Quote Originally Posted by Kevin Pacey View Post
I see all that. One thing I'm still wondering about is, in a fantasy scenario (as in this present thread), if the CFC ever does get an influx of scads of cash each year, all of a sudden, why is it assumed that e.g. paid TV spot ads for the CFC would automatically fail?
The cost of advertising on CBC TV nationally for thirty seconds would probably be on the order of $40,000. We could blaze through the entire foundation funds with five minutes of ads. On top of that it would probably cost you somewhere between $65,000 and $500,000 to produce a professional grade commercial to air on tv. It would probably cost even more if you wanted it to be effective. You are advertising to a huge audience of unqualified buyers. What could you say in 30 seconds to get them to join? TV works if you are selling something that every viewer might want to buy like Coca-Cola or Molson Canadian. It doesn't work for a product like chess where we are chasing a tiny percentage of the viewers. If you can show me a way that we can make that work, I would be very interested.

Back at the dawn of TV advertising, people must have resolved simply to try advertising whatever their product was on TV, and simply hope for the best. Even though nowadays the CFC would have safer alternatives, taking a chance on a one-time TV spot just might pay off, or it might fail (and then the case would be proven).
If the cost of airing a 30 second commercial is $40,000 plus set-up costs of several hundred thousand dollars, I'm pretty sure everyone would be lining up with pitchforks outside my house.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/shorter-comm...isers-1.886304

https://www.webfx.com/blog/business-...-by-medium/#tv

Of course, the CFC should not do so if it cannot yet afford to lose the investment. In any case, free community TV spots might be available in some cities still. Still, I also cannot shake the feeling that there might be a certain lack of confidence in the ability of organized chess to sell itself in Canada, in a way that cannot outdo even a kid's cereal (which is a truly optional product, too).
The advertisers spend millions of dollars creating every ad for kids cereals and everyone watching is a potential customer for kids cereal. They make their money back with every ad or they stop running the ads. We can't afford to spend that much.

Perhaps any unexpected large annual influx of cash for the CFC might be best spent on somehow improving the CFC's infrastructure, such as hiring another staff member (if somehow useful), if I was to look at things as conservatively as I could.

edit: Incidentally your initial reply to me, that included indicating that the CFC has had some sort of a server deal for a while now, was big news to me. I thought I was seeing things (as I am prone to do now and then), or that I somehow exasperated you to the point that you told a whopper to shake me off. I hope the CFC is making that FIDE server tidbit well known (though as I alluded to in other threads, I don't go to the CFC website, the FIDE website or even CT due to my fear of getting my aging laptop somehow infected, even if I'm being irrational about all that at this point in time).
It was well advertised at the time we signed up but we really needed people to volunteer to help us get it off the ground. I believe it came online around 2015 or 2016 around the same time I had finished with the NFP act process and started the CYCC/CO/NAYCC tournaments. I could not take on additional duties with that, the CFC presidency and the three tournaments on my plate. I learned that the deal is still alive because there is a Canadian who wants to change from registration as a USCF member to a CFC member because the CFC member gets a much better deal and more features. I had thought they gave up on us but apparently not.