The selling of master points!
In session 1 of a recent 7 1/2 table – 28 board B/C/D Sectional pairs the MP award for coming first was 1.72 silver.
At a recent “Grass Roots Fund Month” 3 1/2 table 24 board open game the MP award for coming first was 2.04 black.
Leaving aside the colour of the awards, is paying an extra dollar to play in the “Grass Roots Fund Month” game a better deal than going to the expense of attending the Sectional?
In the past, the accumulation of master points was, in a number of cases, simply a matter of “attending” a lot of club games. Now it’s a combination of attendance and paying an extra dollar or two for some special “cause” that increases the master point award.
Lots of you will remember getting .26 MPs for winning the Wednesday night game some decades ago at your local club – must make you wonder about getting 2.04 for winning a 3 1/2 table game.
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Bridge-related
This post by Paul Cronin was lost and has been re-created. The associated comments were not lost, but re-creating them in their original form would be difficult, so they have been reproduced below. …JRG
Comment: Judy Kay Wolff May 29th, 2017 at 3:29 am
Paul,
We have been in agreement since this subject reared its ugly head, that the concept is a farce.
If the ACBL WANTS TO ATTRACT YOUNGER PLAYERS to perpetuate the game, they should do everything humanly possible to get it into our school system. You know Asia has over 200,000,000 children loving it in the schools and it is in the school systems of ten or eleven other European nations.
Instead of luring players to pay extra card fees to earn meaningless masterpoints .. why not get to the source of the problem and devote every waking moment to getting bridge classes into our educational system AT ANY COST. That will create an interest in EARNING MP .. NOT BUYING THEM!
Comment: paul cronin May 29th, 2017 at 4:17 am
Hi Judy,
Hope all goes well with you & Bobby!
Bridge in the schools is indeed the answer, but seems to lack the leadership needed to make it happen. The cheapening of MPs by selling them certainly doesn’t help – just like post-war monetary inflation, where bushels of banknotes bought very little, present day bushels of masterpoints mean very little.