ECCC Fall Planning Meeting Recap

1. Quick Review Fall Planning Meeting 2010/11/20

2. The Eastern Conference • The Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference (ECCC) coordinates and oversees collegiate cycling races and teams in northeast US • Colleges & universities in Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine • Currently supports track, mountain bike, cyclocross, and road racing seasons

3. Student Athletes • All ECCC racers are full time students • Undergraduate or graduate • Nearly all teams are club sports of their institutions • All events are organized by volunteer, student race promoters and their collegiate teams • These are the people that make it happen!

4. National Collegiate Geography • ECCC is one of 11 regional conferences

5. ECCC Geography

6. ECCC Clubs • Still at 69 teams in ECCC, same as 2009 • This number pretty steady for several years now • Lost a good number of small but notable teams • Picked up a bunch of other very small teams

7. ECCC Riders • Almost no growth in annual licenses in 2010 • Still steady at 22--24% of all collegiate licenses

8. General 2010 Changes • February meeting definitely smaller, but remains very useful for MTB, Cyclocross focus • Few road teams attended; not sure that's a problem • Non-profit incorporation • Conference surcharge ($1/mass, gravity start) • Not operating at a (personal) loss anymore • Should bank ~$3000 • General expenses low, MTB self sufficient • Detailed statement over the holidays

9. Road 2010 • Combined D1/D2 team rankings: Still awesome! • Certain team not as awesome as their swagger? • Much more consistent race day schedules • Aero restrictions quietly passed into non-issue • ECCC News Network • Road promoter's guide • Women's category changes! • Per-event average of 75, max 100, min 38

10. Road Starts • Road participation fairly steady • Note: One more weekend in 2009 • Note: Many weather cancellations in 2007

11. MTB 2010 • Super D, ClusterHuck, Team Relay all returned • Super D not as popular as pure gravity events • Team Relay needs evangelizing, lower costs, but is super well received by teams that do participate • Intro Clinics struggled due to coach availability • Still very popular & successful though • Continued streak of excellent alumni scoring • Lift ticket fees self-controlled by promoters • Slalom run pretty well, still extremely long

12. MTB Starts • MTB participation grew this year • Haven't previously tracked the same amount of data • But two races this year broke the attendance record • UNH and UVM just under 200 unique riders • 1300 starts over 5 weekends in 2010 • Essentially a little less than half as big as road • Gravity is super healthy • More consistent, average as large as cross country • Women's MTB is high quality, low numbers

13. Cyclocross 2010 • Seems smaller, but have to wait for numbers • Slightly difficult to compare seasons at this point • Definite different focus in scheduling • Fewer very high profile, expensive events • Several more collegiate promoted events • Seem to do ok by incorporating non-collegiate fields • Sounds like nationals will have several simple schedule adjustments to make it easier

14. Track 2010 • Track going nowhere without coordinator to make a real season happen • Coordinating schedule, lining up race promoters • Timely season standings • Evangelizing • Faces intrinsic challenges schedule-wise • Bad positioning re. summer breaks, start of school • But it seems like riders are out there

15. 2010 General Recap • Joe's informal take: • Basically held steady in many respects • But on a much more sustainable, consistent basis • Huge improvements in women's cycling

16. End • Questions/comments: • Joe Kopenajkopena@usacycling.org