USA COMPS BOOOOO

Date: Mon Jan 30 6:11 PM, 2006

USA COMPS BOOOOO

Date: Mon Jan 30 8:05 PM, 2006

Hopefully I can answer some of your questions.

1. USA and UCA both have "Elevated" Divisions at their competitions (senior divison with the youngest person on the team must be 13 years old). Even though they are sanctioned by the USASF to hold competitions using the USASF rules, companies can add tighter restrictions onto their divisions if they wish too.

2. USA does not own the USASF. The USASF is non-profit organization that is run by a Board of Directors. Companies, such as USA, pay an amount to join and to use the rules provided by the USASF.

3. Companies must apply to be a "Worlds Bid Giving Company" each year. There are certain criteria that must be met to give "Worlds Bids". After the criteria is met, each comapny is given how many paid and non- paid bids they can give according to the size of their Nationals from the previous year. EXAMPLE: If a company had 100 all star teams at thier Nationals last year, they were alloted 1 paid bid and 2 non-paid bids to give out. The more all star teams the company had, the more bids they will be alloted to give. The Board of Directors are in charge of alloting bids.

I hope this clears up some of your questions. You can also go to www.usasf.net to have your questions answered.

Date: Mon Jan 30 8:51 PM, 2006

Cheer Junkie wrote:

Why is USA the only competition company that I know of that will not let you go for the worlds bid if you have 13 year olds and younger on your team.

If usasf says its ok for worlds then what is their problem ?

I may be wrong and I am sure somebody will correct me but doesn't usa own usasf and that why they get to give out six paid bids while other companys can only give out 1 or 2 paid bids .

I think 13 is a good age, because you will have these 4th grade flyers on Senior teams when that doesn't look very good for 11th graders to be flying kids in elementary school.

Date: Mon Jan 30 9:34 PM, 2006

Not be to be rude or anything but cheerleading isn't always about a bid to the worlds. I've a lot of people talking about the worlds way to much.

Date: Mon Jan 30 9:48 PM, 2006

Thank you Morton for your polite answers and can you please answer one more ?

Did usa have the largest national last year with the most teams . I thought that might be cheer sport or nca. IDK?

Date: Mon Jan 30 9:52 PM, 2006

Maybe some people are just more excited about the worlds than others. I know that since this is my childs first year to be on a senior team I am just more aware and more interested. Last year I did not give it much thought.

Date: Tue Jan 31 10:00 AM, 2006

Maybe some of us have goals we want to achieve. Maybe for some of us, cheer isn't something that is jsut "fun". Becasue im not sure about you guys, But i donthave fun losing.

-Bryan
Motions Coed

Date: Tue Jan 31 10:28 AM, 2006

Cheer Junkie,

Actually you are right. Cheersport had the largest and is giving out 8 paid bids and 16 non-paid bids this year. WOW!!! NCA had the second largest, with USA, Jamfest and American Championships very close behind.

Date: Tue Jan 31 11:15 AM, 2006

Thanks Morton for the info I didnt know.

Date: Tue Jan 31 11:49 AM, 2006

So last year CheerSport had over 800 teams at their Nationals........so this year they are allowed 8 paid bid. That sounds reasonable. 1 for every hundred teams.

American Championships' American Grand in Las Vegas had over 130 allstar cheer teams (not to mention dance & school teams) this year........so they were allowed to award 1 paid bid. That sounds reasonable.

Spirit Sports Nationals (in San Diego) had well over 100 teams last year, and over 125 allstar cheer teams this year.........so this year they are allowed ZERO bids. This DOES NOT sound reasonable. I asked Spirit Sports if they wanted to offer bids and they replied "YESSSS", but said that things are very "polictical" when asking for the right to award bids. If you dont do jump through all the hoops Varsity asks.........oh, whoops, I meant everything "USASF" asks, they lock you out.

Now since USA is allowed 3 paid bids this year, I would assume that meant they had over 300 teams at their Anaheim Nationals last year. Am I incorrect? Their 3 bids can't be because the team they sent to Worlds last year did so good that USASF said, "wow, USA Nationals has a great pool of talented teams, let's give them more bids". The team USA sent to Worlds last year got DEAD LAST in their division, by an embarassing score.

If USA Nationals did not have over 300 teams last year, but somehow were still allowed 3 paid bids this year........let me pose this "theory":
FOLLOW THE MONEY.
Take a look and see who runs USASF. is it run by Coaches, Gym owners, other cheer industry leaders, etc............or is it mainly run by Varsity brand (UCA, NCA & USA, etc) related people? Now assuming "Varsity" quote/unquote "runs" USASF, wouldn't it just make "financial sense" for them to allow their own companies (UCA, NCA & USA) to award as many bids as possible, WHILE also keeping "bid awarding" away from other Companies (ie SpiritSports, American Showcase, etc) who's Nationals in close proximity might "draw away" teams away from USA Nationals?

Think about this.......JUST SUPPOSE American Championships' American Showcase in Anaheim (occuring the week before USA Nationals this year, at the same location - Anaheim Conv Center), was awarding THREE bids............while USA Nationals was awarding ZERO, how may Gyms would still go to USA Nationals?

