Tournaments are the purest form of competition. Whether it’s a youth tournament or the World Cup, nothing beats a tournament to decisively determine a champion. But if you want to host an elite youth tournament these days, many factors must be considered.
“There are so many tournaments today and trying to differentiate yourself from everyone else is difficult,” says David Burgee, director of Oregon Futbol Academy. “Everybody is taking a piece of the pie and those pieces are just getting smaller and smaller because more and more people are coming into the market place. It’s tough.”
A lot goes into hosting a tournament; it’s not a walk in the park from a logistics standpoint. One vital tool for hosting a tournament is TeamSnap, which does all the busy work for you. TeamSnap will create brackets and schedules, alert teams of delays or field changes and help organize every aspect of the tournament all with one easy-to-use app. It will make a tournament you host a walk in the park for the teams who attend.
It’s not easy to host a great event, but, with the right tools and these guidelines, you too can host a successful tournament in 2018.
Location, Location, Location
One of the biggest factors in determining whether a team wants to spend money on a tournament is the time, date and place of the event. Of those, facilities are the most crucial aspect.
“One of the things we wanted to do was really focus on quality facilities,” Burgee says. “The quality of the facility is becoming critically important when teams decide what tournament they’re going to go to. People don’t want go to tournaments, pay a certain dollar amount and then they’re playing on half dead half grass fields.”
Finding the right field(s) (or court or other sports venue) for a tournament is of utmost importance. Access to quality surfaces will attract quality teams. Conversely, a tournament played on fields where the 18-yard box has turned into a beach or the midfield circle is a swamp will not have many repeat customers.
Artificial surfaces are great for tournaments because they create a level playing field for all teams and are less susceptible to adverse weather conditions, but a high-quality grass surface is always ideal if it can be maintained properly. Additionally, having multiple fields in one location is always better than spreading a tournament over different venues.
Organization
No tournament will ever be successful without organization at all levels. From team registration to scheduling, all aspects of a tournament must be clarified and structured for teams and players to have a positive experience.
One aspect of tournaments that cannot be overlooked is ensuring the brackets and/or groups are set up fairly. Creating a balanced schedule where teams play opponents of an appropriate skill level is perhaps the most important thing a tournament director can do to determine whether a team has a good impression of the tournament.
“Tournaments that don’t bracket correctly are going to fail,” says Adam Hayes, director of operations for FC Boulder in Colorado.
Additionally, teams — players, parents and coaches — need to know where to be and when. They need to be contacted quickly in case of schedule changes or weather delays.
Teams can tell when a tournament isn’t organized well and will be hesitant to come back if things don’t go smoothly. Using a service like TeamSnap can help tournament directors greatly, aiding in team registration, schedule creation, schedule notifications, score/standing updates and more.
Organization is vital and having the right tools in place can make hosting a tournament so much easier, and who doesn’t like easier?
Philosophy And Brand
With so many tournaments already out there, having a philosophy for your event will help give it an identity and make it more differentiated for teams looking for a tournament to join.
A tournament philosophy can be easily overlooked in lieu of just trying to make as much money as possible. In the long run, having a strong brand will draw teams in and keep them coming back if they know what to expect.
“I think the most important thing for tournaments is very similar to a club in that you need to have a philosophy around your event and it needs to be clearly articulated,” Hayes says. “I think tournaments that focus on the philosophy and live to that philosophy will be much more successful than tournaments that try to make as much money as they can by trying to get as many teams as they can.”
Philosophies can range from simply trying to crown the best team in the region to having a fun, family oriented weekend for players and their parents.
One of FC Boulder’s most successful tournaments is the Players Cup Tournament, which has become one of the premier tournaments in the region because of its philosophy of focusing on the players’ (and coaches’) experiences. The tournament doesn’t put too much strain on the players, giving adequate rest between matches and not having semifinals or finals force teams to play too many matches in one week. Additionally, coaches are considered at every step. For example, if a coach has multiple teams in the tournament, the schedule will place them in nearby venues and at helpful times.
