For me racing in the cen div and living in Montana, if it is not a double divisional or national, it's not for me. When I commit to a race weekend, I like to see practice on friday, race sat & sun . In an ideal world, I'd like to see all SCCA events, (regional & national) be doubles.

Trey
04
Central Division

Butch Kummer wrote:Maybe instituting a similar arrangement in NEDiv would help sell the concept of multiple double weekends?

Somebody (Gomberg) correct me if I'm wrong, but the problem in NEDiv was that there were *too many* events going on, including several regions holding double nationals. The result was low attendance (not enough drivers to fill up all the competing events) and regions losing money. Too much of a good thing... This year's NEDiv schedule is a thing of beauty with no conflicting Nationals iirc, and I raise a glass to all those people who made it work.

Elizabeth, actually the only Double in the NE has conflicts at both the Glen and NH. If the problem was too many events (and I think you are right on recalling that), then the ones they do have that don't have conflicts, should be able to get away with successful Doubles. Having Doubles doesn't hurt the attendance, it was conflicts, and most of the events (but the one Double) don't have conflicts (ironic).

Steve, I'm glad you posted about that, because I've been looking at an older schedule. Still, I think this is the most balanced schedule we've seen in NEDiv in many seasons, and all the regions will benefit from this cooperative effort.

Going back 15 years (or maybe more, my memory is fuzzy), the problem wasn't conflicts, it was too many Nationals and the low entries that caused - and back then they were all singles. Agreement was reached that there would only be one National per region/per track. It was only later that doubles came into the picture. While it is obviously true that doubles are economically more attractive to competitors, the effect on entries for the single events is devastating when there are too many doubles. But, that's not all there is to it. Consider what would happen if every National in NEDIV was a double. What would entries at those events look like? The decision to limit the number of doubles was simply a recognition of the fact that having too many doubles is unsustainable over the Division as a whole. (Ask the regions in SEDIV that don't do doubles how the proliferation of doubles is working for them.)

Dave

dave gomberg wrote:(Ask the regions in SEDIV that don't do doubles how the proliferation of doubles is working for them.)

Dave,

There's only one region in SEDiv that doesn't do a double and I understand they've decided not to in 2012 because of concerns about Friday staffing. They also declined to do "back-to-back" weekends with our Atlanta Region (double) event in an attempt to attract snowbirds that aren't ready to tow to South Florida in January but MAY be more inclined to make a 10-hour shorter tow in March.

Perhaps your information is more current than mine, but I'm reporting what their RE told me. I'll ask again next weekend at our SEDiv convention.

Again, what (you think) works for NEDiv doesn't necessarily work in all divisions.