Howdy,
On Tue, 26 Sep 2000, Lloyd Loring wrote:
> Consider this. You have a competitor whose wife comes and drives (in
> the Ladies Class.) This competitor and his wife are likely to remain
> in the sport for some time if either or both of them do well and have
> fun.
>
> Eliminate the Ladies classes and the wife, having been required to
> run in the open class against her husband and all other comers
> quickly becomes frustrated with the sport, gives up and stays home
> (the driver probably married her for traits other than pure
> competitiveness.) Pretty soon she is asking her husband why he has to
> spend so many weekends in distant parking lots when there are other
> really nice things they can do together on a sunny Sunday.
I've heard this argument from various people and it seems to have merit.
Here are some issues I have with it though.
1. We're talking only about divisionals and above, not regionals. I can
attend ~8 or so of those events in a year (geographically based, figuring
4 pros, 3 tours, and nationals) outta the 20 or more events I run.
2. I'd be really interested to know how many ladies would quit if the
ladies classes weren't available. Like I've mentioned before, my sample
size is very small, but I don't know any ladies competitors that'd quit.
3. What about the frustrated mid-pack guy? He doesn't matter? Why should
we only care about frustrated women?
Mark
(I'll stop ranting on about this soon and just write the letter, I
promise.)
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