WFP thoughts....

[u/Anonymousimpreg]

I had a chance to attend WFP this weekend, I'm local to Arizona. Just wanted to share some of my thoughts and was curious what you guys thought if you were there.

I enjoyed the fact that you could engage with the athletes on a more personal level, lots of them did meet and greets, were walking around the venue, or taking pictures with fans after the events. I thought that was pretty neat and something I've never gotten a chance to do before.

Some of the community events were pretty good, lots of elite athletes dropping into East Valley gyms to teach, host events. Again, it was really cool to see some of the athletes up close and get pictures.

Onto the bad....

I'm genuinely curious as to how this is actually going to make money. Most of the local gyms were giving away free tickets, so I don't know anyone that actually paid for their tickets. The actual venue they were hosting WFP for Mesa is massive and from what I understand extremely expensive. Plus all the athletes were put up in hotels. I can't imagine they are making enough money to cover their expenses.

The vendor village was terrible, there was like four or five vendors, which made it quite boring in between events or when there's a big break in the middle of the day.

The actual venue inside was very small, couldn't hold more than maybe a couple thousand people, the web stream made it seem like it was very huge inside

Obvious equipment issues mentioned elsewhere.

Personally, I don't see the WFP being able to survive for another year, but that's just me.

Edited to add: I was really indifferent about WFP before I went this weekend. I did have a good time, I'm still indifferent about WFP. My comments were just that I don't know how they can survive doing this financially, that's it.

Edited again to remove comment about blue hair judge. The shuffling issue that two people were no repped about was reviewed and affirmed.

[u/Efficient-Slide1446]

I really like them, great competition and great athletes on the rooster. They have some great sponsorships (I would say better ones than the Games...) and it's only their first year. I hope they keep growing. I'm very curious about the finals in Copenhagen. I think the European market is maybe their best interest. A lot of the big comps are in the USA and that's very expensive for European athletes to attend. (edit: even more expensive for Aussies and Asia)