I’m cheating when I look up scores for the TourneyCentral tournaments that are running in the current weekend. I set up some scripts that pull and refresh the scores continuously every 10 seconds. When I am away from my desk, I get them non-stop on my Treo. This is the way I keep track of how the tournaments are doing with posting scores, etc.

While I don’t play favorites with our tournaments (they are all great!), the two tournaments going on Mother’s Day weekend, Sidney Mayfest Classic and the Novi Jaguar Invitational were OUTSTANDING in reporting scores in almost real-time. It was almost like being there (and, with several parents taking and upload photos, it was even more real.)

Our Advice: Report your scores as close to real-time as possible. If you have a TourneyCentral System, you already have the tools to report quickly, even if you don’t have Internet at the fields. Several tournaments call the scores in to someone hanging out in their living room, entering scores from their laptop in front of a large screen TV! Because it is Internet, the scoring input is always available, anywhere in the world. And, you just never know who is watching your tournament… could even be someone blogging and bragging about you!

Invariably, when you publish a game schedule, some teams get early morning games. The loudest teams to complain are those that are only an hour away, they gamble that they won’t get early games and they lose. When they are wrong, it is your fault that they have to get up extra early.

But, what is really sad and frustrating is when they use the now my kids have to wake up an hour earlier and you are putting my team at a disadvantage and my all-time favorite I’ll never go to your tournament again.

Please. From a soccer parent who has had more than fifteen years of early-morning tournament games, I can tell you with 100% certainty that no matter how early the kid needs to wake up to drag his or her sleepy butt to the car, they are not going to be missing one minute of sleep on the drive to the tournament, regardless of how far away it is. And, if the parent is sleepy, then that is why Target, Wal-Mart and Amazon.com make soccer chairs.

Our Advice: Someone has to get the early morning games. Some teams don’t like it, but if you had your last year’s schedule published, it did not come as a surprise to the teams. They applied in full knowledge that they ran just as much a risk of getting early games as did every other team. The fact that they did not book hotel rooms for Friday (or the day previous) is not your fault. You should tell them as much.

Teams should plan to compete at the first possible game and should plan to go all the way to the finals. If that means getting extra rooms for the entire weekend, then that is what it means to compete at the travel soccer level. If the only reason they don’t come back to your tournament next year is they had to play an early game, that is ok… there is always a coach out there getting up even earlier; staying healthier, wealthier and wiser than his competition.

I was in Oxford, Ohio on the Miami University campus this past Saturday. Right before I pulled into town, I heard the commencement ceremony was scheduled for later that afternoon. Since my son was not graduating this semester, I thought little about it except that the traffic on High Street would be horrible (it wasn’t).

As I pulled into town, my glance caught the front of the Uptown Cafe (if you have not yet been there, go. Best pancakes anywhere!) What really stunned me was the line of moms and dads waiting to get in. The place was jam-packed with people. And this was bad.

This was bad because the Uptown is one of those little local places where you go to experience breakfast or a casual lunch. This is one of those places where they don’t mind if you bring your dog and hang out on the sidewalk tables, nursing a cup of coffee, grazing on a burger and fries for an hour (burgers are good, too.) I am certain that the moms, dads and almost newly-minted graduates had not stopped into the Uptown just for food, but to have one last cafe experience with their child-now-an-adult. And, because all the other parents were looking for that same experience, they were robbing each other of that one moment of convergence that would have become a memory. Instead, that moment will be forever as a rushed and crowded hassle. And it is sad.

Our Advice: Figure out what your tournament soul is and fight like hell to preserve it. The Uptown could have spent a few moments every morning throughout the year taking names and numbers of graduating seniors who eat frequently at the Uptown with the intent to auction a place on commencement morning. They could have opened at 3:00 am only for graduating seniors and their families whose parents wanted to slow down the day just a little bit before losing their child forever to employment, their own family, the outside world. (I would have gotten up early!!) For a student who has made the Uptown Cafe a part of their college experience for four-plus years — and shared breakfast there with their mom or dad when they were in town — the 30 minutes or so spent on graduation day would have been the most precious graduation gift the Uptown Cafe could have given.

If your soul is your registration night party for the coaches, make it special. I know of several tournaments that do a dang good job of using the registration for reacquainting with old friends. If your soul is allowing the teams to have fun, don’t invite or accept teams that will use win at all costs tactics (you know who they are.. so does everyone else.) You get the idea.

A soul is a terrible thing to sell. Once it is put on the market, it can never be bought back. Treasure it, grow it and above all, protect and preserve it.

