Countdown begins for Sacramento: Vote is Sept. 2007
Sometime in September 2007, delegates to the WMA General Assembly attending the world masters championships in Riccione will hear presentations from two Western Hemisphere cities. Porto Alegre, Brazil, will have the backing of powerful WMA President Cesare Beccalli. Sacramento, California, will be represented by the savvy Sacramento Sports Commission. Dunno what Brazil will say on its behalf. But details are trickling in on Sacto’s bid.
From a friend in Northern California comes this note:
“We have been working on this for some time and wanted to make sure things were done properly, following all protocol and presented on time. . . .
“It is definitely a process. As you may recall, Sacramento did bid on the 2005 world masters meet but was (beat) out by San Sebastian — so the good thing is that we just needed to review, update and add terrific additions to the bid package.
“We are very excited and ready to bid for this Masters World Championship. Since Sacramento’s LOC has been so successful with hosting so many top-notch track and field events: US Olympic Team Trials (twice), and the NCAA’s (3x) etc., and has fantastic officials,etc. This will be awesome for our masters world champs — not to mention that SF, Napa, Tahoe, California Coast and Yosemite aren’t too far away!
The venues. . . . (include the) A.G. Spanos Sports Complex (at) Sac State University,
Hughes Stadium at) Sacramento City College and Rosemont High School, (and)
American River Parkway (Marathon) and Granite Regional Park (Cross Country), (and)
Folsom High School.â€
Me again:
Principal plotters of the bid are John McCasey of the Sacramento Sports Commission, John Mansoor and Joy Upshaw-Margerum of the USATF Pacific Association and George Kleeman of the USATF officials — who likely will include many veterans of the Trials and even 1996 and 1984 Olympic Games.
According to WMA bid protocols:
“In the Northern Hemisphere, the Championships are usually held between July 1st and August 31st. (Note–for many athletes in the education professions or with children in school, any date prior to the third week of July or after the third week of August is generally not feasible.) In the Southern Hemisphere, the Championships have been held between the end of November and mid-July, depending on the weather of the host city.â€
This might be a deal-killer for Porto Alegre, especially with the all-important European delegates, who are used to their God-given vacations in the northern summer.
In addition, WMA will send a team out to inspect facilities and logistics. Sacramento should win this contest hands down. (WMA regional and world meets in Central and South America are notorious for poor organization.)
The intangibles remain:
Will Beccalli’s argument hold sway — that a WMA world meet in South America is best for the masters movement? Or will delegates vote for proximity to glamorous San Francisco?
We’ll see in about a year.
One Response
It should be interesting to see how the WMA president attempts to control the voting in Italy. He has already proclaimed that 2011 will be in Brazil. The weather there in July and August is very chilly – it is winter – so the date will be October or even later -making it very difficult if not impossible for those in the teaching profession in Europe and North America to attend. As it is – the late August-early September dates for San Sebastian and Italy lock out many masters athletes who teach.
Unlike many US and Canadians, Europeans often vacation in South America, they do not see it as so “far away” and “exotic”. However as mentioned, the dates will have to be late into the year – and that will leave out many Europeans whose vacation time comes during the summer.
I have a concern about the ability of a Brazilian bid to secure sufficient funding. We have seen the collapse of one meet due to the inability of the LOC to actually come up with the money required by WMA to host the meet. Puerto Rico was asked to host the 2003 meet on short notice. Should Brazil win the bid, should SAC be on stand-by?
Hopefully there will not be an anti-American backlash against SAC bid, the whining heard before about having to take off shoes and having to have visas to visit the US hopefully will not surface again. Most of Europe is on the visa exempt list for the US. And as a fyi – it costs $100 for a visa for Brazil for US citizens plus mailing fees if you mail in your passport. This is in retaliation for what the US charges Brazilians to enter the US. We also get fingerprinted and have mug shots taken. If you want to get your visa in person, you need to go twice. Once to submit your application and a second time to get it. Most of Europe is on the Brazilian exempt list. The claim of visas as an issue for the SAC bid should be a non-starter for Europeans. No visa needed to come to the US nor to Brazil.
May the best bid win because it is the best bid and not because the WMA president manipulates the voting.
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