• There were 641 unique responses out of 3,629 surveys sent out via e-mail, approximately a 15% response rate.
• The highest response rate was from the larger divisions, men between the ages of 45-65. On the women’s responses the age dropped a bit with the highest range coming between the ages of 35-65. Overall more men responded then women
• The majority of responses indicated that people are playing tournaments for the following reasons (in rank order): competition, exercise, ranking, social, and location.
• Players are not playing in more events because of the following: (in order) location, schedule, money, time, and working commitment. More than half view the “location” of tournaments as their reason for not playing more events.
• On average the A/S player that was surveyed is playing 5-6 tournaments a year. Over 3700 tournaments were played in total by all respondents.
• Players strongly recommend adding the tournament site as a heading on the tournament homepage. Travel details were also highlighted(by this they mean, hotels, maps, activities)
• 87% of respondents say they play consolations
• Respondents draw type preference was very mixed with full feed-in taking the top spot and modified and first match losers coming in a close second.
• Players seem to prefer some sort of consolation over not having a consolation
. • 36% of respondents believe the point tables are correct in regards to Category II champions receiving more points than a Cat I finalist. While 42% are “not sure” if the point tables should increase the Category I quarterfinalist points. The 21% of people who are in favor of increasing the Cat I quarterfinalist points believe that on average 400-500 points for a Cat I quarterfinalist is the correct amount of points to be awarded
• More than half of the respondents don’t know what the relative rank weights or multipliers are.
• In regards to seeding criteria Head to Head, Ranking, and Current Standings ranked the highest (all three were about equal) in terms of importance towards seeding with Surface being least important.
• Respondents think we need more Category II events with over 60% thinking there were too few
• 36% of respondents think Category II tournaments are not well located geographically. Another 35% are “not sure.” Texas and the Eastern section were two sections recommended for more Category II events Long Boat Key Super Senior Grand Prix in Florida was one of the many specific recommended tournaments for Category II status.
• The majority of respondents prefer having a 3rd and 4th place playoff in all Category II events
Items/Recommendations Here is a quick review of general tournament recommendations made by respondents.
- Tournaments should be more weekend focused
- Change event locations more frequently, this is to say that having an event in the same place every year gets boring
- Lower the entry fees Spread the tournament schedule throughout the US in a more even way
- Tournaments should be guaranteeing more matches
- The seeding system should be more standardized
- Over 60% of respondents have never played on an Intersectional team
- Almost half of all respondents believe that there should be a minimum number of points required to receive a national ranking certificate. Most suggest 50-100 points be the minimum, but some think playing at least one match could be sufficient.
- 47% of respondents think we have enough multicultural participation in tournaments, but shockingly 38% were “not sure”. Many suggest advertising to a more targeted demographic would help.
All findings are based on survey results through April 1, 2008.
Summarized by Jeremiah Yolkut
A detailed summary response will post in early June.