A Rocky Mountain Hi

2007 saw the best regional attendance in ten years in District 17, and the third best ever. Leading the way were the Las Vegas regional, with attendance up 466 tables over 2006, Albuquerque plus 347, and Denver plus 336. Compared to 1997, total regional attendance in our district was up a solid ten percent. 1997 was also the last time I heard anybody say that bridge was a dying game.

Our partners in the Western Conference have also posted healthy gains over the past ten years, led by District 22 (southern California), up almost 30%. Their Palm Springs regional (3500+) is now the third largest in the ACBL. Las Vegas (4400+) remains in the number 2 spot.

Increased bridge activity in neighboring districts helps us it helps pay for our joint bridge newspaper, and it creates more regional players who might attend regionals in our district.

Left out of the California surge is Los Angeles (District 23), which is not part of the Western Conference and thus does not enjoy the promotional value of our newspaper. Since 1997 their regional attendance has dropped almost exactly 50%.

Sectionals and club games have also been hot in our district, and when you add another 7,000 people (worldwide) playing on Bridge Base or Okay Bridge at any time day or night, bridge is cooking.

According to the ACBL District 17 is number two (among 25 districts) in growth of membership over the past three years. Leading the pack are Carlsbad +19%, Laramie +19%, Northern Colorado +16.5%, and Boulder + 11.5%. Overall district membership is up about 1% over the past three years, while the ACBL is down about half of one percent.

The average age of ACBL members is 68 years and 4 months, and the average length of ACBL membership is over 20 years, proving once again that ACBL members live longer and know a good thing when they see it. Still, the ACBL needs to recruit about 11,000 new members each year just to replace those who have quit the league due to disinterest, illness or passing on. That works out to a new ACBL member every 45 minutes just to break even.

Sold out

Tournament organizers are always thrilled to hear that the guaranteed bloc of hotel rooms has sold out. Most hotel contracts stipulate that if room-nights are below 10% of the guarantee, the tournament buys them. 100 rooms at almost $100 a pop quickly adds up to $10,000 worth of empty rooms.

But if the room bloc sells out too quickly, the tournament must start turning away customers, and this is not good either. Often late customers can get the "normal" hotel rate, but they are not thrilled with paying an extra $60 or $70 per night. Accurately predicting attendance almost a year in advance has got to be the toughest game in town.

And it gets worse. When a tournament hotel sells out, the next year more people make their reservations even earlier. Often plans change as tournament time approaches, and then we have excessive cancellations.

A case in point is last year's Mesa Regional. According to Mesa district board member Dale Sweetwood, in 2006 the hotel sold out, so reservations for 2007 came in earlier than usual. Ten weeks before the tournament the hotel announced that the substantially discounted bridge bloc was sold out. A few weeks later the hotel added another 100 room-nights to the bloc, deliberately overbooking, and that too sold out quickly.

Except that nothing was really "sold"; it was only reservations. Over 250 room-nights, more than 30% of all reservations, cancelled at the last minute, with no penalty for the customers. Even though the hotel had been turning away bridge customers for ten weeks, the tournament ended up failing to meet its contractual guarantee.

In an effort to avoid this problem, some hotels have started charging a cancellation fee of $25 or $50. The hotel for this year's Mesa Regional requires a non-refundable payment of one night. This is certain to cause some unhappiness for some people, but what other solution is there?

Entry fees

I regret to announce that entry fees for District 17 regional have gone from $10 to $11. This is necessary to ensure that District 17 regionals continue to be a first-class experience for all our players. Inflation, although modest in recent years, continues to grind away. To meet the current three or four percent rate requires a ten percent increase every three years. The ACBL has been increasing fees for directors an average of 6.6 percent every year for the past seven or eight, and although this may be a worthy cause, it doesn't help our tournaments.

If you look around to other districts, you'll see that we're still on the cheap side. The ACBL now charges $14.50 for regional events at NABC's, and many sectionals and some club games are closing in on the $10 mark.

The additional $1 will initially be split evenly between the district and the host units. As we have done in the past, the district will increase the unit's share each year to help our tournaments meet increased expenses without having to increase entry fees.

The district will continue to try to spend its money wisely. We already provide each regional with up to $1000 in reimbursement for extra I/N entertainment, which is an investment in the future of bridge. And we have started paying for pre-duplicated boards for all regional pair games, which has added to our players' tournament experience. Our host units are likewise planning on using the money to provide more player amenities, and I'm sure they'd welcome suggestions.

Most expensive bridge tournament

Most everybody can name Bill Gates and Warren Buffett as our wealthiest tournament players, but number three may be a little tougher. Jimmy Cayne (or "Mr. Cayne" as he is known in some circles) holds more than a dozen national titles. In real life he is (was) the CEO of Bear Sterns, the fifth largest brokerage house in the U.S.

Bridge players have got to love this guy. He started his career by dropping out of college and becoming a bridge bum. He met a bridge player who was the CEO at the time. His nickname of "Ace" might tell you all you need to know. Mr. Cayne accepted Mr. Ace's offer of a real job, and worked his way up the ranks to become #1 at the firm.

Jimmy didn't stop playing high level bridge. According to a page one story in the November 1, 2007 Wall Street Journal, his people were unhappy that he was playing in the Nashville NABC while the firm was in the midst of a serious financial crisis (does two billion dollars meet your definition of "serious"). Some people were particularly upset that he was unreachable by cell phone most of the time. A few weeks ago he resigned. As a result of his firm getting sucked into the subprime morass, Mr. Cayne saw his net worth trimmed by half a billion dollars in just six months.

Next time, Jimmy just might keep his cell phone on and take the 3 imp penalty.

2008

As you've probably already heard 2008 will bring a full dose of red-point play for District 17, with an NABC in Las Vegas and an extra regional in Tucson. Coming attractions include the Tucson I/N Regional and the Las Vegas Regional in February, Mesa in April, Denver in May, and the Summer Las Vegas NABC in July. It should be a great year for playing bridge.