I"m sure there are lots of things you will want to put on the table, but some of the things that I"m interested in hearing your views on are as follows:-
Buy ins - Stay at £75? Increase? Decrease? Side events?
Please keep this at £75 + 10%. Any higher prices out the couples (Joobs & I, Andy & Debs etc) and this will lead to an idea later.Festival style three and four day events - good? or too long?
Only for the worlds and the ECOAP.Timing - An event every month, every two months, or four big festivals every year maybe?
If you were going to do it every month, then I would propose 6 £75 events, 5 £50 events (team games, mixed game champs, who knows) and the £100 event at the end.WCOAP - Should it extend further with the addition of two day side events and an even larger main event?
If the venue can do it, then yes. 2 day side events and a 3 day Worlds could probably work. It would take some scheduling though. The only other suggestion I have for the Worlds is a Women"s event, as we really don"t have that many Women on the tour and since the Betfred tour died, I think that"s a bit of an untapped market.Team events - Should we invite multiple teams from same communities? structure?
Some of the teams chosen for the last forum event kinda took the proverbial. 1 team per forum please. I"m pretty sure we could find 25 forums to play.Formats - Should we be looking to include anything new? Should we run one of the nationals in a different format, outside of the WCOAP and ECOAP?
I like the idea of a mixed game championship but this could be trialled at a smaller buyin. The only other thing I could suggest is running a 3-day national over Fri/Sat/Sun if the demand is there - maybe start the Friday in the evening and play 40m levels Day 1/45m Day 2.Registration - Thoughts on satellites, direct buy in via client, generic satellite packages versus specific satellite packages, should satellites packages include a contribution towards travel and hotel?
Generic would work. Travel and Hotel only works if APAT would be willing to book the hotel, I think, and I don"t think that"s a good idea. Seat only for now would be my suggestion.Seat reservation - Should this continue? If so, why? If we added a Paypal button to enable players to pay the 10% fee upfront, would this work? So players not taking up their reservation would lose the fee element of their buy in?
Maybe reserve a % of the seats for events we know are going to be of a high uptake. Last thing we need is players not bothering to travel cos they think the event is full and then have it not sell out because poker players are far too lazy to unreserve their seat. As for the reservation fee, I wouldn"t bother with that, if the facility is there to pay the reservation fee (and Paypal won"t work) then just have us pay the full £82.50.Locations - Overseas? New locations? For example we could take the ECOAP to Western Europe. Would players come, if destination was cheap and outside of holiday periods?
OMG Please new UK locations! I would be amazed if we could get a schedule without Luton in it. Maybe try areas I think APAT hasnt been to before, eg Didsbury/Liverpool/Southend etc. As long as they are easy to get to by public transport then all is good.Commercial - To increase our budgets we might ask you to qualify for events at a third party site, or join us for a crazy night of blackjack or slots tournaments. Is this acceptable, not acceptable, would stop you playing, etc?
Wouldnt stop me playing APAT but I wouldn"t do this. I save up to play for APATs and have had issues in the past with slots, to the point I bar myself from some sites because of the casino. Without naming names - I"m not the only one who could be tempted and potentially slip back down.Awards - Further develop the medals? More bracelets? Differentiate between live and online event awards? Added value?
Bracelets for the Worlds only please. Except for the Cash Championship - I don"t think that should get a bracelet personally.Merchandise - Should we sell stuff? Shirts, cards, chip set, card protectors? How deep should the range be? High quality or cheap? Would you buy high resolution pictures of yourself at events, branded with the event name, APAT logo and in an APAT sleeve?
Merchandise is good. If you can figure out a way to use FPP"s to buy it then you"re onto something there...