Suggestions

[WayToGoMen]

So I go to MTSU and in order to raise awareness and funds we have decided to throw a fundraising tournament in Knoxville, TN August 15-17. We have been working on it for about three months now and from what I can see we have prepared extrememly professionally. We have gotten sponsors involved like Mission and Hockeyx.com, we are hosting this at a very nice facility (Cool Sports in Knoxville) and I have talked on the phone and emailed more people in the last few months than I probably will for the rest of my life. However the response to the tournament has been less than anticipated. We will have about 16 teams but one of our divisions is a wash in terms of money since it is considered a pro division with a cash prize. Any suggestions on how this could have been planned/executed better? As frustrating as this is I have had fun planning it and would like to do it again but I want to do it right. Let me know guys.

[kevinsmithAZ]

So I go to MTSU and in order to raise awareness and funds we have decided to throw a fundraising tournament in Knoxville, TN August 15-17. We have been working on it for about three months now and from what I can see we have prepared extrememly professionally. We have gotten sponsors involved like Mission and Hockeyx.com, we are hosting this at a very nice facility (Cool Sports in Knoxville) and I have talked on the phone and emailed more people in the last few months than I probably will for the rest of my life. However the response to the tournament has been less than anticipated. We will have about 16 teams but one of our divisions is a wash in terms of money since it is considered a pro division with a cash prize. Any suggestions on how this could have been planned/executed better? As frustrating as this is I have had fun planning it and would like to do it again but I want to do it right. Let me know guys.

Don't guarantee a certain amount of money to the winner.
Kick in a percentage of each team's registration, so you come out on top.

EX- Charge $400 per team, and $100-$200 per team goes towards the pot. The more teams that play the higher the cash prize is.

[J88]

I have run beer pong tournaments before, and the trick to making a little bit of money is figure out the cost of each team. The cost for each team to play a certain number of games, but make the cost the same for every team that way if they play less than expected you come out on top. Then like kevin smith said and take a percentage of each team's cost and add that to the pot.

[WayToGoMen]

Figuring the prize amount for the pro division definately could have been handled more mathematically. We set it at $1000 dollars and with four teams we come out just about even after you factor in referees and the cost of rink time.

My biggest obstacle has been filling the other age groups. Getting skilled adults to come play for a cash prize is actually pretty easy. We really wanted the younger age groups because those are the ones that come and buy shirts, memorabilia, etc. Here is some of the problems I thought of...

1. timing-Its right after state wars and narch and right before the Echo Fall Classic which is a large event in our area of the country. Its also right before ice hockey season starts and most of the travel organizations have just shut down completely.

2. We aren't connected to any major companies (narch, torhs, 2hot4ice, echo). It is hard to get alot of teams to come to events that aren't regionals or atleast just hosted by one of the bigger companies.

3. Its brand new. That is just something that takes time. It is expensive to travel to tournaments and pay for hotels and pay an entry fee so people don't want to do that for something they have never heard of.


These are just off the top of my head, maybe you could expand on those....like a better time of year (maybe mayish, as a nationals warmup or something), and other things like that.