Soccer America has gone and done it again! They published an article we wrote for their Grassroots Soccer Biz newsletter entitled ‘Getting In The News: 8 Simple Rules For Success’.

I’m not going to print the whole thing here (you are subscribing to the newsletters, right??) but it starts out like this…

Your soccer organization – whether a club, tournament or team – requires press exposure to help you build value for your sponsors and potential player or team base. However, it can be much more than getting a team photo in the local sports section. It can include a leap onto the newspaper city pages or the A block of the television news.

Here are eight simple rules for getting your soccer organization the press coverage you want. Read the whole thing…

Our press conference on the Labor Day soccer tournaments. Click on the video still to watch the conference OR click here to watch it full screen on YouTube. You can also leave comments for us!

It was lunchtime and Rufus and I swing into the local Wendy’s, pulled into the drive-through lane and ordered a #2, no ketchup, pickles, tomato or onions and a vanilla frosty. Rufus likes the frosty and he gets the second burger patty. There were four cars ahead of us. Not bad for lunchtime.

When we were the third car in line, there was a stall of some sort with an order. The cars started piling up behind us and eventually, cars would pull into the lot and pull right around to go somewhere else. We had ordered, so we waited for about five minutes. The guy in front of us had had enough, so he just pulled out of line. A minute afterwards, our van was in gear and we were gone as well. I’m pretty sure all the orders got out of synch for the people behind us. But we had waited long enough.

As I was sitting there, I also counted 17 cars that pulled into the lot and right out the other side after noticing the long line. A quick calculation on an average of $8.00 per meal, over the course of one lunch hour, that long line probably cost Wendy’s about $1,300.00 in sales. I’m guessing.

Our advice: Never, never, never let a line form at the concession stand. If you did a quick survey, you will find people have the patience for three customers deep, but no more. They will approach the line with the intention of standing there to order something, but if more than three people are in it, they will keep walking and go somewhere else. You have lost that sale.

Try putting a greeter at the end of the line when it gets too long; someone who can take orders and money and radio orders to the back. You only really need this extra person during breakfast and lunch rushes. Do ANYTHING you can to prevent the line from forming.

TourneyCentral.com announces that the family of youth soccer tournaments are 100% compatible with iPhone, making iPhone the perfect on-venue mobile device for updating scores and news.

TourneyCentral.com announced today that the web sites that deliver real-time information about youth soccer tournaments are 100% compatible with iPhone. The mobile devices ship with MacOS X’s Safari web browser and allows the user to view the full web site instead of a specially formatted one as used by other popular so-called smart phones such as Blackberry and Treo.

What this really means for tournament directors, McLean adds, is that they will be able to manage their web site in real-time at the venues or en route without worrying about whether or not they have an Internet connection. Since TourneyCentral sites have web-based scoring and news modules, including email broadcast, a tournament director is now always in touch with their guest teams.

Over the past year, we have seen an increase in tournaments attempting to legislate good sportsmanship, either through rewarding a good sport on the other team with a patch, medal or trophy or by penalizing the team by taking away points on red and yellow cards. Has this increased sportsmanship?

No.

What it has done is increase the amount of administration that the tournaments needs to manage the event. Players are either good sports — or they are not. Sportsmanship at the cost of winning is either a character trait or it is not. Ultimately, winning is rewarded. How you got there almost never plays a role. It may not be fair; it may not be ethical but it is ultimately what we measure.

Our advice: Stop trying to legislate sportsmanship with the teams that you have accepted into your tournament. And don’t over-complicate your standings and tie breakers with points off for bad behavior. The red card has its own penalties and players and coaches understand them.

What you can do, however, is RESEARCH the teams that apply a little bit more in-depth. On teams that show some aggression (you know, the ones with the pushy team manager or the cocky coach,) call around to tournaments they have played in recently. Did the team behave? Were they responsible for a large percentage of red cards? Their state association would also have that information. If they gave other events trouble, chances are they will do the same for you.

Also, on every TourneyCentral web site, you have the ability to record notes on the teams to reference for next year. Use this frequently! A whole year erodes memory, whereas a short note in a database lives forever.

Soccer America published an article submitted when launching their new newsletter, Grassroots Soccer Biz

It starts out…
When people start talking about brand, the talk immediately turns to logo design. While a good logo is part of your brand, it is not THE BRAND. The brand is how people feel about and view your soccer organization (league, club or tournament). Your brand is what you can leverage to sponsors, advertisers, guest teams, potential players, potential coaches and the media. (Links to read the rest of the article are below.)

Our advice: Read the article and subscribe to Soccer America for upcoming newsletters.

A friend of mine sent me this link to this video. It is not especially related to managing a soccer tournament, but it is way too funny not to share. Enjoy!

Over the past couple days, I found myself traveling to Denmark and dealing with a lot of airport people. Two events stick out in my mind.

