Most everybody in the Bay Area is aware that La Boule d’Or, the San Francisco pétanque club is in big trouble.
After years of glory, the second oldest club in the United States is on the verge of collapse.
It barely manages to attract a handful of players and its tournaments are sparsely attended.
It is obvious that the club needs help to stave off disaster.
But La Boule d’Or’s predicament is not unique.
Many pétanque clubs are steadily losing members and something needs to be done to counter this trend.
The problem in San Francisco and in Marin County is that these clubs were originally founded by native Frenchmen and attracted mainly French players.
Many of these old-timers passed away and practically none of their children (eager to conform with their American peers) took up that sport.
I said practically none because fortunately there are exceptions.
And the exceptions are Agnes and Gilbert Sonet.
Early on, this nice French couple instilled in their son Noah the love of pétanque. He started playing at 3 ½ and now at 11 he is already a remarkable player.
I predict that this boy will undoubtedly improve with age and soon be somebody to reckon with.
We need more people like Agnes and Gilbert… I think that we should look for ways to clone Noah.
But seriously… The only pétanque clubs thriving in America are clubs headed by younger Americans. And rightly so.
They have the savvy and the energy that many older French people don’t have anymore.
So what can we do to promote pétanque?
It seems to me that we need some incentive. We need to dangle some kind of carrot in front of youthful individuals to incite them to set foot on our fields.
What kind of carrot? I don’t know.
I leave it to you readers to provide answers. Let me know if you have a killer idea susceptible to snare potential recruits.
If you do, I am pretty sure that our club could find a nice way to reward the person with the best workable suggestion.
Get your brain in gear… On your mark, get set, go!
Alain
Alain, I can’t agree more. As a Regional Councilor, I am very much interested in finding ways to promote our game, particularly to our youth. If you receive good suggestions please share with me. I will try to help with incentives.
Petanque is a product. Techniques for improving sales of a product are well-known. First – you advertise. Second – you make the product more attractive by lowering it cost or improving features of the product. And so on. Any book of “Marketing for Dummies” will give you ideas for strategies.
The reason that petanque is not growing significantly in the USA is not that clubs (or the FPUSA) don’t know what to do. Petanque is not growing because clubs (and the FPUSA) are not especially interested in growing it. Petanqueurs are smart people. If they really WANT something to happen, they are smart enough to figure out how to make it happen. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way”, as they say.
So, let’s ask some questions. Are the members of Boule d’Or concerned that their club is shrinking? (There are clubs that are French expatriate social groups as much as they are petanque clubs. Trying to attract new members would actually be a bad thing for such clubs, because it would destroy the very nature of the group. So it is quite legitimate for such clubs NOT to want to grow.)
If they – Boule d’Or, or any club – are concerned, what are they doing about it? For example, most newspapers have a special “weekend” edition that comes out on Thursday or Friday and lists local events. Event listings for non-profits are usually free, and it is easy to set up a listing for a continuing event like “petanque in the park”. Is Boule d’Or running such a listing?
Actions speak louder than words. If the club (or the FPUSA) SAYS that it is concerned about growth, but isn’t DOING even the simplest, most obvious thing, then common sense tells you that they aren’t really concerned.
There is nothing morally wrong about not doing anything to grow petanque in the USA. People join clubs because they like to play petanque. They really have no special interest in growing petanque in the USA, they just want to play. As a result, most clubs, once they’ve achieved enough membership to survive, do little or nothing to grow the club, or to grow petanque in the USA. And the priorities of the FPUSA reflect the priorities of the clubs that make up the FPUSA.
So, as I say… the reason that petanque is not growing significantly in the USA is not that clubs (or the FPUSA) don’t know what to do. Petanque is not growing because clubs (and the FPUSA, and, ultimately, petanque players in the USA) are not especially interested in growing it. I’m not say that that is bad. That’s just the way it is.
So… give Boule d’Or some credit. And don’t mourn for them. They’re not dummies. If they really wanted to attract new members, they’re smart enough to figure out how to do it.