World Cup and Regional Championship Host City Bid Process

by IQA Staff | July 9, 2013

Editor's note: The deadline for potential tournament hosts to submit bids has been extended from June 24th to July 12th.

World Cup VI may have just wrapped up, but another season of regional championships and WCVII is right around the corner! Next year hundreds of teams and thousands of spectators will travel to cities and venues around the world to participate in close to a dozen IQA-produced or sanctioned quidditch tournaments - will your city be one of them? 

Photo by Kat Ignatova/IQA Photo Editor Over the next several weeks, the IQA will begin the process of evaluating bids to host these events, submitted by city visitors bureaus, school administrations, and teams. The process is broken down by section here: Which event locations are being selected via this bid process? How does the bid process work? Who can submit bids to host events? What if we want our local city to officially submit a bid? What is the deadline to submit bids? Who will be evaluating bids? Why aren't teams voting on locations this year? When will host cities be announced? How does my city, institution, or team submit a bid?

Which event locations are being selected via this bid process?

The IQA will be evaluating bids to select locations for World Cup VII, World Cup VIII and for all U.S. and most international Regional Championships from 2013-2015. Because the IQA is accepting bids for two years' worth of events, the IQA can accept bids for either or both years. The IQA must select bids for the 2013-2014 season by the dates outlined below, but may not necessarily fill all or any bids for the 2014-2015 season if the applicant bids do not meet selection standards. Parties that bid for these events may also submit their nomination at a later date than the dates listed below.

Every team, including international teams, that wishes to attend World Cup VII must do so by qualifying at a regional championship. International teams should contact International Director Karen Kumaki at karen.kumaki@internationalquidditch.org for the location of their nearest regional championship, or for information on how to host their own. Owing to the start of their season in January, planning has already begun for the Oceania regional championship, which will not solicit bids via this process.

How does the bid process work?

Interested hosts submit bids (see submission process at bottom) in which they tell us why their city would make an excellent quidditch city. They outline their available sports facilities, their demographics and weather, the local hotels, entertainment and other amenities, and the monetary and material support they would be be able to provide us if we choose them. Support from city as event co-hosts will allow us to once again organize tournaments of the extremely high quality that you saw this past season. The IQA will also be directly soliciting key cities and some cities requested by teams, as detailed below.

Who can submit bids to host events?

Due to the unique advantages afforded by holding tournaments in locations that have official city support, the IQA will prioritize bids submitted by official city organizations such as convention and visitors bureaus. If it is necessary to entertain additional bids, the IQA will review bids submitted by teams to host a tournament at a school-affiliated site or other location where the event site owners will provide some significant level of support. If it is still necessary to consider additional locations, the IQA will review bids submitted by teams to host a tournament at a third-party site with no external support (for example, a public park or a rented sports facility.)

As a summary of the above, bids will be prioritized as follows:

1. City bids 2. Team bids with official support 3. Team bids at third-party sites

What if we want our local city to officially submit a bid? Great! Captains can suggest that the IQA's event venue solicitor contact specific cities to solicit a bid application by filling out this form.

What is the deadline to submit bids? All bid applications must be received no later than July 12th.

Who will be evaluating bids? After the bids are collected, the bids for each event will be evaluated by a committee consisting of the heads of each of the seven IQA departments, the CEO, COO, and either the regional director of the regional championship in question or the World Cup tournament director. This selection committee will be in lieu of team votes on bid locations.

Why aren't teams voting on locations this year? Last season, official member teams voted between the final choices for each regional championship. However, due to the IQA's objective to move regional championships to larger, centralized cities for multi-year agreements (announced earlier this year in the state of the league address) and build up larger regional and local audiences for the sport, the IQA's selection committee will be handling the selection process. Teams still have the opportunity to significantly influence the bid process by suggesting local cities for the IQA to contact to submit bids, and will be updated at least once during the process as the bids come in and are narrowed down.

When will host cities be announced? The IQA will identify potentially suitable bids over the months of June and July, and will work with the bidding cities to develop their applications over the following weeks. Locations of the World Cup and all U.S. and Canadian regionals will be announced by the middle of August. Locations of international regional championships will be announced by the end of August. The difference in announcement time is due to a major international city conference taking place later in the summer that the IQA will be attending.

How does my city, institution, or team submit a bid? All cities and teams will have the same information made available to them during the bid submission process. Prospecti are available detailing the general requirements for potential hosts of regional championships, here, and World Cup VII, here. Much more detailed packages with full requirements will be sent via email to requesting parties.

Cities and teams who are interested in submitting a bid for a particular event should first review the prospecti above, and then email joe.pickett@internationalquidditch.org to request a full bid packet. Bid packets are detailed descriptions of the bid process and the events in question, including expectations of the host, and include the official bid application.

If you have any questions about the bid process, please contact the IQA's event venue solicitor  Joe Pickett, at joe.pickett@internationalquidditch.org.