This is the impressive list of sponsors for the 2007 European Chess Championship. I know the organizer in Dresden for many years and they have done a fantastic job. I am sure the 2008 Olympiad in Dresden will be impressive as well. I have also seen the 2008 Olympiad venue! Awesome! The organizer has impeccable records. They are professional and they understand the value of professionalism, marketing and promotion.
In the mean time, the USCF has serious problems attracting sponsors. Many sponsors don’t want to deal with us. We lost money again last year. Some people told me that the USCF lost money in 9 of the last 10 years. Many supporters are tired of our internal political destruction.
Instead of fixing these problems, we have chess politicians fighting hard to protect the status quo, the same destruction patterns.
How could we expect different results if we elect the same people?
I hope that things will change after the next USCF Executive Board Election. We need strong leaderships. We need to put in the most qualified people who can turn the USCF around. It is really embarrassing now.
Here is what I advocate. Here is the official information sheet.
Toss the entire existing E.B. out on it’s Ear. They have failed in every respect miserably. This ‘Patron Entry Fee’ for the US Championship is the Last Bad Joke I hope these clowns play on us.
How do we vote?
When will the ballots be out?
The ballots will be in the June Chess Life. Make sure you vote all the corrupt politicians out.
Go Susan! I support you, Mikhail, Paul and Randy! Sam Sloan and Don Schultz must go!
The problem is we need better Chess players in the USA. Look at all those GMs from Europe1 Our best strategy is to forgive Bobby fischer his immigration problems and getting him playing again to spearhead the US Chess recovery. If Fischer were playing in the US Championship or having a World Title match against Kramnik it would bring in droves of sponsors. Instead of doing this, what does the US Government do? They harrass a true national hero and force him to reside on a remote and cold island in the middle of the Atlantic. No wonder why this country has no solid chess championship!
Any business attempting to sponsoring the USCF at this point in time is just taking a ride on the loser train.
The entire E.B. should resign in shame over their obvious lack of positive results. However, it is clear that the word shame is simply not in their vocabulary.
The real problem is that we don’t know what the problem is.
Are sponsors really not sponsoring more chess because of internal politics or is it something else?
I know there are bad politics, the Sloan-factor, etc are all real and serious. But is that the cause of no sponsors???
Do the sponsors really know about the internal fights? Do they care?
Or do they care that they don’t see chess as mainstream enough? Supported enough? Etc. Gee, Lacrosse is getting a lot of sponsorship now as it is getting a foothold on the west coast. Why are they getting money and support and not chess?
Someone either in marketing or business development should go and actually ask 100 potential sponsors what it would take for them to sponsor more chess. Ask is as an open ended question – don’t give multiple choice! If you ask them if the internal politcs are one of the reason, people of course would say yes…even though they might not be aware of any politics.
Lets actually find out what it takes to get more sponsorship.
I do believe in the Polgar slate would be great move for the USCF.
Why can’t we hold the Olympiad in the US ? Susan, if your team is elected to the EB will you bid for the Olympiad ?
In response to the earlier suggestion that the USCF try to hold the chess olympiad:
Holding the olympiad would be an interesting idea – The chess olympiad has never been held in the USA. The closest ever to USA was when it was in Havanna 1966 and later in Bueno Aires 1978. Like the major sports olympics, the host country bears the cost of providing housing and in cases in the past, I believe that some hosts in order to win support of the FIDE members also offered to help subsidize some of the travel costs of some of the smaller chess nations. While it is a great goal, at present it looks like the USCF is far from capable of hosting such an event. Its own US Championship just barely was saved and it remains a tenuous event from year to year so it is probably asking a lot to see that happen anytime soon. It is a worthy long term goal but if Susan and her team gets elected, they’ll have a lot more work to do on a local, regional and national level before doing this type of huge international effort.