PA Grand - What happened?

All events but one were down at the PA Grand. Insights please.

 

The trend has been down for years and will continue. Trinket shooting replaced cash prizes and expensive trinkets get stale fast. PA shooters care little about All-American points since they're not going to the IL mini grand anyway. We've already lost 30% of the shooters in the premier State Shoot event (Singles Championship) in ten years. The old timers have died off, quit or simply attending local meat, money league and practice shoots. The youngsters shoot while daddy pays and disappear forever when he stops. Enjoy what you have left and the memories of what it once was!

 

oleolliedawg only 1021 out of the 31815 ATA shooters qualified for ATA all american teams. That is 3 per cent. The State Shoots' are now forced by the ATA to write their programs for that 3% and the 97% be damned. You are so right in your explanation. Brad

 

Brad,
Your post made me wonder how many were named to the All American team this year. I counted 260 on the ATA All American Team list for the year 2017. I wonder how many were on the All American Teams when there was 50K - 60K shooters registering targets?

 

This is what you call a DEATH SPIRAL.


The funny thing is that the ATA may be marketing to only 3% ............but 0% of the delegates understand this or care.

APATHY !

 

Don you remember me showing you my old T&F mags that are hard bound. The year 1980 has the stats for the 1979 shooting season. STaT mAn STaN needs to pay attention here.

For the year shooters shot 75,962,135 targets. I don't know that exact # of shooters but around 80,000 to 100,000 ATA members then.

1980 All American Teams

Men First team 7
Men Second team 8
Women First team 6
Women Second team 9
Jr First Team 7
Jr Second team 8
SJ One TEAM 7
Vet One Team 5
SrVet One Team 4
Industry 6 So there were 67 total All Americans for the whole ATA. Today there are 50 women All
All Americans for 1337 women shooters 1&2 and only 98 women qualified. Brad

 

Brad,
Thanks for looking up the numbers for us. I knew there would be a big difference but I didn't know it would be as drastic as this. 80,000+ shooters and 67 All Americans vs. 31,000+ shooters with 260 All Americans. I have a great deal of respect for those that dedicate the time, money and have the skill required to make the All American team. The numbers do highlight just how hard it must have been to make the AA team "back in the day"!

 

If my memory is correct back then you had to shoot the all around in 4 different states and now you only need to shoot in 3 different states to qualify for the all american teams.

Dave Berlet

 

Sure, and one lady All-American was classified "D" class Singles at the Southern Grand two years ago!

 

Not withstanding the opinions above, the main reason was we fell on top of the Virginia State Shoot this year. Most years they're the first week in July, but with the Holiday falling on a Tuesday, they chose to end the shoot the Weekend before.

Jeff Graupp