The first was an interaction between a Northwest ticket agent and a passenger who voluntarily took an earlier flight to help NWA with an overbooked situation. In short, she did them a favor. And because no good deed goes unpunished, her bags were not taken off the flight and sent along with her new flight as promised, but rather kept on the plane so she would now have wait until her original flight came in. When she asked where her bags were, the gate agent kept asking her the same question: Have you voluntarily separated from your luggage? By her definition (and every other common sense definition) she had not. But, by the rules or policy of NWA, she had. She got more and more irritated by this rather stupid person who could not or would not deviate from the policy to employ common sense and help her out.

The second event happened in Amsterdam when the people in London forced me to check a carry-on. I was not staying in Holland nor was I leaving the airport. Yet, since my bag was on the other side of customs, I had to go through when I landed in Amsterdam. The agent asked me Are you staying for one day? I, of course, answered: I am staying one hour until I catch my flight to Denmark. He wrinkled up his eyebrows as if he did not understand and then asked again, Are you staying for one day? I finally understood that the only answers allowed were Yes or No. I answered Yes because No meant I would be staying longer. He stamped my passport. (I may get a letter from the Dutch government asking why I only spent an hour in Amsterdam, but I will deal with that later.)

Our advice: When creating systems for your volunteers, guest teams or other people you deal with, speak in a language they understand. Remove as much jargon as possible. Also, ask yourself if what you are expecting makes common sense. Most teams – especially newly formed ones – only know they want to play in your tournament and give you money for the experience. If they ask stupid questions it is probably because they know what they want, but just don’t know how to ask for it in a way that makes sense for the policy or within the jargon of a tournament. Be patient with them and they will remember you as the only one who stopped and really listened to them.

On my way to other things, I stumbled upon the perfect logo. It is posted to the left of this text. Let me explain why the logo is perfect.

First, it is simple. Secondly, it reflects the culture of Wilkipedia; high, passionate energy by people who are passionate about human knowledge. Thirdly, it reflects the location of the conference; Taiwan. Look up the traditional Taiwanese flag and you’ll see it is red, white and blue whereas the Chinese Taiwan flag is red and yellow. Wikipedia is giving Taiwan a nod without saying a word.

Our advice: Resist the urge to literally put everything about your tournament in your logo or design. Think about simple shapes that convey the culture of your event and work with those. The most effective logos are those that are simple and allow the organization to shape their energy. If Wikipedia did not have passionate people, the logo would just be a scribble. But, because it does, the logo is a W and M that leaps off the page at you.

If you have not yet read anything by Seth Godin, start today. Start with his blog post about logos.

I found myself in the Detroit airport at 8:00am today, having first boarded in Mosinee, WI at 5:00am. As anyone who has ever taken a flight in the morning can attest, there are only two types of people in the airport that early; those who need coffee and those who are lying about their need for coffee. I belong to the former.

After landing, I make a beeline for the nearest coffee place, which happened to be an Einstein Bros. There were eight of us in line and the line moved something like this.

One person was taking orders and there were two people taking payments. Person one steps up, gazes at the menu for a few moments, ordered a hot breakfast sandwich, with an extra slice of cheese on an everything bagel… then asks about the selection of tea.. thinks a bit, orders something.. steps to the right to pay. Next person orders coffee, black, large. Third person steps up, coffee, large, muffin… next person asked about the hot dog bagel things.. then asked if they could have lean bacon on the sandwich.. then asked about, etc, etc… Meanwhile, I just wanted a cup of coffee and a chair. To add to the frustration, the two people taking payments were idle most of the time.

Einstein Bros, if you are listening: Between 5:00 am and 10:00 am, set up a coffee-muffin only line and you will not lose the people who only want coffee, but don’t want to wait in line. Again, coffee-muffins only line.

Our advice: Take a look around your event, especially at registration and concessions. Are there long lines forming around opportunities to create express lines? People do not want to wait when they know exactly what they want and perceive it to be a dispense-themselves item, like soda and coffee.

Do you send your referees to the concessions line with a ticket for their lunch? Why? When they are there, waiting in line cuts into their decompress time as well as increases the line congestion for your guest teams. Why not consider doing a catering to the referee tent, i.e., having a volunteer take the orders and run them from the concession stand back to the ref tent. Or, better yet, get a ref tent sponsor from a local restaurant.

Quick turn is the secret to increased profitability with your concessions.

Gerard McLean, TourneyCentral

The weather has been hot days, but really cool nights for the past week in Dayton, Ohio. So, instead of running the central air, I have been opening the windows at night and running fans to circulate the cool air.

The past several years, you may have noticed that appliance makers have been putting shorter and shorter cords on things, presumably to save costs. I’m sure if you did the math, you might discover that a manufacturer could save million — maybe even billions — just shaving an inch off the cord. Who would notice! The problem with this kind of thinking is the next quality team that comes in trying to save a buck a year later would shave another inch off the cord, save more millions until finally the consumer is left with a cord that is exactly 33 inches long and just barely reaches the wall plug.

I guess the next step is to make the assumption that all consumers have extension cards and they can supply their own cord from the fan motor to the wall. After all, I only paid $19.99 for the fan!

