Thread: Game Day USA

Anyone familiar with this group or the tournaments they run.

They are managing a few tournaments in Battle Creek Michigan and I wondered how they are.

We have been to a couple of tournaments the past few years and weren't very happy. They do some weird things with the brackets. Basically you play your pool play games. Then they take only the top 8 or so teams and make a championship bracket out of those teams. The remaining teams may come back one more time to get one last meaningless game in to meet the minimum game guarantee, but there is no path to the championship.

Additionally, in my opinion they don' t know how to (or don't want to) handle weather delays. As long as they meet the minimums of the tournament, they don't seem to care about trying to get the games in.

The second tournament we were in had rain. However since they were also running a baseball tournament at the same time they had very limited fields. So when it did clear up they did not have enough fields to get games in. In the end we got in one pool play game which we won. Due to rain they decided to cancel all of the rest of the pool play games. They then slotted two or four teams in a mini championship bracket. The rest of the teams were told their tournament was over. Even though we won our one and only pool game, we didn't make the mini bracket due to the fact that we gave up more runs. We got one game out of the tournament. What a waste of time.

btw... make certain you understand their refund policy. Basically they don't give you any money back for weather cancellations. They offer you something like 50% a tournament NEXT season. Wow.. how generous.

We are going to one in the Wisconsin Dells this summer. I hope they don't operate that way anymore.

Originally Posted by Quake Softball

We are going to one in the Wisconsin Dells this summer. I hope they don't operate that way anymore.

I hope you haven't sent them any money yet. If you haven't, don't. Everything Goobie said is 100% accurate.

I made the mistake of entering into one of their tournaments last year. I will NEVER have anything to do with Game Day again. The feeling I got was a bait and switch was pulled on my team. They make it sound like a real tournament and you get only the VERY minimum they advertise for most of the teams.

My advice to anyone thinking of entering their tournaments to stay away if you think you're entering a normal tournament with double elimination. After it was over I felt it was nothing but a big money grab on the part of Game Day.

I agree with the above posts. We played in one, at the Wisconsin Dells 2 years ago. I vowed then, that I would never play in a game day tournament again. Poorly run tournament.

Thank you all for your input

Eric what didn't you like about the Wisconsin Dells Tourney?

Pretty much what Goobie said. Rain delays, disorganized. Promised professional umps? 2 per game. We only had 1 per game, they were terrible. All teams were complaining about them. Lack of staff at the tournament. Lack of communication during rain delays. Unable to get ahold of any staff, trying to find out when we played again.
I will never play another Game day tourney

Let's bring this thread back from the dead. DD's coaches 14U decided to play one of these.
It is in Rockford IL next weekend. Is anyone here signed up for this or played in any of their
tourny's this year??

I'm just wondering if they made any changes and what to expect. I'm not real picky as long
as things run smoothly. And if I remember correctly, this is a really nice park.

I started this thread last year. After all the facts were in the HC of our team still decided to sign up for one of the Battle Creek tourneys.

2 weeks before the tournament they cancelled the event, took us a while to get our money back. They kept trying to get us to go to a different location on a different weekend.