[hrothgar]

Hi All

I'm trying to determine whether there would be a market for "premium" tournaments.

Premium tournaments would support the following features:

1. Detailed hand records will be available for each hand immediately following the close of the event. Hand records will include the following components:

A. Par contracts for each hand

B. Suggested auctions and play for each hand for a "standard" system like 2/1 Game Force

C. Analysis by World Class level bridge player pointing out useful information regarding the bidding/defense

D. A histogram of scores

2. High quality directors

The "big" question is whether the this type of format could generate enough revenue to cover the fixed costs... Producing the hand records will cost the same, regardless of whether there are five people playing or 500.

Thoughts or comments are more than welcome:

In particular, I need to understand

1. Would people find this an attractive option
2. if so, how much would you pay per board?

[the hog]

Like the idea Richard. How much per board? Don't know....How about $5.00 US for 28 boards? This is about the same as I pay for ftf here.

[hrothgar]

Hi Ron

Thanks for the datapoint.
My "gut" says that $5 per tournament is about right.

Be interesting to see how the pricing dynamics work out.

[scoob]

i have yet to play in any of the tournaments here on BBO, but have been considering starting as of late.

i see alot of horror stories posted here on the forum about poorly run events and in some cases even worse from the players.

a tournament with the layout you've suggested sounds like it would go a long way to overcoming alot of the difficulties i've heard about (especially having 2 TD's present).. that's assuming, of course, that the players are less likely to mess with the tournament when they're putting up their own money.

i would defininetely be willing to give your tourneys a couple go's assuming the schedule suits my partner

[luke warm]

$5.00 is pricey, but i agree with ron.. it's about the same as i pay r/l now, so if there are 28 boards that works out fine... i think this (the price) might actually help some on the problems others have had re: cheating accusations...

i like it, but i wouldn't be able to go more than once, maybe twice, a week, so the schedule would be important to me

[MickyB]

I'm not keen on playing a tourney as long as 28 boards, and I suspect most feel the same. I'd recommend 12-18 boards.

[guggie]

Maybe 5$ is reasonable for a lot of work, but if you play one each week you are paying 250$ a year. The dutch bridgesite for instance charges 30$ a year. With all the payed tournaments now the costs for BBO do increase far beyond that amount.
On the one hand I think Fred, Uday and all others should be payed for their work. But i rather would pay 30-50$ a year to BBO than to these wildgrows of various tournaments. For players of some countries with fewer possibilities, also of electronic payment, a free bridgesite would be great and the only opportunity

On the other hand, before the start of the payed tournaments BBO was more fun, with the general feeling among TDs to give back free for what they got free.

[inquiry]

guggie, on Nov 27 2004, 10:48 PM, said:

Maybe 5$ is reasonable for a lot of work, but if you play one each week you are paying 250$ a year. The dutch bridgesite for instance charges 30$ a year. With all the payed tournaments now the costs for BBO do increase far beyond that amount.
On the one hand I think Fred, Uday and all others should be payed for their work. But i rather would pay 30-50$ a year to BBO than to these wildgrows of various tournaments. For players of some countries with fewer possibilities, also of electronic payment, a free bridgesite would be great and the only opportunity

On the other hand, before the start of the payed tournaments BBO was more fun, with the general feeling among TDs to give back free for what they got free.

Of course, one can play on BBO for free all year, including dozens of free tourneys each and every day.

As far af five dollars US for the premium tourney, it is twice as long at the 12 board thing people play one dollar for.. so the two dollars would seem to be short, but 5 dollars seems a tad high... I would think top out at 4 and maybe 3.50 would be a better price point. Having said that, I would guess I would pay 5 buck if the analysis was really good.

ben