What would you like to see in a tournament?

I wish we were paying that little here in PA USSSA tournaments are now either $604 or $651 (that includes umpires), than on top of that some of the hosts charge gate fees and there aren't team pricing its either by car or per person (thats at 12uB level).

You can find an occasional ASA or PONY tournament for $550 but USSSA is the most popular up here.

grcsftbll said:

I'll tell you why I love USSSA. Their website. I can check a tournament to see who's playing in it. I can use USSSA to download their rosters into iScore (though the numbers don't import - boo). I can see the pool schedule, the bracket, the teams' records, all in advance. The other orgs around here pretty much all have crappy websites. It's like it's the 90s or something.

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I agree! USSSA does websites MUCH better than ASA, PONY, PGF, etc.
TCS also does website info pretty well...

JAD said:

Beer available in the concession stands...YUGE money maker for the tournament directors!

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...and it's where the Jerry Springer Show scouts future guests...

If base tournament fee is $600 or less:
-I'm slightly annoyed by, but will accept a gate fee
-I'm slightly annoyed by, but will accept a "stay to play" rule
-I'm annoyed by, but will accept a "no cooler" ban
-I'm annoyed by, but will accept playing on a baseball field for maybe a game during pool play
-I'm fine with a single (association-certified) umpire on a the field
-I'm fine with no OF fences

for higher-priced tournaments, I expect more.
If I'm paying double for tournament fees, and you still are socking us with some of the money-grabs listed above, then:
The competition better be stellar
The fields better be pristine
The umpires better be knowledgeable
The concessions food better be healthy
etc.

Probably the one thing that really turns me off to a tournament,
is if they get some rain, and cancel all games, making no reasonable effort to try and salvage the fields for play.

no time limits, yeah right, or at least enough time to actually play a game.

I forgot about cooler bans. Not ok. We haven't run into that often but it's infuriating when it happens. I don't want my kid fueling her body with concession stand food all day. She really only ever wants fruit during tournaments anyway. Having to walk to the car every time she wants some strawberries is a big pain. But I'm going to do it and still not buy your crappy hot dogs.

corlay said:

...and it's where the Jerry Springer Show scouts future guests...

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What could go possibly go wrong???

I remember when that happened but never heard the details. Rather than driving to another state to beat up parents from your DD's old team, maybe just, I don't know, find a new team?

Cooler ban stinks. Had tourny once with that in place. Saw a parent walking to gate with sandwiches and sides stacked in arms. Butthole at said "No outside food" lady looked at her said nope read YOUR sign it says no coolers. This WAS IN A COOLER THAT IS STILL IN MY CAR. Smiled and kept walking. I started laughing.
Everything said are great ideas. Main things for me are controlling skill levels TROPHY HUNTERS PLAYING DOWN hate it. Organized and competent umps.

GunnerShotgun said:

1. Get rid of 'Stay and Play'
2. Don't charge me a team gate fee (looking at you NSA).
3. Make the games longer (fewer games with longer game times is OK!)
4. Quit with the run rules at the 'A' level. We paid to play.
5. Upgrade your 2003 websites (USSSA is the best, PGF second)

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I'm not a big fan either. That said, the one tournament we like to play in Columbus, Oh is a stay to play. Actually, they all are at this particular 32 field facility. Not because of the the ABC orgs or hosting FP orgs, but because the City Council of Tourism mandated it so they could track their tourism dollars for the city owned facility. Not everything is a money grab. There are some other possible explanations for these.

ETA: They also charge a $5 gate fee per car but they have the city police out directing traffic and cruising the facility so I really don't mind that so much.

As for cooler bans, when we run into this, as a team, we all go back to the parking lot in between games, set up the pop-ups and have our picnic out there. Some of us even bring portable grills to heat things up. It makes for a great team bonding opportunity and allows everyone to decompress away from the SB fields.