Tournament help needed

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Jul 10, 2014
1,283
0
C-bus Ohio
OK, here's the biggie for the year lol!

Our league has never done any sort of opening day ceremonies thing. This is another change I want to have this season: an opening day party with all 60+ teams on the field at once. That part is pretty straight forward: I make it picture day, too, and everyone shows up.

But I had another thought. Our girls almost never get exposed to higher level play unless the coach does something with the team like I did (and as fat as I know I'm the only who's ever done it). So I was thinking to host a small early season (for us) tourney for our community select teams. Of course, I have no idea how to do that. I'll probably screw it up. But I would like for the rec girls to see the next level. So who wants to volunteer to be my TD tutor???
 
Oct 3, 2011
3,478
113
Right Here For Now
I'll be doing another 2 this year as I have for the past 11 years. What kind of questions do you need answered? BTW, we'll be at NECC also if you need help or want to talk.
 
Last edited:
Jun 27, 2011
5,089
0
North Carolina
I would like for the rec girls to see the next level.

I'd be curious to see how much the rec girls care about seeing the next level. Doing a tournament is worthwhile regardless, so I'm not discouraging that, but when I ran a rec league a few years back, while also coaching a travel team, I didn't find that the rec folks cared much about watching travel ball. There were some that wanted to play travel ball, but even then, I didn't notice a great desire to watch it, certainly not to go out of the way to do so. We had travel tournaments and travel practices at the same park where the rec league played, and I never saw much eagerness from the rec crowed to watch the travel stuff. But maybe I didn't do anything to spur that interest. I don't know.

As for the tournament, how many fields do you have? How many teams do you hope to attract? Do you want it to be one day, or two? How casual/serious do you want it to be? Would the games be more like friendlies, or do you want it to be like a 'real' tournament? How many volunteers can you scrounge up? Do you want concessions? Would fans have to return balls out of play? Just kidding on at least one of those. :)

Give us a better picture of what you have in mind.
 
Jul 10, 2014
1,283
0
C-bus Ohio
I'd be curious to see how much the rec girls care about seeing the next level. Doing a tournament is worthwhile regardless, so I'm not discouraging that, but when I ran a rec league a few years back, while also coaching a travel team, I didn't find that the rec folks cared much about watching travel ball. There were some that wanted to play travel ball, but even then, I didn't notice a great desire to watch it, certainly not to go out of the way to do so. We had travel tournaments and travel practices at the same park where the rec league played, and I never saw much eagerness from the rec crowed to watch the travel stuff. But maybe I didn't do anything to spur that interest. I don't know.

Probably a lot of them won't care, but there are so many more who simply do not know anything about it. If I'd known way back when we started I bet DD would have been interested. She got interested in getting better as soon as she found out about the option to play for better teams. Those are the girls my Select teams want to attract.

As for the tournament, how many fields do you have? How many teams do you hope to attract? Do you want it to be one day, or two? How casual/serious do you want it to be? Would the games be more like friendlies, or do you want it to be like a 'real' tournament? How many volunteers can you scrounge up? Do you want concessions? Would fans have to return balls out of play? Just kidding on at least one of those. :)

Give us a better picture of what you have in mind.

I will have 3 fields: 2 HS and 1 MS all on the same campus
Not sure on how many teams, figured that might be dictated by the number of fields? Don't want to go crazy...fewer is probably better
One or 2 days, doesn't matter.
Community Select level, and it's early season so not too serious
Unknown on the volunteers - if I can determine a minimum needed I can probably find them
There will be no balls out of play, I forbid it.
 
Oct 3, 2011
3,478
113
Right Here For Now
Okay. 3 Fields. How long are the games going to be? How many age groups? Is there a game guarantee? If so, how many? This will determine the number of teams you can accept. Say 75 minute games starting at 8 a.m. 15 minutes between each game to give your volunteer field crews time to dress the fields and give you a little leeway since many tourneys are now played time limit reached then finish the inning. That would be a maximum of 3 fields multiplied by x number of times slots multiplied by 2 teams. The number of times slots will be determined by the availability of field lights or how long daylight is at the time of the tourney should there be no lights. The number of teams will determine the number of games played that day or weekend. You'll need to decide which sanctioning body's rule set you will be playing under and line up umpires. How many per game? 1 or 2?

