Sport In Rapid Declinec

[STB]

Just reading Bert Brasspenning on the decline in pigeon racing. It's not just hear its everywhere.

 

There are almost no more fanciers

Young members hardly exist, they are busy

with completely different things. They have so

many possibilities that they do not embark on a

time-consuming and expensive hobby such as

the pigeon racing. The sport is aging, the largest

group of fanciers are the ‘pensioners’ and they

are certainly not interested in making changes.

They want to enjoy their game every week. They

have been used to it for many years so we would

they want to change that. Yet that happens. Theumber of members is declining and that is not

only due to the aging population. All kinds of

working groups have been formed by the NPO

for each type of game. The people who have

taken part in it come up with all kinds of novel

ideas, especially more races. People should

have thought that 40 years ago when there were

enough members. There were even

associations that had to restrict membership

numbers. Unfortunately the managers at the

time did not think of aging, after all it went well

and everyone was enthusiastic. Because of the

working groups there are far too many races and

after only one year racing the National NPO

programme there are many dissatisfied fanciers.

I know you don't have to participate in

everything. But in the past it was true that

everyone participated because it was a racing

programme that fanciers with a small number of

pigeons could take part in every week. The sport

for the common man was affordable, now the

prices have risen out of all reason. It is no longer

fun and that is why more and more fanciers are

throwing in the towel. The sport is becoming too

professional and too commercial. The

professionals with their mega lofts are taking

advantage from all those older fanciers who

come to the room every week with their pigeons.

They ensure that there are still quite a few

pigeons participating in the competitions for the

glory of the professionals. The same

professionals can then compete for the National

titles and participation in the Olympiad which is

held once every two years. Ridiculous, the

Olympics are once every four years, but not in

the pigeon sport. This way the commercial men

can make a lot of money every two years from

the pigeons or their youngsters. Fine, but that

should not be above the heads of all those old

grey men who often achieve a much better prize

percentage than the mostflyers, all those who

can read a result know that. Our National board,

the NPO, is contributing to this. They have

forgotten what it was like or perhaps they have

never experienced how cosy the pigeon sport

used to be. Now a pigeon club consists of an

average of ten members. In the golden years

there were many associations that had 80 to 100

members and some clubs had even more. Then

there was a race within every club. Now it is

often the same two or three that make up the

leaders and they dare to advertise the fact. They

should be ashamed of themselves. No, there is

not much fun left. You have to find the pleasure

on your own loft and that has nothing to do with

whether you are a member of a Club with 10 or

50 members. Pigeon sport is a sport enjoyed at

home and the whole family can be involved.

It is what it is!

In the Netherlands, the golden years are over

and I am very happy that I was able to

experience them. Now we are struggling along.

Pigeons are still great fun. Every day I enjoy

caring for them in order to get a good result at

the weekend. Just relax in your loft, shake off all

worries and be busy with your birds. The time

that I wanted to race multiple races in one day is

far behind me. I no longer have to think about

going to the club several times a week. Friday

evening is the nicest evening for me and

everything else can now be done online. Money

prizes are gone, so what does a result say?

What matters now is the champion points,

nothing more. We can forget large numbers of

pigeons competing, because that will never

come again. It just seems a little pathetic. This

week in my club we had with 22 members from

six participants for the third one-day long

distance race and three of them did not appear

in the results. It really means nothing anymore.

In a little while we will no longer be able to find a

cost effective way to take the pigeons to

liberation sites of 500km and beyond. I don't

think the NPO board is working on that yet. They

are preoccupied with the organisation of the

Olympiad to be held in 2021 in The Netherlands.

That costs a lot of money while the event is only

interesting for the ‘bobos’ and that can never be

the purpose of an Olympiad. Still I hope to be

there in two years, when I have become 84

years old!

BERT BRASPENNING