Re: 2003 NAQT ICT to be held in Los Angeles

Jason:

Speaking for those of us in the beautiful town we call Urbana-
Champaign, it would be very hard for us to get out there to LA in 
terms of money.  This is because Southwest does not fly out of our 
main airport (Willard Airport in Champaign) or the other close one, 
Bloomington.  Flights out of Indianapolis or Midway would cost (as a 
friend of mine has just informed me) about $500 roundtrip for each of 
our players.  Four players to a team, that's 2000 big ones per team 
that we qualify.  And that's just airfare.  Add on the one night stay 
in the hotel room for eight people, and that's at least a hundred 
dollars more. 2100 bucks.  I don't know about your program, but we 
certainly don't have that kind of cash sitting around.

I'll definitely grant you that West Coast teams probably have had it 
worse than most of the Midwest and East teams in terms of traveling, 
and yes, that sucks, but I'll just say this:  I think that NAQT would 
probably make more money if they had the ICT somewhere in the Midwest 
or in the East, because teams from those areas (who make up the 
majority of College Bowl teams in the nation, mind you) would be more 
likely to come if they've qualified.

Last year, we drove 14 hours to get to UNC to play in the ICT, and we 
thought that was a pretty long drive, relatively speaking.  According 
to Mapquest, driving to LA would be about 33 hours, not to mention 
those tiny hills called the Rockies.

Anyway, that's just my opinion with some reason thrown in for good 
measure.  Let the serving-up begin, Mr. Paik.

Sudheer
Treasurer, UIUC Academic Buzzer Team

--- In quizbowl_at_y..., jpaikman <no_reply_at_y...> wrote:
> A) Prices for flights to LAX aren't that expensive, since it's 
served 
> by Southwest.
> 
> B) You end up spending the whole day flying anyways, wherever 
you're 
> going.
> 
> C) It's unfair to teams on the west coast to penalize them for the 
> entire history of NAQT to make them go to the midwest, east, or 
> whatever.
> 
> If you want more reasons, backchannel me and I'll serve you up, 
Suds.
> 
> Jason Paik
> Quiz Bowl Ronin

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