EXACTLY. USA Nationals needs these bids to stay alive. Without them, they'd be dead.

With anything in life (not just cheer, anything) that might seem confusing, you can usually just "FOLLOW THE MONEY", and you'll find the true answer.

Please, someone prove my theory wrong. Someone state the facts, if indeed the USASF isn't majority directed by Varsity (UCA, NCA, USA) people. Someone give me the true reason why USA Nationals gets to award 3 paid bids this year.

Date: Tue Jan 31 12:11 PM, 2006

WOW that was very well put math confused . I agree with EVERYTHING you said.

Date: Tue Jan 31 12:15 PM, 2006

Math confused do you know if usa is the only company to have a different age rule for their worlds divisions and if you know the answer than why do you think they do it ?

Date: Tue Jan 31 12:15 PM, 2006

The American Showcase is a big competition, but won't be nearly as big this year. Possibly because it is earlier this year. USA has been around for a bout 35 years now and I don't think they plan on going anywhere. Some teams have been going there for a while and plan to keep attending. Yes Power, cheergyms.com and California all stars don't go but other teams go and enjoy themselves. Getting a worlds bid only effects senior level 5 teams when those divisions are some of teh smallest at MOST competitions, with novice,intermediate and excel being some of the largest. That means those bids have NO effect on the OVERALL aspect of all star cheerleading. Even if you pick your schedule based upon worlds bids it would only be effective if you had a LEVEL 5 all girl or coed team.

By the way Spirit sports website is not being updated. Is anyone going to that competition this year? Seems like alot of competitions go up and down. Cheerleading is so inconsistent. Also USASF has many Varsity people that help run it but people from Cheersport and various other organizations decide the rules as well.

Date: Tue Jan 31 12:31 PM, 2006

USA has been around alot longer but in my opinion they are a dying breed and the only reason they are going to have an actual "BIG" turn out this year is because of the worlds bid being offered. If you look at their past comps you should have noticed that they are getting smaller and smaller not very many BIG gyms use them anymore.

Date: Tue Jan 31 1:14 PM, 2006

Dying Breed - USA is much more than just a competition company. I also think we need to remember that Big Gyms do not make or break a company. USA does a great job running their events and services a large portion of our industry. Remember this, if you add up all of the teams within CA, cheergyms.com and POWER, the total number is somewhere around 45-50. That is not even 5% of the total number of teams in California. I commend USA for not worrying about any one or two programs and just doing the best job they can for the customers that trust them to do just that.

AND~ you'll never find more genuine and good hearted people in this industry as Mike Burgess and his staff. Thank you USA for opening the doors for so many other companys!

Date: Tue Jan 31 1:57 PM, 2006

Nobody mentioned 1 or 2 programs and nobody mentioned that they thought they were not genuine and good hearted . They just said that they have gotten alot smaller then they use to be.

They also want to know why they have different age qualifications then usasf ,if we want to make the rules fair and try to keep the divisions the same why dont they ?

Date: Tue Jan 31 2:34 PM, 2006

To Math Confused,

Each Competition Company has to make their own decision about what USASF membership level to join and then they have to pick "one" of their competitions to award bids. American Championships is Tier 1 member and decided the American Grand/Las Vegas is where they award bids, not American Showcase/Anaheim. It was Amercian Championships choice, not USASF. Spirit Sports has chosen to join USASF as a Tier 3 member, which means they have chosen not to have any of their competitions award Worlds bids. So you have to understand first what membership level they have and then understand that it is up to them to decide which competition to pick to award bids.

But I do need someone to explain why USA still has 3 paid bids. They did not have 300 teams at their nationals last year.

Date: Tue Jan 31 3:59 PM, 2006

Want to know who "owns" USASF? Why not jut check to see who owns the www.usasf.net website?

Go to http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/ and search for usasf.net

HERE'S THE REGISTRATION THAT WILL COME UP FOR usasf.net:

================================
Registrant:
Varsity Spirit
6745 Lenox Center Court
Ste. 300
Memphis, TN 38115
US

Domain Name: USASF.NET

Administrative Contact :
Shelton, Jessica
jshelton@uca.com
6745 Lenox Center Court
Ste. 300
Memphis, TN 38115
US
Phone: 901-387-4300
================================

Tell me again how Varsity doesn't "run" USASF?

Date: Tue Jan 31 3:59 PM, 2006

Many of the Tier 3 members will be awarding bids next year. They just joined USASF too late to award bids this past year. I know that is the case with WCA and Athletic Championships. That might be what happened with Spirit Sports for this year.

Can't answer the question on USA's number of bids.

Date: Tue Jan 31 4:03 PM, 2006

Want to know who "runs" USASF? Why not just see what their physical address is?

Here's USASF's address:
6745 Lennox Center Court
Suite 300
Memphis, TN 38115

Everybody already know Varsity's address?

Varsity Spirit
6745 Lennox Center Court
Suite 300
Memphis, TN 38115

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Does anyone else out there besides me perceive ANY possible "conflicts of interest"?