"Anatomy of a Tournament"
So almost every tournament that either the NJAR or ROLLOUT runs, players have questions or comments regarding division options, start times, cost, and the like. I thought it would be beneficial to post a blog that basically explains what goes into running a racquetball tournament. There are a ton of moving parts and work that goes into the event, much of it is completely transparent to the player. So here is how i will break it down. First i will do a timeline of the month or so leading up to a tournament, and then i will do an FAQ section outlining some of the common things i hear from players. Hopefully this helps give you an idea of what its like being on our side of the tournament desk! And as always, if you have any comments or questions as a result of the blog, feel free to email me at jonathan@rolloutrball.com.
THE TIMELINE.....
1 Month Before Event - This is the time when all the prep work is done. First we find a name for the tournmanent, and design a logo for the event. This logo is then used to create all the marketing materials (applications, flyers, mailings, website postings, r2sports.com site, etc). The once all the marketing collaterial is done we begin to promote the tournament through email and snail mail blasts, meetandplay.com posts, DLC sports mailings, and word of mouth advertising.
From the time the application goes public until the entry deadline - This is the time we collect entries through email, phone, and mail. Every entry is hand entered into the system, and catalogued in our database. During this time is also when we secure all our vendors for tee shirts, awards, and food. This is not as easy as it sounds, as its hard to find a way to be innovative with your giveaways while still being cost-conscious. Luckily, we have established relationships with key vendors that help the process, but i would say its a solid weeks worth of emails and phone calls with a given vendor before final orders are made. The biggest problem here is trying to determine quantities to order. Deadlines are usually two weeks before the event, and players dont usually enter the tournament until 4 days before the event, which makes it hard to estimate how many tee shirts to order, and impossible to know what divisions are going to be player so we can order the right awards (that is our plug to say to you, enter early!!!).
Monday - Entry Deadline Day - this is always the Monday before the event. This is the busiest pre tournament day of the event. 70% of the entries come in on this day, which means roughly 80-100 emails ironing out details, and about 50 phone calls. I believe my record is 18 voice mails to field after being in a 2 hour meeting at work on a Monday before a tournament.
Tuesday - Now we have to start combining divisions and figuring out what divisions need to be round robins, pool plays, or eliminated completely. Whenever this happens, i have to get in touch with the player to try and get them into a new division. This is another round of emails and phone calls. Not to mention people still calling trying to enter the tournament after the deadline (as long as there is room, we can still get you in, but no guarantees).
Wednesday - The first part of the day is continuing to iron out division details, and player dropouts. Players still trying to get into the tournament now two days after the posted deadline. This is still ok though, as the draws are not done, but once again, no guarantees. Wednesday night is when we do the draws. We have to take upwards of 125 players, in 20+ divisions, and sort out 200+ matches to fit into one weekend. This takes usually about 4-5 hours on a wednesday night. This is the point in time where we really need to cut off players from trying to enter the tournament.
Thursday - this is the easiest day. Put the start times online and hope no one has any problems. Handle a few dropouts and break a few hearts of people who still wanted to try and get in the tournament. Most importantly is rest up for a long weekend.
Tournament Weekend - this is when everything gets fun. We get to the club around Noon on Friday to set up, and get out of the club at around 11pm (or later). We are back sat morning at 7am, and leave 11pm that night (or later), to come back 8am Sunday morning, and finally leave at about 5pm or so once everything is cleaned up. Thats 37 hours of work in three days. Thank goodness we have such a big dedicated team to help out!!! And thanks to all the players who step up and help out too! The weekend everyone sees the work that is done. Set the food, get matches off, find refs, handle issues on the court, etc.
And why do we do all this? Because we love the game of racquetball!!!!!!
FAQs
1. Why do i pay all this money to play a single elimination tournament? - With 125 players in 20+ divisions, its impossible to have anything other than a single elimination tournament. Its expensive because we incur a lot of costs of running a tournament. We spend anywhere from $5k-6k per weekend, and we do that to try and make your experience better!
2. Why is the entry deadline so long before the tournament? - There is alot of post entry work that you read above that needs to be done, so we need time to do so. And as many of you know, we will let people in after the deadline as long as there is room and the draws are not done. Once the draws are done, thats the real cutoff, because adding one name into a draw affects every other player in the draw. Their start times change, and there is no way for us to guarantee the other players would know the change. On average, one person saying, "can you please add me into the Mens B singles?" would result in about 1 hour of work at least to refix the draw. Now multiply that by the 15-20 people who call every tournament from Wednesday night until Friday night trying to enter the tournament, and its just impossible. We will accomodate if we can, i promise you that!
3. Why cant my division be a round robin? - This is much the same answer as number one above. Our rule of thumb is this. 1-3 players in a division, and the division is cancelled. 4 players in a division and its a round robin. 6 players in a division and its pool play. 7+ in a division and its a straight draw. 5 players is always the toughest, and is dealt with on a tournament by tournament basis. And on top of that, all this really also depends on how many total players in the tournament, and how many open court hours we can use.
4. Why do tournaments always run behind? - The reason tournaments run behind is completely player driven. The main reasons are, people take too long to warm up, we cant find anyone to help us and ref a match, or matches take longer than an hour because of a tight, highly contested match or tiebreaker. The last one is unavoidable. The first two arent. You the player can help us here! If you see and empty court, that means someone is dragging their feet after we notify them of their match. Let us know. If you see us running behind, step up and ref a match. The more you help us, the earlier you will get out of the club! Remember, the tournament staff is spending twice the time at the club as you are (at least), so as much as you want to leave, we want to leave twice as much!
Thanks for reading this blog, i hope it was helpful. Remember, we wouldnt do the work we do if we didnt love the sport and love making the players happy. Just be lenient with us if a tournament runs behind, or we have some trouble classifying your division. I promise it all works itself out by the time the first serve is made at the tournament. And the more you help us out, the better things are!
And here is my number one piece of advice that would make the world of difference in us running tournaments!
IF YOU THINK THERE IS A BETTER THAN 60% CHANCE YOU ARE GOING TO PLAY AN EVENT, EMAIL ME AND ENTER! ITS MUCH BETTER FOR US TO HAVE SOMEONE ENTER, AND THEN BACK OUT THE WEDNESDAY BEFORE AN EVENT, THAN SOMEONE NOT ENTER, AND TRY AND GET IN THE WEDNESDAY BEFORE BECAUSE THEY FINALLY CLEARED THE WEEKEND! IF MORE PLAYERS DID THAT FOR US, OUR LIVES WOULD BE MUCH EASIER, AND THE TOURNAMENTS WOULD BE BETTER BECAUSE OF IT!
POSTED BY New Jersey Amateur Racquetball (NJAR) AT 8/05/2008 9:53 AM
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