I went to the local high school to drop off a book my daughter forgot for one of her classes. As I pulled into the parking lot, I swung in next to the Hummer that the local US Army recruiter drives.

This is one organization that understands its brand and its market. A Hummer screams power, domination, muscle.. What high school kid would not be seduced by a US Army branded Hummer?

Our Advice: If your tournament is a muscle event, be a Hummer! If it is a fun tournament, be a VW Bug. You get the idea. And, while we are at it, why not approach your local car dealership (one that sells what you are) and ask if you can borrow a brand wrapped vehicle for a couple weeks and drive it around town. Your tournament brand will be everywhere with very little effort.

This morning, I read an email from a coach attending a tournament that attracts very competitive teams. His team had been scheduled around a group of four teams that were coached by one coach. As it turned out, he got a schedule that has him playing one early morning game and then then not again until very late in the afternoon on the first day. And then, again very early in the morning on the second day.

He was quite upset, and with good reason. He paid the same price to get in the tournament. He has the same expectations of good competition and should be given the same opportunity for a trophy as the four teams coached by the same coach. I doubt, however, the tournament can do little to even out the play. And this coach will probably not be back.

Our advice: As more and more clubs adopt the multiple-team-one-coach policy as a way to save money, consolidate skill, etc, etc, dealing with these teams is having effects on your tournament schedule in ways that had not been anticipated. NOW is the time to craft a policy, publish it and stick to it consistently!

If your policy is designed to attract teams that are coached by on coach and your marketing push is a schedule that suits them, be prepared to reject teams that have their own coach. Long term, we believe a multiple-team coach system is bad business for tournaments. It takes control of the schedule and brand away from the tournament and hands it over to the teams. While scheduling multiple-team coaches for no conflicts may look like customer service from the onset, it is usually the first step in the demise of the event. The next step is price breaks for multiple teams, comp rooms for the coach, etc, etc. If all you attract are mutiple-team coaches, you don’t need an MBA to see where that ultimately leads.

Never forget: The coaches are primarily interested in what gives them the best deal, not what is best for the tournament event.

Recently, I was at a business conference that had nothing to do with soccer… but everything to do with customer service. We stayed at the J.W. Marriott in Tucson, AZ (which I recommend if you are planning a vacation soon!)

The entire conference was good. On the morning we were leaving to the airport, we got a car, but had a fifteen minute wait. No problem, the valet said, If you want to grab a cup of coffee at the Starbucks in our lobby, we’ll come and get you when the car is ready. Ok, so we did.

I ordered a grande, decaf, the clerk smiled and said all the right things. But when she gave me back my change, she just plopped it down in my hand with a bit of attitude, the whole time smiling and wishing me a good day.

Our advice: Words speak softly, but body language SCREAMS!! Make sure your committee, volunteers.. anyone who has any interaction with your guest teams, vendors, suppliers and sponsors understand that it is their role to manage the entire experience, not just to do a particular function efficiently.

Unfair as it is, my take-away from the otherwise good 4-day conference will be forever marked by the feel of change being slapped into my hand by the Starbucks clerk with a bad attitude.

Whenever a tournament cuts teams from its applications, we see the inevitable grumbling, angry emails, etc, but the one thing that seems to be fairly common is something that goes like this:

I can’t believe you didn’t accept our team. Out (team, club, etc) has been supporting your (tournament, club) for many years and we encourage all our teams to apply and support your (fund-raising) efforts by going to your tournament, etc, etc…. usually followed by the recent record of accomplishments over the teams that did get accepted.

Good teams get cut for many reasons, the most common is they didn’t fill in their accomplishments on the application. But that is not my issue. The issue is one of saying things like we support you.

Our Advice: While your tournament may be a fund-raiser, your primary function is one of entertainment. You have a product/service that you are providing that either meets the needs of the guest teams or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t meet their needs, they really should quit supporting you and go somewhere else.

Look at the premium soccer tournaments. They attract teams that meet CRITERIA that has nothing to do with how much a team/club supports them and has everything to do with does the applying team meet our acceptance criteria. If you are relying on the support of another team/club for your tournament’s success, you don’t have a marketable product. Do things well, apply consistent standards and your tournament will thrive.

Recently, a tournament made a simple request to the teams that have been accepted. The message wasn’t quite as clear as it could be and created some questions. So, the responsible tournament director sent out another email, attempting to clarify the first email. Naturally, that did not clear it up; it only produced about three times more questions than did the original email.

Our Advice: Before sending out an email, read it out loud. Does it make sense? If it requires someone to do something, make sure the steps are clear by using bullet points and then attempting to do it yourself (or better, on someone removed from the process) using ONLY the directions you provided. Did you skip a step? Did you make an assumption? Chance are, you did.

