ICSF

[Torsten]

I hope that doesn't sound so extremely skeptical, but I'd also say that there is a downhill trend for the (classic) casting sport. Especially in Germany it's even much more drastically than the above graph suggests. We had a few years ago over 60 people at the regional Berlin casting sport championship, now we're happy with 20-30 people. Our fishing association has cancelled 2015 the membership in the German Olympic Sports Confederation and it's as far as I know impossible to have licensed / funded casting sport coaches anymore.
I'm sceptical that the City events are the solution (that's interesting only for some). I think there needs to be done a lot of PR work, the sport has to be developed at regional level first. Fly casting is perhaps one opportunity to make the sport more interesting. I'd agree with John, the Olympics is far out of reach and I'm guessing even the participation at the World Games is at the moment not likely.

For the homepage I think a onepager with some convincing arguments would be good to have (why design is important, contents, fly casting subpage etc.), ideally signed by several members.

[Paul Arden]

Maybe it’s just because I’m in the fly world and we’ve seen the opposite thing. Hell we didn’t even have a WC until 10 years ago, and every year since participation is growing both in number of casters as well as countries.

It’s been nothing like as expensive as the other ICSF games and were it to become so I think there would be a problem. While that doesn’t happen I’m comfortable with the current arrangement and I am very much looking forward to a combined event.

Cheers, Paul

[John Waters]

Andy’s post says it all. We need to strike a balance between participation costs and fee revenue. That balance is not there at the moment and reducing numbers needs to be the focus of all in the future. There are a number of competing pressures on our sport, as there are on other niche sports, however there is no reason why casting sport cannot be the most progressive niche sport on the planet. Fly casting events have been a super step forward. There may also be lessons we can learn from weight casting and fishing championship (fly and course) administration. Getting the sport into schools is also an option for consideration.

An interesting for years no doubt,

John

[Paul Arden]

The fly side is quite a tight knit group. I’m quite sure if costs ever became an issue that we would move back outside the ICSF umbrella. I’m not entirely sure why we moved under it - I think it was to give the games credibiilty but they already have that in themselves.

That said, I am actually very excited about the prospect of a combined event. I think that this could be very good for both events.

Cheers, Paul

[Torsten]

Do any of you guys going to the ICSF general assembly? I think there is the executive board election ..
https://www.icsf-castingsport.com/news/ ... -meetings/

I've found the executive board report here:
https://www.icsf-castingsport.com/uploa ... SF_eng.pdf

Quote from the above document:

"
Overall situation in casting - assessment

With regret we have to say that since 2017 there have been no important changes both in casting, flycasting and surfcasting and even in the federation itself. There is a certain level of stagnation, there is no increase in the number of competitors, competitions, youth as well as there is no increase in the number of member countries which would be intensively dedicated to any of our sports. Despite all hard work, we have not succeeded in beingon the program of World Games 2021. This cost us a lot of time and power. We have not managed to arrange IOC recognition.This activity connected to the filing of an application involved hundreds of hours of work and thinking.We do not have a general sponsor, we practically do not have any media attention –only on a local level (see the previous text).The situation in the world of casting and in our federation is not easy at the moment. There are various opinion trends and tendencies. According to the opinion of the Executive Board, these tendencies more or less divide casting both on the entire federation level and on the level of national federations.

Many ICSF members do not realize and cannot imagine the quantity of work and time load for the members of the ICSF Executive Board to arrange all details connected with the management of our federation.

ICSF Executive Board would like to thank to all competitors, judges, committee members and others who took part in the activities related to our sport.
"

[John Waters]

Unfortunately, I will not be able to get to Vienna for the meeting. Have sent a proxy for Australia.

John

[Paul Arden]

The World Games would be fantastic and I can imagine it being very difficult to achieve. It’s great that they tried. I also would like to see more competitors. I’m planning and trying to introduce fly casting sport more to Asia.

Sponsorship and media is almost a full time job - that’s also going to be very difficult to achieve. The World Games would be a definite bull’s eye in this regards.

The best thing we can do is draw in more participants!

Cheers, Paul

[Dung Fly]

Whilst I cannot comment for recent years, there has been a reduction in the number of countires participating at the World Championships (Castingsport), reading between the lines, the biggest hurdle is cost of participation and travel. I should really bring that attendance chart up to date.

2019 WC's had a total of 78 competitors (19 ladies and 59 men), with ~39 officials to run the event. The event cannot run at a loss and hence its the competitors fees who end up footing the bill, not an issue if the national federation is fully funded, but when its the casters then it becomes a different matter.

Dont get me wrong, attending / competing at a World Championship is a really great experience, but there does come to a point where the selected venue doesn't meet the criteria laid down in the 'guide book' so a balancing act is adopted to keep the costs down the casting venue or hotel(s) are downgraded to create the balance. As a compeitor I would rather have a casting venue that allows casting in any direction that is flat and has short grass.

I get the feeling that the focus has drifted towards the World Cup (City) events and away from the World Championships - there has been an increase the World Cup events from 4 to 5 and the recent introduction of 'Caster of the Year'.
The core countires - Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia & Slovenia are the primary attendees at the World Cup events - https://www.icsf-castingsport.com/uploa ... er_5th.pdf

There needs to be a radical change in how the ICSF is setup, there hasnt been a major change in the last 12+ years and unfortunatley without change the future of the sport is looking quite bleak.

[Paul Arden]

I don’t actually know very much about the ICSF. I’m not entirely sure why there was such a push to get the flycasting games under the ICSF umbrella, nor do I know why we were excluded for several years! Anyway it will be interesting to see what happens in Sweden, both in costs as well as meeting the other competitors. I’m really looking forward to that. Of course if we are incompatible together then we will know that too. One way or another I’m sure that the flycasting games will continue to grow. “Sexyloops Shootouts“ were always the best

Cheers, Paul

[John Waters]

I too am looking forward to the WC next year, both inland and fly. You are correct Andy and Paul, cost and youth are the challenges. I am a supporter of one world body responsible for casting, irrespective of the type. I experienced the CIPS/ICF split in the 60s through to the 80s and 90s and I would not want to see a return to separate bodies again. Fly Casting is on an upswing at the moment, experiencing participation growth in competitors and national representation, whilst the reverse is the trend in inland casting. It is always swings and roundabouts but the challenge facing fly casting is what happens when the participation rates plateau and then decrease. The issue is spectator appeal, or lack thereof, and today that issue is more damaging than in previous decades, purely because of society’s changing attitudes to sport or to any field of engagement and involvement. We have always suffered with the issue of repetitive activity, time involved and the space needed for multiple courts so that people can view and compare. That will not change without major changes to event structure and, or, activity so nothing will change in that space. My view is that the sport take a bottom up approach to growth rather than a top down and national organisations become involved in the teaching of casting for fishing, just like other bodies do. In conjunction with other fishing related organisations, not in opposition to them, the teaching of casting in all forms can become of equal priority to events for the ICSF and national castingsport organisations. From that avenue of engagement, a small number of people will be introduced to the sport each year and some of that number will become sporting participants in the longer term. Small, but incremental growth will result. I see competition casting and recreational fishing as complimentary and the opportunity is in the field of casting skill and teaching. I congratulate those involved in the UK structure and more power to you. You are right Paul, Fly Casting and I would add Inland Casting, will continue to survive. It is a niche sport, but it has never attracted a great deal of corporate or public support and it will not in the future. A multilevel casting skill and teaching body, as part of a world, national and local sporting competition, may. Such a structure gets the sport into school programs, youth activity groups etc etc. The FFF does part of that well, no reason why casting sport cannot grow similarly. I do not think that will happen, but who knows........


John