Soccer Tournaments Mean Business on LinkedIn

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Soccer Tournaments Mean Business

Most youth soccer tournaments are run by volunteers who generously dedicate huge chunks of their time, talent and sometimes even their own money because they love the game and love to see kids get a chance to compete on a high level. But a youth soccer tournament represents big business to the clubs that sponsor them and to the business community in host cities.

There is a new resource for directors of these events and all others who want to share their knowledge or perhaps pick up a thing or two. If you have not already done so, join the Soccer Tournaments Mean Business Group on LinkedIn and start to share thoughts and network with other like-minded, dedicated soccer folks.

Social media is picking up momentum as a means of communication for business professionals in all walks of life. LinkedIn is the recognized leader for people who would rather separate their business interests from their other social networking activity on Facebook and Twitter.

Sharing ideas and making contacts with tournament directors from around the world can put your event on the forefront of using the latest and best tools, software and procedures that will make your event more attractive to youth soccer teams and to the sponsors who want their name and business attached to a winner.

The group was started by TourneyCentral, a provider of integrated online solution for youth soccer tournaments, but is open to everyone in the youth soccer tournament world who wants to dial up the professionalism of their event.

March Youth Soccer Tournament Deadline Approaching

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There are two youth soccer tournament events that are still accepting applications for the third weekend in March 2011. Both the Dynamo Round Robin in Indianapolis, Indiana and the Middletown Spring Blast in Middletown, Ohio have an application deadline of February 20th.

Dynamo Round Robin The twelfth annual Dynamo Round Robin, on March 18-20, is a great pre-season warm up. Last year’s tournament featured several defending state champions and state runners-up. Teams from Oklahoma, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and other states were represented. This year’s tournament welcomes all girls’ teams U9 through U19. U9 through U14 teams will play four games while U15 through U18 teams will play three games. Entry fee for U9-U10 is set at $475, U11-U12 is $500, U13-U14 is $525, u15-U16 is $550 and U17-U19 is $575.

Middletown Spring Blast The Middletown Spring Blast, on March 19-20, will offer competition for boys and girls in the U-8 through U-19 brackets. The tournament will be held at Smith Park and AK Steel Soccer fields at Jacot Park in Middletown Ohio, and Franklin Community Park in Franklin. Smith Park has been home to many tournaments including the Franchise, State SAY and High School Tournaments. Both parks offer ample parking, playgrounds, walking trails around the park, refreshment areas and with a total 26 fields for your soccer enjoyment. Entry fee is $400.00 for U8-U10 with all others set at $425.00

Information on registration, travel, lodging, scheduling, scores and things to do when you are in town are included on both tournaments respective websites.

Charm City Cakes aces display booth at the NSCAA

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Ace of Cakes TourneyCentral soccer cake at the NSCAA

The 2011 NSCAA Convention is being held in Baltimore. Naturally, we had to get a Charm City Cakes, Ace of Cakes cake. Just had to! But what was it going to look like?

Back in June when we were planning the booth, we had all sorts of ideas. The one that finally emerged was a Maryland blue crab tearing at a soccer ball. The big problem was nobody here at TourneyCentral could draw.

“No problem,” I thought. “I’ll just go to a toy store, find a soccer ball and a toy crab, put them together, shoot that and send it over to the cake folks.” Only in Ohio, Maryland blue crabs are hard to find. Any crab was hard to find. I was just about to give up when I tweeted:

Can anyone draw a Maryland blue crab attacking a soccer ball like a monster truck?

A few days later, I got an email with a sketch attached from Nicole Manzo. Nichole is a talented artist who loves being creative but was apprehensive about studying art. Art doesn’t pay the bills; business skills do.

But the world could not lose one more artist to “practical thinking” and her sketch was going to be my cake. I sent it over to Duff’s crew and they pounced on it, confident they could make an awesome cake from that.

And they did. And they not only made an awesome cake, they each signed Nicole’s sketch which we are going to frame and present to her when we get back home to Dayton.

And this is Nicole’s sketch Katherine and Ben used to build her cake. The Charm City Cakes crew is just awesome for doing this for us. We’re fans forever! (My favorite edit is the lipstick on the crab. Awesome!)

And just because Mary Alice’s voice was in my head, saying “It’s cake. Eat the cake.” and I didn’t get a piece the last time we got a Charm City Cake, we sliced into the cake at about 8:00pm and started serving pieces to hungry soccer coaches who stopped by the booth.

There may be some left, so if you are hungry, booth 1527. Remember, cake at 8:00pm is dessert, but at 8:00am, it is pastry. Yellow cake, chocolate butter cream filling. Awesomely delicious crab cake.

UPDATED
The Fairmont High School Newspaper published the story about Nicole. You can read it here.

What GotSoccer GotWrong about TourneyCentral

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Recently, GotSoccer sent out a press release outlining the difference between their tournament management software and TourneyCentral. We, of course, were immediately flattered; not because we particularly care about what GotSoccer thinks of our product but because that told us that their customers and prospects were asking them about TourneyCentral. And they had to defend their product against ours.

That makes us happy.

But GotSoccer did get a few things wrong about TourneyCentral. After all, accuracy at a soccer tournament is very important, even more so when you trust software to drive your event. Accuracy makes sure the right teams (including referees) show up on time and at the correct fields and the right teams advance. Accuracy is critical to most soccer teams, coaches, parents and players when it comes to standings and who gets the trophy. If you are going to start comparing yourself to the big dogs in the yard, it’s important to get the big things right.

Here are just a few things GotSoccer GotWrong about TourneyCentral:
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