One would think that if such plan existed, they would share it with the members and put it on the ATA website.
To grow the ATA in both the number of active members and the number of registered targets thrown annually.
The country/economy is in the crapper, inflation is running wild, components continue to rise in price and are hard to find, ammo also up and hard to find. Many clubs are cancelling leagues do to these factors. We have a pack of idiots running this country. People are afraid of the future and for the care of their family. I don't see a rosy future for the shooting sports right now. Winchester had 3 price increases in just this year alone. Plus our borders are a mess and war could be looming amonst many different players. China/Taiwan, Russia/Ukraine, and many more. The future for nothing is clear right now.
A previous rant of mine. There ya go. Surprised it took that long. "Its the economy". Those thousands of blue collar workers that flocked to Vandalia on the weekends didn't all have cushy jobs. And the great depression was part of the golden era of trapshooting. Time to repeat my previous rant....... ___________________________________________ The Great Depression had a huge Grand. Maybe you remember the gas lines of the seventies. Vandalia was booming then. Then there was Nixon's double digit inflation. Vandalia was booming then too. The malaise of Carter with a deep recession. Booming years for Vandalia. The darkest day was the Friday the steel mills closed across Ohio, PA, MI and WV. Bumper year for trapshooting. Black Thursday, the year of the stock market crash. Another good year. Then there was the Dot Com crash. Mere bumps in the road for trapshooting. Remember Clinton's saying it's the economy stupid. Great days for trapshooting. We refer to those bad times as the Golden Age of Trapshooting. Trapshooting could handle just about anything....until trapshooting left the trapshooters. Removing the sport from trapshooting didn't help much either.
Oleo, an honest question here why did moving it kill the ata? I'm relatively new to that ATA so I'm curious.
The plan is to put all money and energy into AIM, SCTP, Highschool clay target league, etc. Then act shocked when youth become adults and don't shoot anymore.
This will be easy. Their customer base was located in the East with a higher population density and more feeder clubs. Feeder clubs dropped ATA shoots because so few Eastern shooters go to Sparta. There's a lack of amenities like bars, restaurants, motels and a real close airport. in Sparta. Great place to shoot in a poor location. I'm sure others can add more.
Ok that makes sense, its true for me as well it would be a huge inconvenience to go there to shoot. Was it all political in the decision to move there? How was the idea sold.
Political in the sense that a decision was made to kick us out of Vandalia because we bordered the Dayton airport and the land was wanted for buildings to support the airport's big expansion - which never happened.
My memory is not that good for that kind of detail but from what I remember the ATA would have stayed had it not been from pressure from the government(s). I recall security was an issue being post 9/11. And then I remember the mad scramble to find a place to move to. Contenders were a location in TX, IN, and others but I forget. Surely, you remember that kind of detail or someone else here.
Alf174; All the info about the government pressure was filtered thru thru ATA. Someone ,or group, must have picked up some renumeration from the deals, Like the Pat trap deal, the real estate purchase, the H.O.F. deal, the moving to Sparta deal. to many to have just happened out of the blue. Research some of the old posts on here and the you will maybe see the big picture. Roger C.