[fullmetal]

I sent this article to a friend whose son is currently a nationally-ranked fencer in high school.  Their thoughts:

• Location: love it but it's so far away. Right now the top foil fencers are all from the West Coast (2 of the Olympic team are from SF, the other 2 are from LA)
  
• They chose Boston because it's close to elite universities. When you take a closer look, out of the 4 (Harvard, MIT, BC, and Brandeis)...Harvard will only take 1 male foil fencer/year. So basically, #1. If you're anything else, you'd have to get in on your own. BC doesn't have a men's program. MIT is D3... so you'd have to get in on your own. And Brandeis is not really an elite school. So slim pickings if kids are trying to use fencing to get into elite colleges.
  
• The academy is intended to be revenue generating. It's true that parents spend crazy $$$ on fencing but I wonder if parents will still spend all that money in fencing if it disappears from NCAA
  
• I don't know if colleges will really move away from money-making sports like basketball/football to Olympic sports. How would they generate revenue? No one really comes to watch NCAA fencing.
  
  

I thought it interesting that the article calls USA Fencing "an events company in sheep's clothing" presumably because half of their $17.3 million annual revenue comes from registration fees.

Also the article that says the governing bodies of fencing, squash, cycling, sailing, and rowing have formed a marketing collective:
https://www.sportico.com/business/sponso...234841509/

I remember an article about Harvard fencing and admissions/kickback shenanigans from a while back, subsequent to the Varsity Blues scandal.  The appearance of fencing as an Ivy League ticket is enough for wealthy, immigrant parents to go all in on getting their kid into those schools.  Boston is part of that appearance, I think. It's also interesting that they're betting on the Ivy League schools to be least likely to cut Olympic sports because of their non-participation in the House settlement. I hope Stanford doesn't cut any sports either.

I know about the marketing collective, and I'm interested in the characterization of USA Fencing as an events company.  USA Fencing, according to the article, hosts a ton more events than other sports I'm familiar with. I think the logistics of setting up a fencing event must be comparatively easy lol.

[fullmetal]

I sent this article to a friend whose son is currently a nationally-ranked fencer in high school.  Their thoughts:

• Location: love it but it's so far away. Right now the top foil fencers are all from the West Coast (2 of the Olympic team are from SF, the other 2 are from LA)
  
• They chose Boston because it's close to elite universities. When you take a closer look, out of the 4 (Harvard, MIT, BC, and Brandeis)...Harvard will only take 1 male foil fencer/year. So basically, #1. If you're anything else, you'd have to get in on your own. BC doesn't have a men's program. MIT is D3... so you'd have to get in on your own. And Brandeis is not really an elite school. So slim pickings if kids are trying to use fencing to get into elite colleges.
  
• The academy is intended to be revenue generating. It's true that parents spend crazy $$$ on fencing but I wonder if parents will still spend all that money in fencing if it disappears from NCAA
  
• I don't know if colleges will really move away from money-making sports like basketball/football to Olympic sports. How would they generate revenue? No one really comes to watch NCAA fencing.
  
  

I thought it interesting that the article calls USA Fencing "an events company in sheep's clothing" presumably because half of their $17.3 million annual revenue comes from registration fees.

Also the article that says the governing bodies of fencing, squash, cycling, sailing, and rowing have formed a marketing collective:
https://www.sportico.com/business/sponso...234841509/

I remember an article about Harvard fencing and admissions/kickback shenanigans from a while back, subsequent to the Varsity Blues scandal.  The appearance of fencing as an Ivy League ticket is enough for wealthy, immigrant parents to go all in on getting their kid into those schools.  Boston is part of that appearance, I think. It's also interesting that they're betting on the Ivy League schools to be least likely to cut Olympic sports because of their non-participation in the House settlement. I hope Stanford doesn't cut any sports either.

I know about the marketing collective, and I'm interested in the characterization of USA Fencing as an events company.  USA Fencing, according to the article, hosts a ton more events than other sports I'm familiar with. I think the logistics of setting up a fencing event must be comparatively easy lol.