Question about team entry fees

[tamss13]

You pay the tournament fee ($200), and then you pay $35 directly to the umps for each game you play )Pay at the plate.

it just means that each team pays $35 to the umpires at the start of the game. so if there are two umps they split 70$ per game

Sounds like lazy associations running tournaments to me. If you're going to host a tournament you handle all payments to umpires and anyone else involved that requires payment. If you can't handle that then don't host a tournament.

Oh that makes sense..... so the tournament isn't an inexpensive $200 tourney its a freaking $500 tourney in disguise

 

[MightyMO]

One of the major orgs in KC is "testing" this format in a couple of tournaments this fall. I'm guessing this would keep them from having to complete 1099's for all of the umps at the end of the year. And shield them from increases in umpire pay down the road. But that raises another question. Who decides what the umps get paid then?

 

[MightyMO]

Oh that makes sense..... so the tournament isn't an inexpensive $200 tourney its a freaking $500 tourney in disguise

Yes, and it raises the question of how do you determine team fees if your tournament fees change (umpire fees) based on how many games you play. Like the original poster asked.

 

[BradyC87]

One of the major orgs in KC is "testing" this format in a couple of tournaments this fall. I'm guessing this would keep them from having to complete 1099's for all of the umps at the end of the year. And shield them from increases in umpire pay down the road. But that raises another question. Who decides what the umps get paid then?

Well if it is anything like MN there is a constant umpire shortage so pretty much everyone pays the same otherwise the umps just go to a different tournament or association and ump for their games.

 

[TXJames44]

Oh that makes sense..... so the tournament isn't an inexpensive $200 tourney its a freaking $500 tourney in disguise

In Texas a vast majority of the tournaments are this payment format. It makes it difficult to estimate seasonal fees since you could play 4 pools and be eliminated in first bracket (5 games), or you could go deep in a double elimination and play 7-8 games. And forget about it if you get knocked to loser bracket early, but your team wakes up and makes it to finals (10-12 games).

 

[tamss13]

In Texas a vast majority of the tournaments are this payment format. It makes it difficult to estimate seasonal fees since you could play 4 pools and be eliminated in first bracket (5 games), or you could go deep in a double elimination and play 7-8 games. And forget about it if you get knocked to loser bracket early, but your team wakes up and makes it to finals (10-12 games).

We are in Texas. I am working with the coach to take our team tournament next year. As we think the girls will get more out of tournaments. But we are not looking travel. All the tournaments near us are PAP so it will be difficult to understand the true cost of a season.

 

[TXJames44]

We are in Texas. I am working with the coach to take our team tournament next year. As we think the girls will get more out of tournaments. But we are not looking travel. All the tournaments near us are PAP so it will be difficult to understand the true cost of a season.

Here is the way we do it:

First, you have to know your team, and how successful they might be. Second, you have to understand the competition level of the tournaments you may enter next season. And thirdly, how many tournaments.

As a general rule, I use 6-7 games played as an avg for estimate purposes. I figure we will lose out early on some weekends, and go deep other weekends.

 

[bmakj]

I also think it would be easier to pry more money out of parents if you approach them "we are exceeding expectations every weekend, we need $50 (remember, $50 per player is $600, say 10 extra games of PAP) more to cover the extra bracket games we are playing.

winning covers a lot of problems over

 

[marriard]

We have a couple of orgs (primarily Fastpitch Orlando which is mostly B teams) in Flordia in this format; basically it meant to stop the complaint that the not very good team is paying for the extra games the very good teams are getting on bracket day. It is not the worst idea. You just hand cash to the ump at the plate meeting before the game - just like you do at scimmages.

I don't know any travel teams that are not paying their tourney fees out of the total team fund, so if you don't get far, the amount of money is 'saved' just is used elsewhere.

 

[RIZZARIJOE]

I've never heard of the pay at the plate during Tournaments. Typically what we see is a Tournament Fee (which includes umpires). If doing friendlies, then both teams split umpire costs and possibly field cost.

What I do is figure out Tournament cost, registration cost, umpire fees for friendlies, practice field cost, equipment costs, and a little extra on top for unexpected expenses. Any $ left over typically is used for the next year or you can give back to the parents.

I do a lot of NSA IN Massachusetts and we always do pay at the plate (in cash, which makes it sweeter). I was told that this is so because ostensibly each coach or program will not reach the $600 threshold to Have to issue 1099s