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It was interesting to listen to the discussion about the decline of competitions here in the US. This is something that the pattern guys have talked about quite a bit and I'm not sure there is a simple answer. I have thought that there has been a change in direction away from structured competitions in general. Why? Not sure...
I think that one of the only facets that isn't seeing a large decline in participation is pylon racing. Surprisingly, there are a lot of these events still going on, and they actually turn people away to keep the events from getting too large to run efficiently. Here in California and the West in general, the warbird racing is a huge deal with a large number of competitors.
Other facets though, specifically Pattern and IMAC have seen some decline. Maybe due to the economy, it's expensive to travel to contests, but I think part of it is a lack of interest in disciplined competition. It's pretty hard work to work your way up from Sportsman class to FAI in Pattern. There isn't a lot of recognition, there aren't a lot of hype around the sport in general, and it's actually kind of boring to watch, and most think that it would be boring to do. Same for IMAC. How many times have you seen a video on the forums or Facebook with the caption, "Check out this rolling circle!". While challenging, fun for some, it's not exciting. And frankly, it's hard work... I think there is some aversion, at some level, to the discipline required for competing in these types of events.
I know there are other reasons, but these are some thoughts that have been kicked around a bit.
How to overcome it? Not sure, it really depends on the event.
But to the discussion about lack of heli events... A previous poster had it dead on, if you want it, put it together. Start a SIG and put together a structure to do these types of contests and see how it goes. I think there would be interest in it, but it would have to be marketed correctly. There was some interest a few years back in putting together an F3C event here on the West Coast, even some US Team Members volunteering to come out to help get it of the ground. It never really went anywhere because nobody was willing to put together an event not knowing if there would be enough interest. I can definitely understand that.
I have CD'd a few Pattern Contests. I have had as many as 35 contestants (a fairly large number for a local contest) and as few as 9. It was actually a lot more difficult to run a contest with 9 contestants, A LOT more difficult. You have to have two judges, somebody to run the scores, a pilot, and a caller, and somebody on deck ready to fly. Assuming the person doing the scores is also flying, that's six people already! As a contestant you are either flying, getting ready to fly, or judging. It's rough, and as a CD it's really hard to work out who is going to do what and when.
With that said, a small event is something that you actually need a lot more support than you would think to run. After a couple of contests with 12 or less contestants, we discontinued the contest as it was simply unfair for the club to give up the field for a weekend for something so small. Every year we asked if people wanted it, and they always said yes, but nobody showed up. I think interest is on the rise now, but there are still low turnout contests every season here for both Pattern and IMAC, and that's too bad.
We've had problems trying to pull local flyers into fun flys as well. The reason is simple, they don't fly at clubs and are unwilling to pay for AMA. We actually had a guy who would post about wanting to have more fun flys locally, but in the end wouldn't come to ours because he said he couldn't afford AMA. The irony was that he had in his fleet, Logos, TDRs, Goblins, etc... Nice guy, but never could understand that.
In our area I think we are seeing a real trend away from organized clubs, and if it's like that in the rest of the country, that could also be a reason competitions are seeing decreasing participation.
FWIW...
Tom M
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