Audioslavia wrote:We just had a two-cycle calendar year for the first time in history. February 14th to June 7th for WC80 and June 24th to October 17th for WC71
Are we cool with this? Y/N?
If not, and we'd rather go back to the 3/4 cycles per year system, then users need to accept that, as the process takes a couple of months to complete (from the signup thread opening to the World Cup Final being played) that the signups to a World Cup will open a couple of weeks after the previous World Cup has been concluded. We always did it quicker than this in the past and we always had time for regional football tournaments, domestic football and other sporting events in the past too.
Nice prompt, Audio, and always good to throw statistics at us to back things up! With the current size of sign-ups, I'd say that two is either one, or possibly two, too few for an average year. This means we need the signups to open earlier to get the turnaround happening, but that in turns means we need bids and, crucially, bidders sooner.
For WC80 and 81, our main problem that stretched out the amount of time things took is that we had to wait forever for BoF hosts. For WC80, EQS and I bid early on purpose to put down a statement that we had already done all the preparation to make WC80 a really good edition. We had to wait a fairly long time for BoF host bids to come around. I felt that WC81 signups then actually started too early, but it wasn't for quite a long while that BoF bids arrived, then the thing could actually get started (after what felt to me) like a huge delay. Yet here we are, almost two months after WC81's completion with barely a murmur about WC82 from potentially-interested hosting parties.
I'd be willing to open the signups without any bids being on the table - I'm not suggesting we go back to the oldest days and start signups during the Finals of the ongoing tournament, of course - in between Christmas and the New Year in order to prod people into action. The Olympics and the holiday season is the most likely cause of the delay in this case, but I'd certainly like things to move a little quicker. There is plenty of time for regionals and junior WCs in the break, it's just about finding the right balance for the majority.
This also shows the impact of moving to these lovely and easy-to-access forums, as WC47 signups opened right here in May 2009.