And, as always, if your email contains a web address, email or phone number, copy/paste the web address into your browser to make sure it goes there. Send the email to make sure it is correct and call the number to make sure the right person/company answers. Every time.

I was reading an ad for Cingular Wireless in the New York Times this morning. You may know this campaign: The fewest dropped calls of any national network. This has always bothered me and now I know why.

Cingular is telling it’s customers that dropped calls are a fact of cell phone use. Can’t do anything about it except minimize the number of times it happens. The subtext is they aren’t even going to TRY to eliminate the dropped calls.

How many of your guest teams would come to your tournament if your marketing line was: Fewest late starts of any tournament. or Fewest number of club linesmen or even Fewest incorrect champions declared of any tournament. You get the idea.

Our advice: Don’t start off your tournament with the assumption that something can’t be done. Assume that it can be and the only challenge is to figure out how. How can you post scores immediately following the end of the game. How do we start 100% of the games on-time. How do we staff referees at 100%. You may not hit it every time, but you won’t be throwing your hands up in resignation like Cingular did.

One quick plug. if you have not already read the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki, please do. It is not a book about getting rich (though it probably will help) but a book about getting past what people say can’t be done, whether that is buying and selling real estate, inventing a better mousetrap or running a soccer tournament.

Recently, I was sent over a whole bunch of links to add to a tournament web site. The assumption was that a TourneyCentral site was just like any other webmaster arrangement and that the links would go somewhere and that we would also write up the summary for what all these links were, etc, etc. I sent the email back with a polite That is not the product you signed up for email.

That got me thinking.

For a period of about a year, I did some marketing for a company that developed this equine medical device for race horses. Quite a clever device, but the one BIG thing I learned was a bit about human behavior.

The odds of a horse winning a major race, like the Kentucky Derby, are so minimal that an owner may see the winner’s circle once in a lifetime. Many never do. If you are a trainer, the owner’s accountant, the marketing PR person for the horse, your chances of being in the winner’s circle are even less. Here is the part about human nature that is interesting.

Horse people CRAVE being part of the winner’s circle. It is their dream to be photographed with the wreath, the cup, sometimes the horse. When someone wins, they instantly have A LOT of friends! EVERYONE wants to be in that winner’s circle and so they all crowd in tight, sometimes to the point of obliterating part of the owner’s face. (Yeah, it happens)

Our Advice: Don’t make your web site a crowded winner’s circle. Keep in mind that it is there to help your guest teams and the pay out there will be teams that are more prepared to attend your event. Too often, the urge is to cram every last thing the club, the city, the sponsors, the this guy’s deal, the that guy’s deal is promoting that you lose site of what the web site is all about. If the teams don’t IMMEDIATELY know where to go to apply, to look up scores, to find stuff to do, your web site is missing the mark. Keep the hanger’s-on off your web site and keep your tournament event the only thing on your winner’s circle.

We are staying at a Renaissance Grand during the US Youth Soccer Convention. First, let me say that everything in the hotel room is nice. The beds are nice, the furniture in the room is nice, everything is upper scale.

But entirely unusable. Let me explain.

The desk I am writing this from is a nice, dark cherry with carved legs with inlaid wood veneer on the top. The chair I am sitting in is equally ornate and may be upholstered in Corinthian leather. But, here is where this all falls down. The table is too narrow to use a notebook computer. The chair is very heavy and hard to roll and the arms do not tuck neatly under the desk, so I am leaning over, typing on my keyboard. (yes, it is uncomfortable and is affecting the mood of this post)

The bathroom is similarly equipped. But the really nice vanity drains incredibly slowly and, of course, the little soap and shampoo do not fit on the tray. And finally, the coffee maker is in a tray that pulls out, but the switch to turn it on and off is on the front, behind the tray lip. And to make this worse, it shares the same armoire shelf as the TV, so there is no space next to the coffee maker to set down your cup. But, it is a nice coffee maker and makes a great cup of coffee!

Our Advice: When deciding the features and amenities of your tournament, make sure EVERYTHING FITS TOGETHER! For example, you may plan a great reception for your registration, but if there is no parking, it will be a bad experience for the coaches. Take the same approach with your web site. Does everything fit together or do you have a registration system that really doesn’t work with the schedule, etc. (While we are on that subject, take a look at the TourneyCentral.com site.)

Look at everything you provide for your guest teams and make sure that they are usable as a cohesive event, not a bunch of room furnishings that looks great but don’t play well together.

