Bridge players, miffed that the New York Times dropped the bridge column after 80 years, are buoyed by news that NYT is "talking to the American Contract Bridge League about a solution."
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The statement came from ACBL CEO Robert Hartman. "I have reached out to NYT to reinstate a bridge presence," he said.
Bridge buffs think that one way for the column to make it into print again would be for ACBL to foot part of the costs of the space and all of the costs of writing the column.
ACBL, based in Horn Lake, Miss., had net assets of $7,773,272 as of Dec. 31, 2013. This included investments of $6,080,876 and cash/savings of $1,532,167. It has land and buildings valued at $9,378,154 minus depreciation of $2,547,804. ACBL, with 167,000 members, had revenues of $16,134,298 in 2013 and costs of $15,271,654 for a profit of $862,644.
ACBL Is Like CPJ
ACBL, a cash and asset-rich association serving a stressed pastime that is in a downward spiral, can be compared to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a cash and asset-rich association serving an occupation that is losing practitioners at a rapid rate worldwide who are under political, social and economic pressures.
CPJ had net assets of $14,860,833 as of Dec. 31 including $12,831,408 in investments. CPJ is almost exclusively concerned with persecution of journalists abroad and pays little attention the plight of U.S. journalists who have lost jobs by the tens of thousands in recent years.
CPJ, if it so desired, could build and operate a New York Taj Mahal-like library and computer access facility for the journalist, PR and communications industry if it so desired. The Overseas Press Club supplied such a facility until 1969 when embezzlement by a staffer caused it to lose its 11-story building on 40th st. PR Society of America had a library at 845 Third ave. until 1987 when it moved to 17th st. In 2004, it moved downtown to Maiden Lane.
CPJ’s own economic security seems to be its chief concern, a situation that is mirrored at the ACBL.
Tough Sell to Youth
Bridge historians say that bridge had its heyday in the 1940s to the 1960s. Columnist Charles Goren had an audience of 34 million and sold eight million books on bridge in 1963. Membership reached 200,000 in 1993.
Attracting younger players to the game will be difficult. The current popular format is 20 to 26 hands of bridge played over a four-hour period in an atmosphere of near complete silence. Anyone who talks will be told to "shush." Few things are quieter than a roomful of bridge players. Such a long period of comparative inactivity is a turnoff to youth.
Financier Warren Buffett and Bill Gates of Microsoft in 2005 put time and money behind an initiative to promote bridge in American schools.
A similar program for chess thrived but the bridge program "fell on its face," said an article in the Nov. 20, 2013 Observer by Greg Hanlon.
Some blamed "poor management" while others blamed "a dumbed-down, instant gratification-seeking American society.
New York Groups Have Problems
Ed and Louise Kellerman, who have operated the Eastside Bridge Club for decades, announced that they can no longer do so after June 1. The couple just celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary and cite health problems.
Whether the game will continue remains to be seen. It recently moved from the Grace Institute at 1233 Second ave. to the Church of St. Catherine of Siena at 411 E. 68th st. Most players in New York groups are in their 60s and 70s.
The Manhattan Bridge Club ended its lease at 250 W. 57th st. after many years and merged with the Honors Bridge Club which is at 133 E. 58th st.
Columnist Alder Was Major Expense
Phillip Alder, who wrote the column three days a week, was a major expense of NYT, said bridge teachers who have had personal contact with him. They estimated his cost at upwards of $150,000 yearly. Attempts are being made to verify this with Alder. He responded to an email but said he is traveing.
Alder not only analyzed hands but covered bridge tournaments across the country. He conducts an extensive bridge business that includes three-day classes at country clubs and other locations that include Naples, Tucson, Northeast Harbor, Maine, and Winnetka, Ill.
His website describes a Bordeaux golf, wine and bridge cruise from May 5-16, 2016 conducted with Kalos Golf. He and his wife Kitty will host bridge tutorials throughout the cruise and also conduct duplicate tournaments.
Standard stateroom is $8,695 per person including golf. Touring only is $5,695. Suites are available at $14,535 per person.
NYT, which is in a major cost-cutting mode, dropped tech columnist David Pogue in October 2013 after 13 years. It recently set a goal of cutting 100 editorial staffers via early retirements. Veteran staffers got packages that included two years’ salary.
NY Post, Newsday Keep Columns
Bridge players are pointing out to NYT that the New York Post and Newsday continue to have a daily bridge column. It is supplied by the Tribune Content Agency and carries the byline of Frank Stewart in Newsday. The column takes up about six inches of space and is confined to the play of one hand. King Features distributes a column by Steve Becker of Greenwich.
"In many ways, the [bridge] column’s existence is a kind of journalistic miracle given the declining popularity of the card game," wrote Matthew Kassel in the New York Observer Oct. 21, 2014 on the occasion of NYT dropping the chess column.
ACBL Museum
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He said the game is "more often associated with senescent grandparents than youthful vitality." Reading about bridge is "to enter a universe whose abstruse vocabulary—full of imps and trumps and canapés—is virtually inaccessible to a non-player," he wrote.
Hartman says "The game has had its tremendous popularity, similar to sports like horse racing during its heyday. Poker made a huge comeback in the U.S. and I think bridge can also make that huge comeback if we can so some things to increase awareness and get people playing again."
Hartman, who joined ACBL in 2011, was previously VP and general manager, Golden Gate Fields, a horse track in Albany, Calif. He was associate athletic director, University of California, from 2003-05. Pay package in 2013 was $277,660.
The organization was in New York City from 1937 to 1967 when it moved to Greenwich, Conn. It moved to Memphis in 1972 into a building built for it and to Horn Lake in 2010.
Its building at 6575 Windchase blvd. includes the ACBL Museum
California provides it with the most members, 19,424, followed by Florida with 18,081, New York with 10,429, and Texas with 8,798.
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