNT, because they would know the field for that knock-out would be much smaller.

What makes more sense to me is to start the GNT the day prior to the Gopher. Thus, we could have 2 sessions on Monday, and a morning and afternoon session on Tuesday. Then, assuming that the first events of the Gopher begin Tuesday evening, people could be eligible for those. Essentially, it would demand only one extra day for those wishing to compete both in the GNT and the Gopher.

I also think that it might work well for all flights, as Rich suggests.

[Steve]

Having the superflight during the Gopher is a good plan, but I think the GNT finals have to be on the weekend or we exclude those of us who still work. Only the Superflight should be at the tournament or we would lose a lot of tables. There are enough players who would play in both the GNT and the Gopher to avoid an 'either/or' choice for them.

[Tom Hammond]

Many thanks to Mike Cassel for making the Grand National Teams the first class event that it should be. His hard work has not gone unnoticed.

[Mike Cassel]

Thank you for all the feedback:
re. Rich's comments: don't think it's fair to make the entire district come to minnesota every year...& the Gopher table count would be badly affected by all flights playing. I have a lot of sympathy for the notion of holding a concurrent sectional, but there are money-sharing & other issues...

re. Peg's comments: wish I could say the 2nd or whatever KO would be "much" smaller..if even 5 teams signed up for the championship flight the directors could still insure that the top bracket was distinct (i think). Unless the money issue of paying a national director for sessions before the regional starts can be resolved, it is just financially infeasible to hold an event even for 6 topflight teams and not lose money. the issue of team configuration conflicts.. IS an issue

Steve: GNT finals that coincide with the 2nd KO at 1:30pm still allows for a 1/2 day of work... that means taking 1 full day of personal leave/sick/vacation. delaying the event to the weekend probably means a table count loss, when a thurs fri event might allow contestants to stay (and build back table count)over the weekend.

Tom: thanks... I see this event building even more positive momentum going forward. if you know, from your work with I/Ns how to best ignite their enthusiasm for this grass roots event, we could use some strategies

[Cindy Balderson]

Mike,

When are the points for the GNTs sent to the ACBL? They don't seem to be recorded yet.

Thanks