ASRA - Australian Skateboard Racing Association

What is all the talk about a mutiny at the IGSA event on the weekend ?

Dose anyone know what whent down in Canada

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IGSA sanctioning fee is not that high. IGSA doesn't take in $60K in sanctioning fees, and the sanctioning fees that do come in barely cover the cost of the IGSA officials that run the events.

I'm not sure I follow all the reasons you posted about how IGSA ruins events. IGSA races have been run in MANY formats (formats are generally left up to the organizer) Some formats (like the even/odd format) are less exciting to spectators than other formats. Some are less exciting to the racers. But regardless of the format, it is difficult to make downhill exciting to a live audience. In the long run, the sport will be better off with produce footage, or run in conjunction with other events.

As far as the Calgary goes, it was sanctioned by IGSA, but organized by Gravity Sports Marketing. Yes, Marcus was one  of the members of GSM, but it was not an IGSA organized event. Any more than Maryhill or even Newton's is.

I'm not saying Calgary was perfect, I spent way too much time standing up at the top of the hill (starving) and I think that some things will have to change going forward.

the problem moving forward with IGSA events, there is now an irraversable tarnish on the IGSA name that has been growing for quite a while until it boiled over last weekend.

once upon a time you would make your race an IGSA event to attract riders, after what we've seen and heard from top riders it would now have the opposite effect... Kiera next year already isn't IGSA, i would hope Newton's follows suit. 

The IGSA do not run our events so there is no cost responsibility for us there. This year asra paid $6,000 in sanction fees. The cost to have IGSA officials at events is in addition to the sanction fee and is also borne by the event organiser. In addition to the sanction fee ASRA also paid $5,000 to have 2 IGSA officials flown in and accommodated from Europe and America. If Chris you are including the cost of IGSA Officials at events than our total fee was $11,000. We were actually asked to fly out 3 people but we pushed back against the gravy train. 12 weeks before our World Cup we were asked to change our date to make way for the Laguna event, we refused. We then had a lesser race promoted by the IGSA over our World Cup event. In the end ASRA took a $10,000 loss. So the IGSA has 11 World Cup events this year with one doubling as the World Champs and a further 12 continental events... stop me when I get to 60k.

I'm not saying that the IGSA has not done great things and just like us they certainly don't do it for the money but its a completely unresponsive body with a heavy culture my way or the highway, it does not need to be completely democratic but the stakeholders need some real input and I have sent enough money to the IGSA and lost enough money on IGSA events over the last 5 years to consider myself a genuine stakeholder. These events are not run by the IGSA all the grunt work and financing is done by the event organiser. How can it be that in 10 years of the IGSA there is still no overall World Cup Tour sponsor, no content deal, no anything, how is that possible! The only source of funding for the IGSA is directly off event organisers - its a one way street. I don't know what the total cost is to run the IGSA but I do know who pays for it, and I do have a good idea on what it costs to run a genuine Sports Association that runs skateboarding events because I am a member of one.

So basically what you are saying Robbo is that you pay a fee to have an IGSA sanctioned event. You pay for their flights and accomodation from one side of the globe to the other. In return they supply you with timing system (although I think I remember you saying ASRA has it's own which is far better than IGSA's) which is a very old system and very outdated. The other thing they supply is a rule book and a race format (though you choose to run your own race format). So for your 11,000 dollars, you got an IGSA race (perhaps that name encourages people from overseas to come out for the points?), a rule book and someone to help on the finish line. Am I missing something? Seems a lot to pay for a rule book and job that could be done by a local.

I'm not anti IGSA either but I think that fee seems somewhat excessive. How involved are the IGSA at an event, would Newtons or Kiera have been harder to pull off without them?

I don't know much bout businesses and stuff but are IGSA required to show their annual spendings or is that only relevant to organisations who have share holders?

From personal experience IGSA was more of a hinderance at the races than a help this year. The finish line guy 'helping' Robbo tried to disqualify everyone doing anything outside the book (like McWhinnie limping across the line after having that massive crash on the finish line - luckily Robbo overturned it) and demanding printouts of every round despite having a laptop infront of him with up-to-date spreadsheets. Also at one stage saying "yeah this job is great i get a free ticket around the world" to a passer by. The other IGSA rep was telling me to slow down on the startline because it looked better on the broadcast... while he checked his facebook status.... after getting all the end results perfectly, Newtons results STILL aren't on the IGSA website.

Dani a couple of answers - ASRA used it's own timing system this year and to get the race to qualify format had to be pushed for quite a while for it to be an acceptable race format. You still can't do any format you like for an IGSA sanctioned event. 

We got two IGSA races for that; Keira and Newtons.

Dani said:

...So for your 11,000 dollars, you got an IGSA race...

Not very involved. Thats not to say its like that at every event though. I don't have a great issue with paying sanction fees if it was being used for the purpose of IGSA cost at our events but its not. I do take issue with paying the extra $5,000 for 2 IGSA staff to be at our event though. They may be needed elsewhere but not at our events. We provide and operate the timing and scoring, we submit our results immediately, we run on schedule every time, we respond to rider issues, we are very particular about all the aspect of our events. I would prefer to use the $5,000 to pay my spectacular volunteers who take time off work and slug it out for 5 days @ 12hrs a day for nothing but genuine pride in helping ASRA.

Dani said:

How involved are the IGSA at an event, would Newtons or Kiera have been harder to pull off without them?

If they were a real incorporated Sports Association like ASRA they would. As far as I know its just an informal operation run by Marcus, it could be a company, I'm not sure and i don't think anybody really knows what the structure is, its certainly not transparent. I doubt they make any money, I'm certainly not suggesting that. I just don't like that the sole funding for it is from people like us. The IGSA is based in America - big country with all major companies based there. After all this time they still don't have a title sponsor to help pay for their operations. We are a small country with no major skate brands based here, we do it for nothing and take a big financial hit for it. When we talk to the IGSA about our financial concerns the jaws drop and we get told not their problem.

Dani said:

I don't know much bout businesses and stuff but are IGSA required to show their annual spendings or is that only relevant to organisations who have share holders?

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