Event #1 WCOAP World Amateur Team Championship

[Careybear]

S there any charge for the team shirts for this Leigh?

£15 per shirt

Would have been nice to know this sooner I thought the shirts came with the buy in of the tournament....I didn"t tell anyone on my team that there was a charge for the shirt....

[Careybear]

Since it wasn"t announced that we had to pay for shirts this year we only need 3 shirts for our team because 2 people from my team already have shirts and don"t want a new one so please cancel two of the shirts...This should have been on the announcement for the team event from the start...So we"ll only need the 3 XL shirts thank you...

Carey

[zzBlizzardzz]

Really? £15 per shirt? This is the first year that there has been a charge for these so unprepared for this really. I havent told any of our guys this so by way of not getting off on a bad start I will be paying for all our shirts. Is there an option of getting our own shirts with our own designs and personalisation, maybe for next year?

[zzBlizzardzz]

Can I recommend that APAT just include these in the juice next year. £125 per player, £600 per team. Just feels a little better then having to buy the shirts as an extra.

[Des]

Sorry if you and your team weren"t aware of this Craig.  I"ve already discussed in detail with Carey.  Players have paid cost price on their shirts for the last two international team events -the ECOAP at DTD in Aug 2012 and the Home Internationals in Stoke in Nov 2011.  Of course we haven"t had a World event with the US and Canada teams in it since Aug 2011 and we"ve made a lot of changes since then on the pricing front, hence the oversight on my part.  Plus we"ve just confirmed the cost price with the manufacturer and it comes to £14.70 inc Vat per shirt, so we"re asking the players to pay £15 per shirt for ease of handling change - which is less per shirt than the last two events I believe.  APAT has added five bracelets and presentation boxes on top of the medals to the prize pool, so we aren"t in a position to continue paying £1,500 in shirt costs for such a small event player numbers wise, but again apologies to any of our players that has been caught out by this late cost.  It"s my fault, and believe me - if we could swallow the cost of shirts for everyone, then we would.  We don"t like getting it wrong, but sometimes we just have to hold our hands up when we do.

On your other question, the price of the shirts is determined to some degree by the final number of teams taking place and quantities ordered - which makes it difficult to confirm what the exact price up front to include within the buy in.

[Laxie]

This came up with other team players at the week-end too.  We don"t think APAT should pay for the shirts either.  We understand the pressure APAT is under with added expense, so it was suggested the price of the shirts just come out of the prize pool. 

Players are under pressure as well.  This idea would still cover price of shirts out of our own pockets, while having been already been budgeted in. 

The team event is more about pride than prize pool anyway, so win win, no?

[AMRN]

This came up with other team players at the week-end too.  We don"t think APAT should pay for the shirts either.  We understand the pressure APAT is under with added expense, so it was suggested the price of the shirts just come out of the prize pool. 

Players are under pressure as well.  This idea would still cover price of shirts out of our own pockets, while having been already been budgeted in. 

The team event is more about pride than prize pool anyway, so win win, no?

I tend to agree with Dawn on this (OMG!), and that the buy in and prize pool is of secondary concern at this team event...  in my opinion, it would carry just as much weight and value if the buy in were nominal, or even zero.  Taking the cost of the shirts from the current £100+£10 would get my vote (and the vote of the rest of the England team)

Of course, other countries, particularly those with significant travel costs, may have a different view.

[zzBlizzardzz]

Thanks for the information Des. Im not whining on about this to be fair, its only £15 per and isnt really a big deal to me. What I am concerned about is keeping the event an honour to play and not about the money, hey, dont get me wrong, I love the money but this event is more than that. Its about the pride and honor of representing your country and thats what it should be to be honest. I think the £15 for a shirt kind of undervalues that. I, like Dawn, dont think APAT should have to foot the bill either, but I think it should come as a package. I understand that there is an issue regarding how many shirts will be required and as such has some effect on a bulk purchase order. To eliminate this I would suggest in future that the £15 be added to the entry and be £125 per player (£600 per Team) then borrowing Dawns suggestion if there is additional costs for the shirts that additional amount be taken from the prize pool to save APAT any oncost. In this way players are pruchasing the shirts, which I dont think they mind anyway and APAT doesnt have to take a loss. Happy Happy. I dont know just a thought really. Any other suggestions?? But your right Des, all the other teams do get alot more practice during the year and are able to enter more tournaments than Team Canada and Team USA, nice of you to bring that up. Can we have a Team North America takes on the World Event, like a Ryders Cup if you will? Just a thought.

[Mikeyboy9361]

Can"t believe people are whining about the cost of a shirt, most people would be delighted to get the chance just to play in this event!

[frankieb]

Have to agree with Dawn and Steve.Take the cost of the shirts from the prize pool.Money is tight for most players so this would be the best way to keep the overall cost down.I would play for zero prize money to play in this tournament.To play for your country and enjoy the experience of international team play is what the WCOAP Team Championship event is all about. When Ireland won the European Team Championship last August I was 100% focused on winning the tournament and the gold medal,I honestly did not think of the money aspect of the win at all.So Dawns suggestion would have my vote for this misunderstanding.

[Fatcatstu]

Can"t believe people are whining about the cost of a shirt, most people would be delighted to get the chance just to play in this event!

No one is whining as far as I can see, it"s a valid point being raised by people in a more than reasonable manner. There is no one saying they aren"t going to play, people are just exploring possibilities.

[zzBlizzardzz]

Nobody is whining about it. Its a valid point. I dont think anyone has a clue what we go through to get a team for this event. I know Team Canada are about £2000 in the hole when we walk in the door. Never mind the weeks and months its taken to get a team together. Its a bit different when youve got 200 players to choose from. But when youve got 5 and thats all youve got, you really dont want to piss people off at the last minute. Other teams can say. Right you dont want to pay, you cant pay? No problem, we go to next on the list.

[AAroddersAA]

Can"t believe people are whining about the cost of a shirt, most people would be delighted to get the chance just to play in this event!

I don"t think anybody is whining to be fair.

I would assume there are two shirts per person so the total cost of the event is £140. I would have said that having a £10 reg fee, £30 for two shirts and £70 popped into the prize pool would make most of the players happy as the event is not about the prize pool in any way (personally I would still want to play it and do just as well and want to win it as much with no prize pool at all). With this in mind I would also support taking the cost of the shirts out of the prize pool and would like to see this done in future events. I agree the cost should not be paid by APAT. After the event it might be worth a discussion about what is a reasonable buyin for this event as I would have thought most of the players would prefer a lower buyin (would be happy to still pay the reg fee).

*Disclaimer - The above views are my own and do not automatically represent the views of the rest of the Welsh team for this event.

[fandango]

When England win Gold, I"m going to put my spare shirt on E-bay.. Then I"m going to be a mirrionaire!!!!  

[Des]

I will discuss this question with the twelve captains and if they all agree to the shirts money being deducted from the prize pool, then we will do so.  If one team disagrees, then we will not be managing in that way. 

However, we can certainly look at this in more detail for the following year.

I will communicate feedback before the event.