Due to the lack of people signing up and showing interest, I'm not sure that we are going to have much of a showing at all. Without signups, there is no way to get sponsorship money, group rates at a hotel (if preferred), or any of the other perks I was able to get for the 1st Indy Open when I had around 100 players for Golden Tee. Since I expected this in the beginning, I planned it so that it would be a blast no matter how many people decided to play. If you have never been to the Indy 500 (or the parties surrounding it), you have no idea what you are missing out on. It also allows for the cheapest even I can possibly hold by NOT making it a $300+ weekend for drivers, and much more for anyone that is flying in.

I.T. is not going to run a national tournament anytime soon, so although I agree with you, as running a tournament is a ton of work and stress with nothing gained, I'm at least trying to have a tournament that is open to anyone and everyone so that we will have the first true open tournament. I'm sure you don't remember, but even the first Nationals put on by I.T. required the machine to be updated to the newest version of Silver Strike, excluding a very large majority of machines and players around the world. Therefore, there has never been a tournament that doesn't exclude players from attending.

I'm also in the middle of 2 company start-ups, a ton of kid activities, and more, so without the players spreading the word and showing interest, I cannot invest all my time trying to get players here and interested in attending!

Luckily, however, I do have friends in the operator business and have machines, regardless of the amount of attendees. That is lucky in itself because the Operator has to go through a lot of work and trouble to provide machines for an event like this. Without people signing up and showing interest, this is an almost impossible task.

So feel free to shop around for hotels, but I highly recommend camping - as it is definitely the most fun you can have - and very little money!

Happy Bowling!
Strike It Up!

so are we having the tourney or not

I want to, but it would be nice to know if anyone is flying in for it - or attending. I am in the middle of a home remodel - so I haven't had the chance to post on all the sites to find out who is going to attend and who wants to. So as of now - I am still planning on having it. It will be a week before I get a chance to post anything though, so please feel free to 'recruit' and find out if anyone is flying in and planning on attending!

Let me know what you learn!
Thanks Dustin!
Telly