Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Tournament Tuesdays: Time to Retire an Outdated Term



If there is one term that is batted around our community that I wish would be dropped, it is the term GT. The term originated from the formal name that GW called it’s now defunct tournaments. Now it is used by any Indy event that wishes to brand itself as being large or important.

Seriously, what is the official criterion for labeling an event a GT? It seems to be that the event is loaded with to many people and runs a lot longer than it actually needs to run. I am sorry, but just because a tournament has 30 people and took two days to complete does not make the event grand. I do not say this to knock any event, but just to point out that the term is dated and needs to be retired.

Years ago, I pushed to develop a formal labeling system for the indy circuit, something that could be universally adopted and applied. Looking back, it was a waste of time, as the reality is that the good events don’t need generic labels. The good events are known by their name and the effort put behind that name. If you plan on running an event, don’t call it the Whatever-con GT, simply call it the Whatever-con. All a generic term in the name does is set expectations that are usually wrong.

No comments:

Post a Comment