I tell you this so the following makes sense. I hit my personal quality nexus this morning, the point where cheap cost and quality meet. I was attempting to redirect the fan with a fresh cup of coffee in my hand. When I went to turn the fan, the cord did not follow and pulled the fan, dumping the hot coffee all over me. If the cord had been a foot longer, this would not have happened and the fan would have moved easily.

Our advice: When looking to increase profitability for your tournament, be careful what you cut into. Make sure that you don’t start shaving off the core things that make your customers attracted to your event. If it is critical to the operation of your tournament (like a cord is to an electric fan) leave it alone.. or better yet, figure out how to provide more functionality with the same or fewer resources. Don’t just cut inches off your cords; they are the lifelines to your success.

I was reading a set of rules for an event that is happening soon, just to make sure the tie-breakers were consistent with the rules. Instead of the fairly standard points, head-to-head, goal differential, goals against, goals for, penalty kicks I was accosted by this complicated set of bonus points based on the GD being a particular spread and then the GD would be applied bonus points….

Arrgghh!! Stop the insanity on these arbitrary and creative tie-breakers. We all understand that the purpose of these complicated tie-breaking rules is to avoid the dreaded shoot-outs at the end of pool play, but this creative math that is different at almost every tournament is making it more difficult for software to support your rules.

Our advice: Simplify and standardize. Take a look around at other tournaments in your target market and try to standardize your tie-breakers so that they will be less confusing for the coaches AND PARENTS. Coaches can do the math easily, but parents don’t — and won’t — do the math. They just want to know who’s first, second, etc. And, there are a lot more parents than there are tournament directors at the event! You may also find that by simplify and standardizing, there will be fewer challenges to your math ability outside your HQ. You may also want to take more time in attracting and seeding teams to ensure ties (draws for the soccer purists) don’t happen.

STATE ASSOCIATIONS and US SOCCER: Mandate a standardized tie-breaking formula. Tournaments will become more and more of your members activities in the next several years and it is in your best interest to standardize NOW when the number of events in manageable. And, while you are at it, you may also want to take a look at standardizing the rules as well.

Yesterday, I received an email from YATL (Yet Another Tournament Listing) web site called The Scoreboard News at www.scoreboardnews.com. In their invitation, in big red letters, they said: [Please do not … refer us to any other web site for additional information]

I found that mildly entertaining, but also a glaring indicator of just how bad most tournament web sites are. How many times have you been told: Just go to our web site for information on that.. and when you get there, you’re left staring at the site, wondering how you would get to that bit of information about the scores or tryouts or a news item on the club, etc, etc.

The Scoreboard News, whose entire existence depends on information about tournaments, camps and leagues is begging its posters to please not send them a reference to their web site. Just fill out the online form they provide for you.

Our Advice: Giving people the Just go to our web site.. is the same thing as saying just down the road, can’t miss it. It hardly ever is just down the road and 90% of the time, you will miss it. Unless you have a TourneyCentral.com site.

In the web industry, we have what is known as the bounce rate. That is the number of folks who come to your front page and don’t go deeper into your web site. I think it is poorly named.

Our TourneyCentral.com sites have a sightly higher than average high bounce rate. But, that is good because when you go to one of our tournament web sites, you can immediately see the Who, What, Where, When, How Much at a glance. We don’t leave your visitors staring at the screen, wondering which link will get them where they need to go.

If you miss what you are looking for on our sites, it probably only means that you have become conditioned to ignore the useless front page most sites put up and start clicking without reading. But, that is ok too, because our About, FAQ, Application, etc. pages all have the Who, What, Where, When, How Much info on them as well.

Today is Friday and with it comes the flood of email to tournaments going on tomorrow from coaches who suddenly can’t make registration night for their teams. My favorites are emails that say: I can’t make it to registration tonight. We’ll see you on Saturday. and then leave it at that.

Wow! How arrogant and self-centered. For tournaments that host more than one team (oh, you all do?) that presents a challenge. Do you stand firm, take a hard stance or allow this team to register on Saturday morning? If you take a hard stand, they may not show up. If you cave, other teams are going to find out and do the same.

Our advice: Don’t cave. But have an option. This is a negotiating tactic and should be treated as one. First, the coach sending this email on a Friday morning assumes that you will be away from your computer and on the fields setting up. Don’t be. Assign someone to pick up email and response immediately back with your pre-determined response. Secondly, have a pre-determined response. One of my favorite no responses would be to offer to check the team in on Saturday morning, between 4-6am, for an additional $100.00 cash per team. Oh, and offer them a free cup of coffee while they wait. If it truly is an emergency, they will be there early in the morning, with cash in hand. If not, greet them warmly on Friday night! (But if you guess wrong and they actually do pull out of your tournament over this issue, never, never, never refund their money. But thank them for their donation.)

As an afterthought, it amazes me as a soccer parent that the first thing the coach does is read us all the riot act about being on time for practice, games etc., yet these same coaches assume the rules of a tournament do not apply to them.