Rule Change: Disadvantages?

[lpskier]

AWSA recently approved a rule change allowing a single tournament to sanction for four rounds instead of the former maximum of three. Thus, instead of sanctioning a two round tournament on Saturday and getting a second two round sanction for Sunday, the tournament organizer can sanction a single tournament with two rounds Saturday and two on Sunday (among other possible combinations).

 

Under IWWF rules you can only have one ranking list score from an individual site per year.

 

The obvious advantage to the organizer is saving a sanction fee and avoiding some administrative steps. If the tournament is an L/R, the athletes don't run the risk of losing a good score since they can only take one score from the site anyway.

 

On the disadvantage side, the officials will only get one credit for the weekend instead of two, which could be a disappointment for those trying to promote or needing credits to avoid a downgrade. Skiers that might only wish to ski one day or the other may have to pay an entry fee priced for four rounds (though alternative pricing structures may be available. At LaPoints, you can enter by the round).

 

Aside from what I've noted, are there any other disadvantages to having a single four round L/R sanction instead of a pair of two round sanctions? Is there anything about the sanction option that is unattractive to athletes or officials, or that would dissuade you from entering? (For C/E events, there may be different considerations.)

 

As a tournament organizer, I think I like the change. The purpose of the question is to make sure I'm not missing something that would dissuade folks from entering or helping out, or overlooking some other important factor.

[Luzz]

Very interesting. I know in the Europe & Africa region they have been allowing four sanctioned rounds in a weekend for a while. For instance, the San Gervasio Pro Am is 2 qualifying rounds plus 8-skier h2h bracket, which leaves the final h2h unsanctioned (last year Manon skied .5@41 in the final… would have been the new European record… damn). I think one advantage is that you can play around with tournament formats a bit and get an extra round. e.g.

3 rounds + final

2 qualifying rounds and 4-skier h2h bracket

Ideally (tho this would be quite brutal), a 16-skier h2h bracket

2 rounds, semis, and finals

 

I am sure others will have better pros and cons, but this is the one that, as a fellow organizer, I thought of straight away :smile:

[LeonL]

For some situations it's a disadvantage to skiers. If you travel and stay overnight, two three rounders are more appealing to me. I know the sanction fee is less with the one four round but you can recoup that on entry fees for six rounds.

[John Brooks]

@lpskier One disadvantage is if I do not care about IWWF rankings, only about AWSA rankings, I get one score from the weekend vs 2 toward my AWSA ranking list status.

[skier2788]

Think anyone is crazy enough for a 2 day four rounds each day weekend....