A New Year’s Resolution
I believe that virtually everyone who loves this game and is on this forum can agree with the following two statements:
Tournament backgammon, more than anything else, needs two things:
- More new players, and
- A way to keep more people coming back once they do play in a tournament.
(We also need sponsorship money, but that is more likely to come if our numbers improve.)
As for Item 1, I have seen impressive numbers relative to the number of people in the world who already enjoy backgammon, but who don’t play match play or in tournaments. Of course many of these players are not geographically located where tournaments are a practical option, and many are constrained by economics and other priorities such as family, work, and school. But even many of these people could become involved if there were more local clubs and events. We need to help and encourage the formation and support of local clubs all over the world… that’s where a great majority of our tournament players are spawned. Clubs have pretty much been formed and survive because of one or two people who put in the effort to start, promote, and run the club. There is much more we can do to find and support people like this all over the world instead of waiting for each person to try to reinvent the wheel and do it all on his own.
But even in major centers there are hundreds of thousands of backgammon players who have never played in a live event. There are many who have never played on a board – only on the internet. We need to find a way to reach these people and encourage them to come to a live event, we need to show them how interesting and fun match play and live play is, and when they come, we need to get them interested and excited to come back.
And of course, there are many people who don’t play backgammon at all that, if exposed to the game, would love it and eventually become avid tournament players.
Let’s ask if we are doing what we can to reach these people. I know it takes money for mass marketing and advertising, and I know we don’t have that kind of money, but there are others ways to reach the public using the resources we have, and the best resource we have is us. The players who love the game. With some good tools, ideas, leadership and coordination each of us can become ambassadors for the growth of the game and by volunteering a little of our time in the right ways and places, we can bring more people into the game. It starts with a desire to do this, then a plan, and then encouragement to execute.
Relative to No. 2, let’s find out why so many people who have been to a live tournament have stopped coming. Is it too expensive? Do they feel they have little chance to win? Is the commitment of an entire weekend more than many people are willing to make? Have they won in Intermediate but feel they have no chance in Open so they stop competing? Is it because we don’t offer things for their families to do while they play? I know that all of these reasons have been given, but what have we done to solve these objections?
I’m not suggesting we have to completely change tournament formats and pricing, but maybe we can offer alternatives, like a 4 hour one-day event for beginners instead of making them commit to an entire weekend. (Or offer an event on Saturday and another on Sunday so they can play in either or both depending on their schedule.) Maybe we can offer a division between intermediate and open for those players who feel lost when forced to move up, or maybe a graduated entry fee for the first year they have to play open. Maybe we assign every Novice player a mentor for the weekend to guide them and make them feel welcome. Maybe we can offer free lessons for kids and families of players and make sure there are tours and things for the families. Maybe we can have lower entry fees and still allow the directors to make money by charging a registration fee and simply lowering the prize money in the lower divisions. Maybe we just do this at some tournaments and see how it works.
It’s the start of a new year. Let’s stop automatically doing things pretty much the same way it has always been done, and let’s be creative and find ways to do the two things we almost all agree would be great for the game: bring in more new players, and keep more of the players we have coming.
Another thing I think a bigger club scene would help with is filling in the gaps between casual evenings and full weekend tournaments. Evening club championships, club-v-club days, and one-day events (like the Manchester Monthlys) would be a good step for improving club players who want something a bit more competitive than casual evenings and chouettes, but who don’t feel ready to commit an entire weekend plus hotel and travel bills – or who have families and jobs to think of.
Impossible when a lot of people complained about paying 40£ for 1 year membership. It seems it s all about money after all and although they’re enough money in the backgammon community, it s hard to make them put it “on the table”. Many of the UKBGF members will say that ,, backgammon it s my life” BUT how much are you willing to pay for your ‘life’…..
1 ) More Tournament Players
2 ) Keep players coming back once they have played in a Tournament
The Key to this is to have a much larger pool of players playing in local clubs !
I’m guessing that a large percentage of Tournament Players actually play regularly in their local clubs…………
Once in a club they soon learn of other clubs and the bigger Tournaments !
So once we get to a stage of having more clubs and players problem No. 2 will rectify itself !
Yes some may not return for various reasons but the attendees would be so great, that would not be the issue ! The new issue would be how to run a Tournament with hundreds of Players !
So to build this Skyscraper we need Good Quality, Firm Foundations !
The Foundations obviously being the Local Clubs !
So onto creating Fantastic Clubs ! We don’t want Good we want Fantastic !
In my opinion there are 2 essential elements to a Fantastic Club !
1 ) The Venue…….The venue must be Warm, Inviting, Friendly, Comfortable, Clean
and offer Good Food all with a great atmosphere !
