The Female Physique Webzine/Gallery
Letter below is from Tre Scott
www.femflex.com
Greetings, friends of women's bodybuilding:
As you all know by now, GNC has decided to exclude women's bodybuilding from their show this November. They have decided to replace it with figure. Their plan is to hold a Friday evening show with only the figure & fitness competitions and they feel that show can be successful (read: economically viable).
Not only is it an insult not to include the bodybuilders in the program, but that will also translate into a drastically smaller audience for the show, as evidenced by the recent Women's Night of Champions in New York City. If not for the FBBs, that venue would've been less than half full. Those of you who attended can verify that the vast majority of the house - by far - had paid to see the bodybuilders, not the fitness & figure portions. Another poignant example was at the 2001 Olympia prejudging - the Ms. O and Fitness O judging was held simultaneously in separate rooms and the Ms. O crowd was at least 5 times (conservative estimate) as large as the crowd watching the Fitness O.
One of the reasons I'm writing to you all is to get some feedback as to whether you feel any effort should be made to get women's bodybuilding added to the GNC show. A LARGE part of me wants to see them on the stage, but there is a small (yet devilish) part of me that wants the organizers to look out and see about 250 seats filled with paid attendees who are only getting fitness & figure for their $50 admission.
Another reason for this letter is to inquire about whether any of you would be interested in potentially helping to sponsor/promote this event. When I contacted one of the show's organizers, I was told that they'd need about $65,000 in order to make this show happen. From my perspective, that's a great number to shoot for, but not a realistic one.
The breakdown was simple - approximately $900 travel, lodging and per diem for each of 15 competitors ($13,500), along with $50,000 in prize money (the amount awarded last year).
I have today contacted a small number of bodybuilders to ask whether they'd consider entering the GNC, even if it meant having to pay their own travel and competing for a smaller purse. The one response I've received so far (Lisa Aukland) is overwhelmingly positive, so I'm led to believe that this might be the 'right thing' for fans to organize.
What I have in mind is a fund-raising campaign to provide prize money for a women's competition. The purses for the NOC and Jan Tana range from roughly $4500 to $6000, so I think a good target would be $18,000 but admittedly, I don't have any concrete plans as to how we might get there.
Thank you in advance for your time in reading and considering the points raised in this letter. Any and all feedback, thoughts, and ideas are welcome. Also, feel free to pass this letter along to anyone you feel might also be interested in contributing time, wisdom, money, or other resources to the effort.
Kindest regards,
Tre' Scott