Bids For Possible Sites Will Be Accepted Until 08/12

2020 has been tough on the aviation event community. The US Parachute Association explains that it is still determining whether a 2020 USPA Nationals can be conducted safely and if so, how. USPA is exploring options while trying to ensure competitors in all disciplines/events have an opportunity to compete.

After the Competition Committee of the USPA Board met on July 30, it was decided that Skydive City Zephyrhills in Florida would no longer host the 2020 USPA National Skydiving and Parachuting Championships due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The committee then reached out to the remaining hosts  who had submitted bids for this year’s Nationals (those hosts were Skydive Chicago, Skydive Perris and Skydive Arizona) to see if any one of them would be willing and able to host this year’s competition. Only Skydive Arizona expressed the interest and ability to host the competition, but only the formation skydiving and artistic event disciplines.

The Competition Committee met again on August 4 to discuss this revised bid by Skydive Arizona, and during the discussion, Skydive Arizona withdrew its bid from consideration. The committee then decided to open the bidding for this year’s Nationals to all group member drop zones instead of only the hosts who had originally placed bids.

All group member drop zones who might be interested are encouraged to submit bids for all or part of this year’s Nationals competition in accordance with Chapter 5 of the USPA Skydiving Competition Manual, via https://uspa.org/Portals/0/files/SCM_ch05.pdf.

USPA encourages bids to include detailed descriptions of COVID-19 protocols to be in place. These bids must be received no later than 5:00 PM EDT on August 12, 2020. Due to the short timeframe, please email all bids to competition@uspa.org.

The Competition Committee is set to meet on August 14, when it will consider all received bids. Interested bidders who wish to present their bids to the committee should include this wish in their email to the competition department, who will coordinate between the host and the committee.

Any bids that the Competition Committee approves will then be sent to the Executive Committee, who in turn will send them out for a full board discussion and vote. USPA promises an update shortly after that vote.

FMI: www.uspa.org