Continental Championship Rules
This discussion has an associated proposal. View Proposal Details here.Comments about this discussion:
Started
Throughout the IUF Rulebook there are rules that are required for "continental championships". Technically NAUCC is a continental championship, however it functions much more like a national championship. I was a part of many of the rule changes that incorporate the use of "continental championships" in the rules and the intent was definitely towards competitions like the European Championships where you're looking at 500+ competitors. NAUCC has yet to reach anything close to this size. I propose that we write a rule that allows NAUCC to use the rules intended for smaller competitions instead of those for continental championships, or the host can choose. There are many rules that are simply not feasible yet at NAUCC due to the size.
Comment
That seems reasonable. We don't want to be too restrictive where NAUCC is concerned or it could get difficult to host it anywhere for a realistic cost.
Comment
I'm also in favor of this.
Comment
Short term thought: Agree.
Longer term considerations ... does that open up a pathway thru which another competition could be started and claim to be the continental championships. Seems to me that the NAUCC event is meant to be a contintental championship but doesn't draw appropriately nor have sufficient attendance to support the burden.
Perhaps there should be a minimum size expressed as part of the IUF ruleset that requires the more restrictive constraints. Thus we are a continental championship but due to forecast size of event it fall under a narrower ruleset.
Comment
Garrett,
I think you're looking at this the wrong way. Basically this rule addition would say that any stricter requirements that the IUF Rulebook places on continental championships need not apply to us. We are not saying that NAUCC is no longer defined as a continental championship. Since we are creating our own USA Rulebook Amendments, we can make any changes to the IUF Rulebook that we see fit.
NAUCC is the event sanctioned by the USA. Someone else could created a different event and call it a continental championships of course. However, I don't see how this rule would make any difference here one way or another with the legitimacy of that hypothetical other event.
Also, in the IUF Rulebook, a minimum size for more restrictive constraints is not also a useful strategy, nor is it easily defined. Do you define it for the whole event or per-discipline? What do you do in the case of smaller non-EU Unicons? Also, some German championships are huge, but shouldn't necessarily have to follow the continental championship rules. I digress, but this is why the IUF rules have been structured in this manner.
One of the things that is under discussion with the IUF right now is what really constitutes an IUF official event and what that means as far as using IUF rules and also the quality of the competition being held. Currently, the title of IUF official has only been given to Unicon and the European Championships. Since the USA uses slightly different rules, this could be a topic of discussion in the future if we want NAUCC to be a internationally sanctioned event. However, until the IUF figures out what that means, it's pretty difficult for us (in the USA) to have that discussion.
Comment
Thanks for the clarification Scott. What you say makes sense.