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[kyo]

Kyle: Bob Malowney complained to me at nats that most of the yo-yo players were getting to college age and he was not seeing many new kids coming to the contests.
Yo-yo had a boom in 98 that coincided with the boom of the internet what kept the community together.
I do see one big advantage yo-yo's have for kids: it is much easier to come with "a trick you can call your own". This possibility of expression can be a big draw. It is for me with tops, but I realize that creating new tricks with tops is much more challenging. But as an spectacle, I don't agree with you. I am convinced tops have much more potential for a show in Circle du Soleil, for example, than yo-yos have. And please, stop saying that we complain of what the yo-yo community gives us. We understand the reasons behind it. I always thanked Greg and Malowney for their support. We just discuss among ourselves that it doesn't work very well for us and we look at alternatives. We pay about as much to go to a contest (if we come from out of town) and we get far less, so it is actually more expensive for us.

And yet we have more people attending every year.. attendance numbers are up at most contests. We have people age out all the time, that's always been a problem, but our young player community is huge. Stop by yoyoexpert's board for proof of that.. the average age there is probably around 13-14 and there are thousands of members (hundreds of routinely active ones) with new ones every day. A large portion of store sales are to first time buyers at YYE.. at yoyotricks it's probably 95% new players and they're selling a lot of yo-yos.

You still didn't answer my question though.. yes, yo-yo got a bump in 98 but was 17 years ago, it doesn't account for the growth since then. All those just in it for the 'boom' that happened are long gone.. why haven't tops grown?

If you think tops, as performed right now, are a better show than yo-yo.. put out videos, promote them, generate hits and new players. If it worked for yo-yo and tops are a better spectacle, it should do GREAT for you.

My comment about the pricing was unrelated to top players complaining about yoyo contests.. but more to -anybody- complaining that contests have been increasing fees in order to put on better events. The idea that you shouldn't have to pay a significant fee to compete is just insane.. you should have to pay a fee to even walk in the door.

I do apologize for derailing the thread from the topic a little, but we need to admit there IS a problem with how top competitions work right now.. how can we hope to make it better (or 'fix' it) if not everybody agrees that what is being done just doesn't work?

Kyle

[ta0]

I may split this thread in two as, although the comparison between tops and yo-yos is interesting, it does not solve the problem. I would say that there is no sport that is slower or more boring to watch than  . . . baseball, but it is still very popular. It has a lot to do with the circumstances and the history of the sport and how much people were exposed and emotionally invested in it when growing up.  In Mexico and Spain the situation with the popularity of yo-yos and tops with the kids is just the reverse than in the US. By the way, if you go even younger, beyblades rule 

I'll propose some ideas on a another post tomorrow.

[robtsou]

I would submit that tops aren't as popular as yoyo's simply because they aren't as easy to learn, especially when starting off which can turn off new players. Beyond that, while you CAN take a top out and play with it anywhere, the fact that it can go flying off anywhere probably keeps it from being a toy that people will play anywhere unless they are at a more advanced level. That being the case, you can't practice tops as much and so the learning curve becomes that much longer.  I love tops but I hardly ever practice except at home and even then, only when I can carve out some time.

Rob

[Jack]

I would submit that tops aren't as popular as yoyo's simply because they aren't as easy to learn, especially when starting off which can turn off new players. Beyond that, while you CAN take a top out and play with it anywhere, the fact that it can go flying off anywhere probably keeps it from being a toy that people will play anywhere unless they are at a more advanced level. That being the case, you can't practice tops as much and so the learning curve becomes that much longer.  I love tops but I hardly ever practice except at home and even then, only when I can carve out some time.

Rob

i agree with everything this man has said