All posts by Gerard McLean

Local Dayton, Ohio teams finish as finalist at the Veterans Invitational

DDN News, News

EVANSVILLE – Two local-area teams emerged as finalists from the 2007 Veterans Invitational (VIT), held the past two weekends in Evansville, Ind. The two trophy teams are Boys17, Metro FC B90 White and Boys16, Sycamore Arsenal. The VIT hosted over 250 teams per weekend and attracted talented teams from Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and several other surrounding states.

“The VIT has become a popular tournament for club teams finishing their Fall season,” said Debbie Tucker, tournament director. “We’re also a popular choice for high school-aged teams just finishing their season. We’re at the perfect time of the year and the perfect weather.”

Both weekend offered mild weather for the soccer teams with no rain or frost.

The teams from the local area that participated in the VIT are: Boys09, CUSA Courage; Boys11, Warrior 96 Red; Boys14, Cincinnati Futbol Academy; Boys15, Thunder United Metro FC; Boys16, Star Magic; Boys16, Sycamore Arsenal; Boys16, Warriors ’91 Red; Boys16, Warriors 91; Boys17, KASC Thunder Premier; Boys17, Metro FC B90 White; Boys17, NUSA Fire; Boys17, Warrior SC 90; Boys17, Warrior SC Novas; Boys18, Dayton Warriors; Boys19, Warrior SC United 89; Girls13, Lady Warrior 95; Girls14, Metro FC White; Girls16, DSA Blue; Girls16, ISC Storm 91; Girls16, Lady Warriors 91 Black and Girls17, Warren County Cyclones.

For complete scores, standings and contributed photos, visit the Veterans Invitational Web site at www.veteransinvitational.com.

PHOTO (contributed) The Girls Evanville Elite 99 team welcomes the 400+ teams to the 2007 Veterans Invitational, held in Evansville, Ind. mid-November each year. The Evansville team won all three of their scheduled games.

Visit the event web site….

TourneyCentral and Charm City Cakes have a sweet deal for the 2008 NSCAA Convention

News

TourneyCentral announced today that they have contracted Charm City Cakes (Food Network’s Ace of Cakes) to produce a showpiece cake for their exhibit booth for the 2008 NSCAA Convention January 17-19, 2008 in Baltimore, Maryland.

TourneyCentral announced today that they have contracted Charm City Cakes (Food Network’s Ace of Cakes) to produce a showpiece cake for their exhibit booth for the 2008 NSCAA Convention January 17-19, 2008 in Baltimore, Maryland.

“Charm City Cakes is right there in Baltimore,” says Gerard McLean, Principle at TourneyCentral. “We like to support the local economy when we do a trade show and this was just the perfect opportunity.”

The cake will stand about two feet tall and feature a pair of goalie-gloved hands reaching up to grab a soccer ball in flight. According to Mary-Alice at Charm City Cakes, it will be a “show-stopper.”

TourneyCentral intends to raffle off the cake Saturday at noon to one lucky attendee who has put his or her business card in the bowl at their booth. They will also have samples of the cake for the Thursday night open of the exhibit hall.

“We hope the lucky recipient will in turn donate it to one of the local soccer organizations in Baltimore, but if they want to take it home with them, that would be fine too,” adds McLean.

TourneyCentral will be showing at the NSCAA in their own expanded booth, 2813. Charm City Cakes can be found on the Internet at www.charmcitycakes.com.

About TourneyCentral
TourneyCentral.com provides comprehensive, event-focused, web-based solutions for youth soccer tournaments and is wholly owned by Rivershark, Inc. an Ohio Corporation. Since 1999, TourneyCentral has been producing web sites that provide youth soccer tournaments with end-to-end integrated experience management for guest teams, from marketing through scoring. In addition, the advertising tools provide the tournaments with an increased opportunity for advertising and sponsorship revenue as a result of significantly increased traffic to the web site. For more information, visit www.tourneycentral.com.

Companion and marketing partner properties consist of: The Soccer Tournament Review, a blog and iTunes podcast for tournament directors, MyTournamentSpace, a photo-sharing site linked directly into the tournament game schedule and www.ticoscore.com, a single-source database and ranking system for soccer tournaments.

Visit us at the 2009 NSCAA in St. Louis, MO.

How discounts hurt your soccer tournament brand

Tournaments

I received a call from a local soccer coach who was interested in planning his spring soccer tournament season for his team. He initially wanted to confirm that some of the events that had not yet received sanctioning (are you one of these tournaments?) were still on. But then, he shared something interesting and very telling.

