This blog entry is really just a shameless plug for a sponsor of the Go-o-o-oalrilla Classic.

This past weekend, ABC’s Good Morning America did a five minute segment on supermarkets and featured Jungle Jim’s almost exclusively (Stew Leonard’s and Wegmans also got a plug). Jungle Jim’s sponsors the Go-o-o-oalrilla Classic in Miamitown, Ohio (West Cincinnati).

You can see the video here or read the story here.

Why am I telling you this? Why would I not! A sponsor of a one of our tournaments just got five whole minutes on a national news show! Anyone who has ever tried to get press for their business knows how hard this is to achieve. I will tell everyone I know, including people with and without media connections. They will watch the video or read the story and they will tell more people. Pretty soon, Jungle Jim’s will not only be seen as that wonderful, wacky grocery store but they will also be seen as the community-based business who gives back to their community. As studies show, there just is no greater marketing ROI than when you have penetrated the hearts of your community. Youth sports is the expressway with built-in on ramps to the community.

Our Advice: If you have a sponsor of your event, watch the news, read the newspapers, get plugged in. And, when you see your sponsor gets some press, shout it out to everyone you know! Be proud of your sponsor’s success because their success is yours. And be sure to drop them a quick email or personal note of congratulations.

I was listening to CSPAN the other day and there was a senator at the microphone, explaining the amount of work in a gallon of gasoline. His explanation went something like: Each gallon gas contains as much work potential as 12 men working an entire year. In short, it takes the effort of 12 men working an entire year to push a car as far as a gallon of gas will take it.

He went on the compare the work output of a locamotive to 100,000 men, etc. but his point was: In our technological world, common folk have at our disposal exponentially more energy to move things than did people thousands (or even hundreds) of years ago when all they had were their hands and strong backs, maybe a plough and an ox.

This got me thinking about the amount of work-units the web-based tools of a TourneyCentral site gives an average tournament. Getting in touch with hundreds of referees is a click and email away. Sending the teams their game schedule is the same amount of work. Scheduling a tournament requires fewer volunteers as does posting scores. One gallon of Internet moves your tournament further down the road faster and with less effort than even a few years ago.

Our Advice: If you are running a soccer tournament without the TourneyCentral tools… why?? click here and get signed up today. If you are already using TourneyCentral, but only a few of the tools, take a moment and explore your modules more fully. The whole idea is to make you more efficient and effective, all the while reducing your workload. Burn some Internet fuel; we’ll make more!

When we were driving from Englewood to Indianapolis on I70 this past weekend to go to the NSCAA, we passed under a big sign at the state border that welcomed us to Ohio (I know, we were leaving, but that isn’t the point). On the sign, it has our red-white-blue Ohio logo, our state slogan and the name of the Governor and Lt. Governor. In November, we elected a new Governor, who was inaugurated the first week of January.

The sign had a small sign over the old Governor’s name and had the new Governor’s name printed on it. I counted 56 days between the election and the inauguration, which I think is probably enough time to order new signs. But, apparently not because there were these pieces of duct tape on the signs with the new folks printed on it.

All of this says one or more of the following:

• We didn’t plan in advance for a change in leadership
• We didn’t care enough to make new signs
• We didn’t want to spend the money on a new sign to change just one part of it.
• Hey, the new guy is going to be out of office in four years anyway and we’ll just have to make a new sign.
• Some other facet of bureaucracy that makes no sense.

Regardless of the reason, the message delivered to every motorist passing under those signs — subconsciously or otherwise — is Welcome to Ohio, the Duct Tape State.

Our advice: Don’t create systems that you can’t maintain properly. And when you make a system and want to keep it, don’t try to manage changes on the cheap. It will just look like you put a piece of duct tape on your event.

If you are living in Ohio, or even just care about this issue, and want to write Gov. Ted Strickland, his address is: Governor’s Office, Riffe Center, 77 South High Street, Columbus, OH 43215. (I couldn’t find an email address on the contact page of www.ohio.gov, which is a blog entry for another day.) If you just want your name added to the letter TourneyCentral will write, just offer feedback.

Yesterday, I saw a demo for Apple’s new iPhone. At that very moment Steve Jobs scrolled across the screen using a slight touch of his fingers, I hated my Treo 700w. I will buy an iPhone when they come out, even though they are partnered with Cingular Wireless and it will cost a fortune to break my contract with Verizon Wireless. I don’t even care how much the iPhone costs.

Judging from some of the pricing schemes we have seen this past spring season, pricing a tournament appears to be one of the trickier things about managing the event. But it needn’t be. The rule is a hard and fast one that has not changed since we began bartering each other for goods and services. Here it is: Price your tournament to what the market will bear.

Something about the rule seems to have been lost in translation, especially pricing for the lower age groups. For example, many events are now offering a 8v8 and 11v11 at a certain age group. From our prespective, the price should be the same since the experience of competing in a tournament is the same and the ability to win a trophy is the same, regardless of the number of players per side. Yet, many events are putting in multi-tiered pricing based on the number per side. This is unnessesarily complicated and violates the primary rule of pricing.

I suspect that much of the pricing discussion runs along the lines of Well, since we have fewer players per team, the cost should be adjusted so the per player cost is consistent or even worse it only cost us one referee pay at 6v6, so we should charge less.

Which brings us to the second rule of pricing: Never price to your costs. Always price to the value you provide.

What many tournaments appear to be forgetting is that the pricing for the lower age groups is designed to create a LOSS LEADER category. Even if you fail to cover your costs for the lower age groups, you will most definately make up for it in merchandise, concessions and repeat business for many more years to come. Younger teams buy more stuff and teams tend to go back to the tournaments they had fun at when they were U8, 9 and 10.

Our Advice: Keep your pricing simple. Most tournament events don’t need more than 2 tiers of pricing; entry level teams that are just starting travel (U8/9-10) and older teams that are looking for more competition. You should be looking to get as much money out of the teams as the market will bear while they should be looking to get as much value out of your tournament as possible. As long as each feels they got a good deal, the price is right. And make sure your younger teams have fun!

Next pricing blog entry: What is your market?