Example : The Clissold Arms in Finchley……..This is a great Pub Restaurant with ample room.
It meets all the above along with great hospitality and hence is a joy to spend the evening there. So Guess What ? 35 Players Plus regularly attend ! And what’s more, when new Players come they return ! It is also much more appealing to Beginners as they can relax and learn in an environment Backgammon should be played in ! Actually this club has more beginner players than any other club I got to !
So the Lesson is………New Players come back to a Great Venue ! And hence the Club will Grow !
2 ) The Location……….In my opinion the Location needs to have Easy Parking on a Main Rd ( The reason for this I will explain later ) and preferably be on a Bus Route or near a Tube Station if in London. Basically have easy access however you get there.
So how do we grow clubs once started with little money ? ………….
I have a few ideas………..
1 ) A simple A Board standing outside the Venue saying something like Backgammon Night every Tuesday etc……Just placed outside on the night.
My local St. Albans club is on a busy road ! How many people pass each Tuesday and have no idea what is going on inside ? Had there been an A Board outside, no doubt I would have found the club 15 years before I did…….Maybe some of you are saying ” Just as Flipping Well ” ! Lol……. It’s just a very effective way of spreading the word !
2 ) When a new Player attends give them an Info Pack………
With a list of Venues, Websites, The current years Open Tournaments etc…..
Also a Live BG Etiquette Guide as no doubt some players have only played online.
A list of Good Books and whatever you feel appropriate.
3 ) Give the Players some Flyers to put up in their work places or wherever they can.
4 ) Now here is a problem we have in the game……..I’m sure Some Players who play at their clubs don’t go to Open Tournaments because they feel they are not good enough or feel overwhelmed by the whole idea of going to a Big Event. One reason for this I feel is the wording the major tournaments use on their web pages. Such as Masters ! This surely should not be used as I would say about 95 % are not of that standard that enter ! To many Players who have not gone before they would just think ” Well that’s not for me ” Even the wording Intermediate will put some Players off ! Basically you are making them judge their own ability and hence putting them off !
I’m not sure of the answer to this but I am convinced that this terminology is just wrong.
Well it is wrong ! If there was a true Masters Competition in this country. How many players would be involved ?
There also must be no end of players who play online who are hesitant wether to go or not !
Maybe there should be an Online Players section on the UKBGF site to draw them in. Then hopefully they will start playing in Live Tournaments.
5 ) Each Open Tournament should have a lot more Statistical Data on view just to create more interest and talking topics. Such as a List of the Players and attached to their names. The Club they are representing. This will make them feel they are playing for their clubs as well as themselves. Example : Sean Clennell……St Albans Club ! Tariq Siddiqi……Ealing Club !!!…….Anna Price……The Camden Club ! Then each club TD can encourage more of their players to go for club status as it were !
There could even be an Inter Club side Tournament at some Opens. Obviously a very limited number of players to fit it in time wise……..
So basically we need a Club Template which works……Then encourage new Clubs to copy it………
Just one more thought……….The Tipping Point !
By this I mean the Point at which a New Player becomes Addicted !
This is the point we need new players to reach and hence become regulars at Club level and enter Opens !
So where is the Tipping Point ?
Firstly we learn the rules and basics of the game. Then we play game after game. You then get to a point of monotony. So you stop playing ! Then you end up playing every now and again !
But one day, if you are lucky, a Knight in Shinning Armour will come along and introduce you to The Cube !
He will explain the basics of Cube Action……..You can Take it ! Give it ! Drop it !
At first it’s newness and being weary of the unknown makes you feel unsure wether to play with it or not ! But your Knight makes you persevere. So you do. The more you play the more confident you get ! It becomes a whole new entity and changes the game drastically ! This is where you cross the Tipping Point !
Backgammon without the Cube is Fun !
Backgammon with the Cube should be Illegal ! ( Way too Addictive ! )
Thanks Phil for all your thought-provoking comments and suggestions. Members of the UKBGF Board, as well as players and committee members at our local Ealing club, have already made progress with some of the things you suggest.
I agree that an adequate network of local Backgammon clubs is essential if we are to grow the game. We try to make all new players welcome at the Ealing club: complete beginners are looked after by one of our regular players and all first-time visitors to the club pay no fee at all to play. During the first year or so of the club’s existence we sometimes struggled to keep going; now (three and a half years down the line) we regularly get 16 or more players along to the weekly club night. Of course I’m not saying we shouldn’t be doing more…
Nationally, the UKBGF Clubs Grant initiative gives a cash grant of £100 to help kick start a backgammon club – see http://ukbgf.com/the-new-club-start-up-assistance-scheme/
This money can used in any legitimate way to help the club, for example advertising and/or buying boards: the club organiser just has to tell us what the money will be used for. This initiative has already helped to get several new clubs off the ground.
