Post by charlieh on Jul 26, 2006 9:55:10 GMT
springer said:
On a sour note, why is the CLA so often staged so far south? It made sense to me when it was in Harrogate at Harewood House as it would make travel distances fairer for all.Springer, I think the organisers of the Game Fair have tried to set the venues to allow reasonably fair access for all. Seen from your northern location it may appear to be concentrated in the south, but I don't think that's really the case. Broadlands is in the south, certainly, but of the other venues Blenheim (north Oxfordshire) is in the south Midlands, Belvoir (Nottinghamshire) is in the north Midlands and Harewood (Yorkshire) in in northern England. They're almost in a line running up the middle of the country. It's true to say that there's a lot of England north of Harewood, but set against the country's population distribution I think the venues are reasonably fairly spread.
The Game Fair used to roam all over the place, including Scotland (Floors and Kinmount are two venues that I can recall) and Wales (eg Glanusk). I think the country was divided into about five regions, each of which hosted it in turn. But since Scotland now has its own Scone fair, the main Game Fair no longer goes to Scotland and I guess its organisers no longer feel a need to serve the needs of the Scots as they used to do.
Also the Game Fair is in a sense a victim of its own success. The number of visitors means that venues have to be chosen which have good enough access. The amount of traffic they generate, and the resulting tailbacks and jams mean that there's no way that somewhere like Glanusk or Floors (or, for that matter, somewhere like Chatsworth) could possibly host it these days. This is why the organisers have decided that, rather than going to lots of different places, they have to concentrate on a few well chosen venues with good road communications. These venues are now fixed for the next 20 years or so, which means that it's worth these estates improving their infrastructure to accommodate it.
Although this year it's at the nearest venue to me, I'm not able to make it which is a big sadness, as there's always stuff to look at or buy, and friends to see. As you say, good luck to all those competing.