Quoted from jgentry:So people are really upset about a $1 increase that goes 100% back to the state and national winners? Is it $1 per player per tourney?
If that's all it is people need to spend a little more time focusing on real problems in the world. Who really freaking cares, it's $1. If you can't afford that you couldn't afford to get to the tourney to begin with. Don't tell me its the principle of the matter either. I'm sick of everyone and their principles on everything.
I have three problems with the $1 implementation.
1. I spend time organizing, promoting and running the tournaments. The IFPA is going to waste my time submitting the $1 after each tournament. Now I have to give them my credit card each time, subtract that from the prize fund and pay myself back. You might say that only takes 10 minutes, but that's time I could be doing something else, like putting up a Facebook post, or updating the event listing on our league website.
2. They won't give a pass to charity tournaments. Nothing like digging your hand into the pocket of people trying to raise money to support a local charity.
3. Although the $1 cash grab is "supposed" to grow the sport of pinball, I'm just not understanding how that's going to happen. The money is going into the pockets of the top players. The theory is that larger prize pools will generate more interest from sponsors, which leads to bigger prize pools (for their pockets) and the ultimate growth of pinball.
My issue is that I've never hear of anyone saying "Wow, the top prize for the Master's Golf Tournament is $1.9 million. I'm going to go join a golf league."
If they would have said, we'll be using the $1 to promote local tournaments in your area. Or the $1 will be used for targeted Facebook advertising. That would be something I could get behind. Telling me that I need to collect, submit and account for $1 / person / event so they can stuff it in their pockets, isn't doing it for me.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying their shouldn't be some type of compensation for their time and effort. But then again, I pay back 100% of the take for all of my events and they have sponsors.