“The idea of ‘experience is everything’ is the focus on Players Cup,” Hayes says. “As a byproduct of that, we have the highest-rated tournament in Colorado, as far as the quality of teams that play in it. We didn’t go out and recruit the highest teams, we just got the highest teams because the philosophy we have. That’s been a really significant success for us.”
FC Boulder has another tournament that’s also successful but from a different perspective. The Boulder Cup focuses on U-9 and U-10 teams with the philosophy of having a festive, jamboree-style event. While there is a trophy for the winner, the focus is on everyone — from players to families — having fun. Hayes said the tournament has tripled in size the last three years because of the clear articulation of what the event wants to achieve.
Having a clearly defined philosophy will ensure participants know what they’re getting into and result in everyone having a better experience. Branding that philosophy will help draw teams to your tournament.
Keith Greenawalt, the chief research and strategy officer for the marketing agency Greenhouse Partners, said it’s important to own the philosophy in the target audience’s mind and make it clear that your tournament is the best way for teams to have the type of experience you’re offering.
“If you want to successfully own a space in people's mind's year after year, you need to have a memorable brand that can carry that equity over time and becomes synonymous with your promise, your value proposition,” Greenawalt said. “And if someone else pops up with a similar idea to yours, you want them to sound like they are late to the party.”
Attention To Detail
With so much to worry about when hosting a tournament, forgetting about the little things can spell doom for your event. Or looked at another way, paying attention to small details can take your tournament from good to great.
“Trying to provide the micro services that maybe not everybody would recognize but everybody can appreciate is critically important,” Burgee says.
Details range from making sure each field has benches (and, if it’s hot, canopies or tents for the benches), providing water to the athletes, making sure there are enough bathrooms for everyone in attendance and having security in place. The little things always add up to make for a more positive experience.
Another detail that must not be overlooked is having adequate medical staff on hand in the case of injuries. In accordance with the U.S. Soccer player safety campaign, any major tournament (64 or more teams at U-11 or older) is required to have an adequate number of certified athletic trainers or healthcare professionals accessible to coaches, referees and athletes in order to be a sanctioned tournament.
While the extra cost may be prohibitive for many tournament organizers, Burgee says it’s worth the expense.
“What I want to try to do is provide the best possible experience for our participants, and if that means we have to pay athletic trainers $35 or $45 an hour, which is generally the case, we’re going to do that,” Burgee says.
Stand Apart
If you’re creating a new tournament one thing you must do is find a unique way to market your event. Standing apart from the masses of tournaments available to teams these days is one of the best ways to attract clubs.
“If you’re trying to start a tournament today you really need to offer some extraordinary opportunities for teams in order to just get them in,” Burgee says. “People are going to some pretty extraordinary measures because the market is getting tighter and thinner.”
Incentivizing coaches (or players) is an easy way to encourage teams to sign up. Everyone loves free stuff, so goodie bags for coaches or players are always a good option. Offering free hotel rooms for coaches is another option, especially if coaches manage multiple teams.
Paying to bring in college coaches is a great way to attract elite teams to your tournament. College recruiters will be much more likely to attend a tournament if the organizers pay for their transportation and hotel expenses. The more college recruiters at a tournament, the more quality teams that will want to sign up.
Greenawalt, the Greenhouse Partners strategist, said a great product — like a great brand —should be different from the competition but in a way that is relevant to the target audience and authentic to who you are.
“When you craft any kind of product, you need to have a clear picture in your head of how it will be different from everyone else in your competitive space,” Greenawalt said. “Research and analyze those other products, list out their features and then make sure that when you design your experience that there you are providing something that isn't readily available.
“Differentiating by itself is kind of easy, but differentiating in a way that is relevant to your target is much harder — but really important. A square soccer ball is differentiating, but it's not going to be a hot seller. So, you also need to understand who you're targeting.”
Finding ways to make your tournament stand apart and be as appealing as possible for all parties will greatly improve the quantity and quality of teams wanting to join the field.
Hosting your own tournament can be a daunting task. These five keys will help any event regardless of the sport succeed. When you add in the wide-ranging utility of TeamSnap to streamline registration, scheduling and more, holding your own tournament is now easier than ever.