Part of his criteria for selecting tournaments is whether or not they are hosted by TourneyCentral. Most of the other soccer tournament web sites are just way too confusing and hard to use, he said. We’re flattered, of course. This year, he added a new criterion I hadn’t thought of.

In the local area, there are several coaches who are known for scouting out tournaments that need one of two teams to round out a bracket. They wait until the last minute, contact the tournament and get in for free or nearly free, maybe paying just the referee fees. This is kinda like flying stand-by, so these teams may not get in, but it is still a good deal if you do. The tournament doesn’t disclose this, but coaches sure do talk. And they are pretty good gossips! So, part of his new criteria is: If he sees teams from these coaches, he passes the tournament on by.

Every local area has coaches who scrounge for tournament deals. And, all the coaches from the local area know who these coaches are, even though your guest teams may not. But, I can see the next step for this coach is to start calling some of the local coaches of an away soccer tournament — perhaps a neighboring club — and ask who these flying standby coaches are. Then, they see if they have played in your event and pass you on by.

Our advice: Don’t discount. Ever. Always have a backup plan for a division you need to round out. Can you play a round robin format? Can you move the seed one team up a division or possibly one of your club teams? What if you dropped a team to even out a division instead of letting one in for free (again, one of your club teams)? Short term, you may take a hit on the fees, but long-term, letting coaches in for free to round out a division ultimately hurts your soccer tournament brand. With lasting damage.

Where are your photos?

Tournaments

It is Sunday evening after the tournament and your photographer said they would post the photos from the weekend after the tournament. So, where are they? Your teams are asking. It is after the tournament, the teams have all gone home and they were promised photos after the tournament.

When you call the photographers, they are dead tired and think that your request that they stay up all night and get some photos up on their site (or yours) for your teams to look at is an unreasonable request. They hang up on you. But, is your request really all that unreasonable?

In the Soccer Tournament Web 1.0 world, it is. Everyone knows that it takes several days to process the photos that were taken and that waiting a few extra days to se and order photos is just the way things are. But, this is Soccer Tournament Web 2.0. Things are supposed to happen real time. The photos are digital and should be uploaded almost immediately. The teams want to relive the experience right now, not wait until Thursday.

Our advice: When working with a photographer, make sure they understand that your tournament is real-time and that they should make arrangements to have a stream of photos going up all weekend long, with the balance of the photos on the site, ready for ordering no later than Monday morning (or the day after your soccer tournament.) The teams have an attention span of about two days. Anything posted after that is just a lot of effort for nothing as very few teams will visit to find photos after that.

Dayton CVB honors local ambassadors

DDN News, News

20071108_huffmanMORAINE – Soccer was well-represented at the annual Dayton/Montgomery County Convention & Visitors Bureau Ambassador Breakfast this year, held at the Mandalay Banquet Center in Dayton. Approximately 260 people were in attendance, including hospitality partners such as hoteliers, attraction operators, event planners and sporting event directors including the Warrior Classic, Creek Classic and the Mead Cup. TourneyCentral was also present as an event sponsor.

“The Ambassador Awards Breakfast gives the Dayton/Montgomery County Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) and the community an opportunity to publicly say ‘thank you’ to the many meeting planners who select Dayton/Montgomery County over other cities as the site for their convention or special event,” says Jacqueyln Powell, President/CEO of the Dayton/Montgomery County Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The CVB presents leather flight jackets from Dayton, the Birthplace of Aviation as ambassador awards to a select group of honorees each year who bring their event to the Greater Dayton Area. This year’s winners were Matt Anderson of the Ohio District Council of the Assemblies of God – Youth Department of Fine Arts; Chris Cree, National Scrabble Association Players Championship; Wendee Debusk, National Warbird Operator Conference; Jeffrey Elmore, Alph Phi Alpha Fraternity; Jeff Hills, Cincinnati Flames Baseball Tournament; Susan Monnin, Monster’s Making It Count National Speaker Training and Thomas Ritchie, Ohio American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Convention.

Nearly 130 Ambassador Award flight jackets have been awarded since the first breakfast in 1992.

PHOTO (contributed by Aulay Carlson, Ambient Light Photography, Inc.) Dale Huffman, columnist for the Dayton Daily News, introduces the Ambassador Awards recipients during the 2007 Dayton/Montgomery County Convention and Visitors Bureau Ambassador Breakfast.

Visit the event web site….