We, like you Phil, also realised that having to play backgammon solidly for two whole days can be a big deterrent for beginners and ‘social’ players who are thinking about going to a weekend tournament. Our UK Open has for the last two years run two separate one-day Swiss events (one on each day) for the less committed players, with a nominal entry fee, attractive prizes and moderately successful attendance figures.
In reply to Paul Shaw, I completely agree that membership fees should be lower for under 16’s. Actually we’ve already gone much further than that: Basic membership of the UKBGF is completely free for under 18’s and Premium membership is half the adult price. For those over 18 but under 21 at the date of joining, half fees apply for either Basic or Premium membership. This is detailed on our Join page – see http://ukbgf.com/join/ – but perhaps we should be shouting it from the rooftops much more than we already are!
Regarding a welcome letter (also suggested by Paul) – sending one in the post would be more time-consuming and expensive than an email. After the initial flood of joiners in May, I have become more organised and now I do indeed send out a personal “thank you for joining the UKBGF” email to every new member. The UKBGF Board recognises that we need the approval and support of all the members and we certainly don’t take this for granted. Expect more direct email communication between the Board and the membership in future.
It is difficult with limited resources and unpaid volunteers to do everything we would like to. Nevertheless suggestions and constructive criticism are always welcome – we don’t always get things right and others might have great ideas which we haven’t thought of. Remember that you can send any general comments to contact@ukbgf.com, or email individual Board members: see http://ukbgf.com/the-organisers/ for their email addresses.
Finally, happy Christmas to all UKBGF members. To those who aren’t yet members….why not buy yourself a Christmas present of UKBGF membership? We currently have 212 members. With 1000 members (and there are now more than this number of players on the UKBGF Rating System) we could do much more, for the benefit of all UK players. Joining online takes about five minutes. Here’s the link again – http://ukbgf.com/join/
Well said Peter – I read this when Phil posted it on bgonline last week, and at the time my thoughts were along the lines of “the UKBGF has tackled a lot of these issues already”. Keep up the good work!
Just read the joining page again and I think I must have been blind to not notice the under 18’s joining note.
Maybe I missed it because it doesn’t apply to me.
I will be seeing my 10yr old nephew today who is very keen so expect an email to join him up.
Although I have played and loved Backgammon for 25 years, I was, until very recently, totally unaware of the Backgammon Community. The only reason I started looking for a club to play in was because my wife got fed up of me thrashing all of my family. When I joined the Bristol Club in the autumn of 2015, I felt like a piece of me had been found but I also felt like I had lost so much time. If only I had joined when I was 23 and not 32. My game has drastically improved and although I’m still thrashing my family, I have learned skills within the game that have allowed me to start coaching my nephew. I know why there are particular moves and so I can coach a theory to the youngsters now.
I don’t know how we should be making the game more accessible, but if I had been brought into the fold earlier then it would have been awesome.
One thing that immediately springs to mind are membership fees. while these are fine for adults I feel that there should be a reduced fee for under 16’s.
I’m sure this would increase membership.
When I was younger I joined numerous clubs and society that I was interested in. This in the main gave me a feeling of belonging and spurred me on to study and find out more about my chosen interest.
Also when someone joins it would be nice to receive some sort of confirmation or welcome letter in the post/email. (or is this just me being old fashioned)
Apart from that you are all doing a great job….MERRY CHRISTMAS..
This article reminded me of what I wrote nearly a year ago: http://ukbgf.com/getting-backgammon-map/ – and I still believe the layer that is most important is the local club. Online sites and phone apps are getting casual players in – I see a lot of people on my daily commute who just pick up something for their iPad and have a little fun knockabout with it like they would with Candy Crush. Our larger tournaments appear to be thriving – Blackpool sold out six months in advance, BMS has expanded from 16 to 24 seats, the UK Open is close to the limits of its venue. And in between, our local clubs are the glue that hold these ends of the spectrum together.
Looking at our map now, some of the huge gaps back then have been plugged by tenacious volunteers, who deserve all the thanks! But we still have no-one in Wales, few in East Anglia, few in Scotland. So it’s been a positive year, but still plenty of scope for more in 2016…
Good one Phil, I don’t know what the answers are either, but it does require new thinking to keep a flow of new players coming through and retain those that we already have. Perhaps we need to look at other sports and games for ideas. UKBGF has done well to push membership over 200, but perhaps in a country of 60 million people, we might ask why it isn’t 10,000! That is no reflection on the board by the way, for whom I have great admiration. A thriving club in every town is probably the answer.