We are now at a point when several tournaments have accepted teams and are sending out the notice to confirm. I can always tell when a tournament accepts teams because the email server starts whipping the confirmation notices back to our tracking email inbox. It’s like someone turned on the switch at a circus merry-go-round; it’s that exciting to see.

What is REALLY more exciting is to see this flurry of activity even before the official Congratulations email goes out from the tournament. That means the teams have been checking their status by logging in, some probably almost hourly, to see their status go from Pending to Accepted.

Our advice: Keep track of those teams that confirm early; they are your biggest fans. (we now have a track tool in the Team Apps Module) Connect early and often with teams and make sure you know they are coming. Use this excitement to build ownership with your tournament event. Until you accept a team, they really aren’t invested in your event. But, after they confirm, they are in, mind, heart and soul. Don’t squander that ownership thorough apathy, poor communication or bad customer service.

Recently, a question was sent to a tournament from a parent asking why the U9 players are not required to wear headgear? She cited all sorts of studies about headballs, headgear, etc. and then ranted a bit about how the tournament was being irresponsible and providing an unsafe environment for the children. The proper response, of course, was that while head gear was not mandated, it was also not excluded. If the parent felt the play was unsafe for their child without head gear, they have the right and responsibility to require their child wear some. She also had a right to not sign the liability form and that by not signing, her child would not be allowed to play. Moreover, her issue was really with the coach, not the tournament.

But, the response was not given before a few suggestions got passed around the tournament staff, my favorite is posted above.

Head injuries are not funny and should not be laughed at. We’re not doing that. What is funny is a cat wearing a citrus peel as a helmet and parents who are so overprotective of their kids that they suck the fun out of everything they do. It is also quite sad that in 10 short years, these are the same kids who will be voting, never having seen any environment other than the one artificially created for them by their well-meaning parents. But, I digress.

Our advice: Never lose your sense of humor. Soccer is, after all JUST A GAME! Have a bit of fun along the way. Managing a tournament is a lot of hard work just communicating with coaches, not to mention all the parents who have easy access to you. Find fun where you can. It will keep you young and keep the tone of the tournament light.

I’m a bit amused whenever I see a question come across on one of our sites, framed something like:
I wanted to know about <something> but I could not find it on your site. Is it not available or is your website not updated? (emphasis is mine)

But my amusement quickly turns to frustration because I am suddenly and painfully aware that years and years of really, really horrifically bad soccer tournament web sites have conditioned your potential guest teams to assume and accept that your tournament web site is going to be out of date; almost always. And as you are expected to do more and more for teams in real-time, the task of keeping a traditional web site updated gets pushed further and further back.

Our advice: If you have a TourneyCentral web site, it is easy to keep current at all times. Post a message on the front page of your site that says with confidence that EVERYTHING about your tournament is posted on the web site and that it is CURRENT. Keeping your web site REAL TIME tells your guest teams that you are a tight organization who has its act together. It is the one bit of competitive advantage that is easy to gain and maintain.

And, if you don’t have a TourneyCentral web site and you want to project an image of real-time, what is holding you back? I’ve just now checked the dial tone on our phones and it still works. Call today.

The big question of the season appears to be along the lines of We are bringing our entire club to your tournament and we want a discount. There are some variations to that statement, some saying they are going to bat for your tournament with their club, board, etc., but the bottom line is they are looking for a discount.

On the surface, this sounds like a good deal for the tournament. You get a volume number of teams and all you need to do is give them a discount. But, as always, we are going to examine this issue just a little bit more in-depth.

Our advice: Don’t do discounts. Once you do, the discount price is the real price of your tournament and other teams will find out.

Firstly, is price the ONLY thing that is determining the club’s decision to play in your tournament? If so, why is this? Pass on any club that makes this all about price. If you are a quality event that meets the club’s development and competition goals, the club will want to play in your tournament. After all, an average tournament only costs each player about $20-$35 in fees.

Secondly, there are hidden costs with accepting clubs that have nothing to do with the tournament fee. Will you now have excessive coaching conflicts? Will they now demand reduced rates from your hotels, asking for a coaches’ room for free. If you are a competitive tournament, what will their B-teams do to your brackets and overall reputation? What if a team pulls out; will they find a replacement for you?

Club-block applications are not going away, so you must come up with a policy to deal with them. At minimum, you should post your policy in your FAQ section. You may also want to accept them with terms and conditions in place. A couple of these might be that coaching conflicts are theirs to resolve and that if a team in a club block pulls out, the club is penalized with a bond fee. Whatever your policy, make the club own their participation in your tournament as much as you do.