Sanctioning Committee’s Approval Process & Criteria For
Tier 1 Event Producers and & Worlds Bid Eligibility

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The USASF Sanctioning Committee will follow the USASF Sanctioning Committee’s Approval Process & Criteria and the USASF Event Producer Memberships requirements. Additionally, the Sanctioning Committee will follow the guidelines listed below in deciding which Cheerleading Worlds qualifying competition to sanction among USASF member event producers that meet the specific tier level guidelines, but have the potential to conflict from either a date or location standpoint. The Sanctioning Committee cannot unreasonably deny sanctioning and/or tier approval for any event producer that complies with all requirements. The USASF Board of Directors retains the ultimate final approval authority. For the 2019-2020 season, the USASF will not sanction more than 42 Tier 1 Cheerleading Worlds qualifying events in the US. The first 42 event producers approved under the following guidelines will be awarded Tier 1 status.

In an effort to protect the integrity of Worlds, the USASF reserves the right to make changes to Tier 1 approval guidelines, as recommended by the Sanctioning Committee, prior to each year's approval process.Therefore, there is no guarantee thatan existing Event Producer or one under new ownership, holding a current season Worlds bid event, will be approved for the following season.

International Guidelines:
The goal is to make Worlds qualifying events as accessible as possible for all star programs without diminishing a qualifying event’s prestige by over saturating any given market. Toward this end, there are three principles followed in determining Worlds bid eligibility: 1) teams that have not competed at Worlds previously from countries that do not have a qualifying event can qualify by video and interview, 2) event producers who have not previously awarded Worlds bids and are from countries that already have one or more event producers with Worlds qualifying events, must attend Worlds and be interviewed by the IASF before qualifying to extend bids, and 3) Worlds bids can be awarded to teams at Worlds qualifiers outside their home country only if there are no Worlds qualifiers or sport federations sponsoring teams in their home country.

Additional criteria that could have a direct bearing on either the ability of a team to receive a bid, or an event producer to qualify to give bids are as follows: a) the Worlds is an international competition and, as such, is respectful of the following issues which will have a direct bearing on determining qualifying events and teams: political geography, socioeconomics, local governmental capabilities, and b) from a practical standpoint, USA immigration policy must be carefully followed regarding team and event producer qualifications.

Great care will be used in evaluating each bid application individually to ensure the mission of the USASF/IASF is enhanced by each approved application.

USASF Specific Guidelines:

  1. The USASF has the authority to approve and sanction championships to give Worlds bids on an annual basis. Each company that applies to be a Tier 1 member, and to award Worlds bids must submit an application, and all other required forms, before the January 15deadline each year to qualify initially or to requalify. All event producers will be notified of their approved Tier level by March 1 of the application year.
  2. The date the event producer became a member of the USASF.
    1. A member event producer requesting a change in tier and/or location will maintain their priority status as of their membership date with the following exceptions:
      1. If a Tier 1 event producer with an earliermembership date moves its bid weekend/city for any reason and its event encroaches upon an existingTier 1 Event Producer’s event that has a latermembership date, the “earlier membership date” Tier 1 Event Producer cannot displace (take the place of or remove) the existing Tier 1 Event Producer’s bid giving event, as long as the existing Tier 1Event Producer’s event has been held on the same weekend/city for 3 of the past 5 years and has been a Tier 1 event continuously for the past 3 years. A city is defined as an MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area). A bid is defined as a fully paid bid to The Cheerleading Worlds.
      2. If a Tier 1 Event Producer with a latermembership date desires to move their bid weekend/city for any reason and the move encroaches(to infringe/invade)upon an existing Tier 1 Event Producer’s event who has an earlier membership date, the “later membership date” Tier 1 Event Producer’s request will be denied unless the Tier 1 Event Producer with the earlier membership date agrees to allow the move.
      3. A Tier 1 Event Producer requesting to “move” its bid event over 200 miles, must appeal to the USASF Sanctioning Committee for an approval.
      4. A Tier 1 Event Producer requesting to “move” its bid event date and or location after the “Approval Process” is completed, and encroaches upon another member’s date and or location, must appeal to the USASF Sanctioning Committee for an approval.
      5. Tier 1 Event Producers that hold their bid event on a weekend that is tied to a specific Holiday weekend or is impinged upon by a specific Holiday (i.e. Thanksgiving, Easter, President’s Weekend, Martin Luther King Weekend, Leap Year), will not be denied the opportunity to award their bids on that same holiday weekend as long as the date change is due solely to a shift in the calendar.
      6. If an Event Producer ceases to give bids in any year (for example by changing from Tier 1to Tier 3), it cannot resume giving bids if it displaces another Tier 1 event producer that has awarded bids the previous year.
      7. Any former or current Tier 3 or 4 member event producer applying for Tier 1, with an earlier membership date, may not displace a current Tier 1 member with a later membership date.
      8. Any Tier 3 or 4 member event producer applying for Tier 1, may move their event from it’s original location up to 200 miles as long as they not encroach upon an existing Tier 1 event producer’s event.
  3. The location of the championship the company desires to give Cheerleading Worlds bids. In order to protect member event producers, the Sanctioning Committee will endeavor to protect existing Tier 1 Championships in the same/similar market by addressing the considerations below:
    1. The present market size and geographical location relative to existing Tier 1 Championships. This is a judgment based on the specific market’s ability to absorb another Tier 1 Championship based on the number of all star teams in themarket, the total number of competitions in a market, the proximity of this market to other markets, and other factors that have a bearing on the number of Worlds bids that are appropriate within given markets.
    2. Tier 1 Championships will be protected, within a four week window on either side of the current bid giving event, for a 200 mile radius. In addition, Tier 1 events will be protected for a 500 mile radius from other bid giving events on the same weekend.
      Exceptions:
        • Current Tier 1 member event producers that fail to comply with the required membership criteria for an applied tier level, will have a one year probation to meet all requirements before having their championship tier reduced to the level justified by the tier criteria.
        • Any event producer that does not meet the membership criteria, while on probation, may not reapply for Tier 1 in a new city for one year.
        • Event Producers applying for Tier 1 inside an existing member company’s protected geographical location and date, can appeal to themember company for approval. This approval, if granted, will satisfy the date and distance criteria.If the appeal is not granted, there will be no other appeals.
  4. Event Producer and Championship Background - An event producer desiring to give bids willbe additionally evaluated based on number of years in business, number of multiple early round locations, number of all star competition participants annually, and the geographical scope of its competitions.
  5. Appeals Process - If specific situations in agiven market indicate the need for these guidelines to be applied differently or for exceptions to be made, the process to address this will be as follows:
    1. The event producer requesting an exception will request a review and forward the document to the Chairman of the Sanctioning Committee.
    2. The Chairman will verify the facts in the document and make an initial determination as to whether the proposal has merit. If the proposal is deemed to have merit, it will be forward it to full Sanctioning Committee fordiscussion and a vote.
    3. Any exception requests/appeals voted upon positively or negatively by the Sanctioning Committee, may further be reviewed by The USASF Board or Directors by the request of the Event Producer(s) filing the exception/appeal.
    4. Approved exceptions will be recorded and the requesting event producer will be notified.
  6. Eligibility - Bid giving eligibility is contingent on members maintaining their membership in good standing and continuing to give bids each year.
  7. Flexibility –The goal for Worlds bids is to be sufficiently flexible to ensure participation by event producers as possible while still protecting the value of Worlds bids. Another goal is to recognize the contribution made by the early USASF supporters whose financial support made the Worlds possible initially.