Any one notice if.

The economy is definitely hurting event and team sponsorship and some teams without sponsors. Combine that with market saturation and the comps that don't provide some of the incentives/amenities other comps do will have a harder time attracting teams.

There have always been contests built on shaky foundations that cancel for one reason or another. Right now, I think we're conditioned to jump to the gloom and doom conclusion whenever a contest drops off the calendar.

Economics played only a small role in three of the contests in Iowa that have been cancelled this year.

Waucoma was cancelled due to the condition of the park after last year's flooding and the increased cost of renting it for the weekend this year.

Independence cancelled because the organizers are a civic group and wanted to change the focus of their event to cater to local citizens more.

Dubuque cancelled because the contest site is being used as the staging and materials storage area for a new restaurant that's being added to the hotel. Ironically, the new restaurant is a Tony Roma's.

Pork Barrel Project said:

Waucoma was cancelled due to the condition of the park after last year's flooding and the increased cost of renting it for the weekend this year.

Click to expand...

Must have been more the cost of rental, because the park was in fine condition last year after the flood - minus a bath house.

Iowa sure has had a lot of cancellations for a variety of reasons - guess that could be the case nationally - but they do seem higher this year for one reason or another.

Every comp I've been to this year(6) has been up in numbers from last year...

The first year comp in Tecumseh had 37 teams. I think Yates Center(1sy year) has that many too...

We've had more comps in the West than ever before. Last year it was all we could do to scrape up one a month, this year several new events have come up and we can go out just about every other week.

I've noticed a decrease in team numbers at almost every contest this year versus last year.
I think a lot of it is the economy scare.