Then you'll need to figure out your costs. Fields cost x number of dollars. Umpires cost x number of dollars. Food/drink costs to open the concession stand. Etc. etc. Now you need to set the tournament team fees to cover it all and make a little money for the league.

Some more decisions to make. Will you charge for parking? Charge attendance for non-players? I could go on but this will start you going in the right direction. PM me if you need more help or simply to ask questions.
 
Jul 10, 2014
1,283
0
C-bus Ohio
Okay. 3 Fields. How long are the games going to be? How many age groups? Is there a game guarantee? If so, how many? This will determine the number of teams you can accept. Say 75 minute games starting at 8 a.m. 15 minutes between each game to give your volunteer field crews time to dress the fields and give you a little leeway since many tourneys are now played time limit reached then finish the inning. That would be a maximum of 3 fields multiplied by x number of times slots multiplied by 2 teams. The number of times slots will be determined by the availability of field lights or how long daylight is at the time of the tourney should there be no lights. The number of teams will determine the number of games played that day or weekend. You'll need to decide which sanctioning body's rule set you will be playing under and line up umpires. How many per game? 1 or 2?

Then you'll need to figure out your costs. Fields cost x number of dollars. Umpires cost x number of dollars. Food/drink costs to open the concession stand. Etc. etc. Now you need to set the tournament team fees to cover it all and make a little money for the league.

Some more decisions to make. Will you charge for parking? Charge attendance for non-players? I could go on but this will start you going in the right direction. PM me if you need more help or simply to ask questions.

Here we go - I can do math!

I will need one of my fields for the opening day ceremonies, so the earliest start there would be noon probably. Let me fiddle this in a spreadsheet.
 
Jul 10, 2014
1,283
0
C-bus Ohio
How long are the games going to be? 75 minutes with 15 between start times.
How many age groups? 3? Could add a 4th if I kill my opening day ceremonies or really shorten them, don't really want to do that.
Is there a game guarantee? Maybe. If so, how many? 4 - 3 round robin on Sat, single elim on Sun
The number of teams will determine the number of games played that day or weekend. 4 teams per age group fit on the fields I have available for a full round robin.
You'll need to decide which sanctioning body's rule set you will be playing under and line up umpires. ASA - possibly modified How many per game? 1 or 2? 1 for Sat, 2 for Sun?

Fields cost x number of dollars. $0, already paid for to the school district by our association. Will have to pay for field care supplies, not sure on those costs.
Umpires cost x number of dollars. $945
Food/drink costs to open the concession stand. Possibly $0 cost to us - the HS will man the booth and take those profits for their boosters.
Etc. etc. ???

Now you need to set the tournament team fees to cover it all and make a little money for the league. $250/team? That seems to be the average price for teams at this level around here?

Will you charge for parking? No
Charge attendance for non-players? No
 
Oct 3, 2011
3,478
113
Right Here For Now
We do 2 umpires for every game. We also have to pay for the field usage so our tourney fees are much higher to cover the extra costs. Not having that kind of overhead is a huge plus for you guys. The only thing you'll need to do now is figure out what the chalk, field dry should you need it and other maintenance supplies may run. I wouldn't worry about keeping the field dry on hand unless it's supposed to rain before or during. I usually locate a local supplier and get a price JIC I need it since it's rather expensive. An inexpensive option to that is oil-dry from the auto parts store but the fields we use for our tourney every year won't allow anything other than field dry.

We usually line and dress the fields every other game that way we only have to have 2 crews of volunteers since they alternate fields and that cuts down on the number required. i.e. 1 and 2 after a game and 3 and 4 after the next. This cuts down on material usage as well as the need for manpower. I suggest 4 per crew. You could get away with 3 but when they are dressing fields in between games the extra rake down a baseline and extra pair of hands to stretch the string for chalking helps out immensely time-wise.

It sounds as if you have a good handle on it so Good Luck and I hope it's a huge success for you and your league!
 

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