I recently had an informal meeting with one of our Ohio-based soccer tournament directors and the issue most raised during our conversation was the various ways we helped bring value to their event was by being available as human support. As I watched the FCC take a vote to repeal Net Neutrality on Dec 14, 2017, I couldn’t help thinking how that decision could potentially affect the soccer tournament industry, which has fully embraced the internet as the de facto platform to market, communicate, register and manage games through websites and apps.

I crafted this letter to my elected Ohio representatives with that conversation still fresh in my head.

Since 1999, TourneyCentral has been the front door for close to a million soccer players, their families and fans each year. Furthermore, since we are based in a military town with WPAFB as an integral member of our community, our soccer tournament websites have afforded parents who found themselves stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places around the world to engage actively with their kids as they played in soccer tournaments. We have stories we could share; they are heartwarming.

Our business depends on a stable and predictable access to the internet.

As a small business incorporated and based in Ohio — one that provides jobs, tax revenue and increases the economic impact of other small businesses — I am concerned about the cost of providing affordable access to the tournament websites for our tournament directors. But more importantly, I am concerned that my customers have ready access to human tech support when they most need it, so they can provide a quality tournament-going experience for their guest teams, players, families and fans.

As a company and as an active member of the soccer community, we do not support the repeal of NetNeutrality. The Net Neutrality rules are not perfect, but anything less than the protections and access they currently afford the soccer community is untenable.

As a company that believes strongly in the superiority of human support over chat bots and AI, we also seek out suppliers of hosting and other services that share our values. We believe that even as the line-item cost of purchasing these services is higher, it reduces our overall costs due to increased productivity working with skilled people.

Our soccer customers (many who are volunteers who do not develop technology) also want and need human-supported help for their tournament technology. TourneyCentral provides this much-needed service. With the FCC’s repeal of Net Neutrality in yesterday’s vote, we will most likely be forced to continue to seek out providers and services that reduce our costs elsewhere so we can continue to provide the human touch our customers tell us they need and want.

We recognize that the trends are towards automation and we’re not fighting evolution. However, at some point, we as a society need to recognize when we need to provide a human touch for human activities. The goal here is a balance between automating those things that computers do well with human skills that humans do better. Few things are more human-centric (or as satisfying) for us than talking a tournament director through a critical tech process at 11pm on a Friday night, with only a few hours before they host a soccer tournament for thousands of players, their families and fans, and the local community.

It is our official position that our elected representatives introduce and pass legislation that protects access to all of the legal parts of the internet, regardless of content.

While access to the internet is foremost a human issue for us, it is also a business issue. The lack of open access to the internet endangers not only the soccer tournament business and the soccer community, it stands to limit all organized youth sports, including football, basketball and the most American sport, baseball. It also endangers the small businesses that rely on their support.

Soccer is a welcoming, benevolent community. Help us continue this fine tradition of supporting and engaging in our communities through sport by keeping this in mind as you take up votes regarding the repeal Net Neutrality many in our community now rely on for access to their teams. For many, their soccer team is their life’s purpose.

I understand that national laws operate at a 30,000 ft level. I just wanted to give you a small example of the unintended consequences of these regulations at a ground zero level. In the whole scheme of what Net Neutrality means for the entire internet, TourneyCentral is a tear in a rainstorm. But for that one grandparent who only wishes to see his grandkids play at a local event, it means everything. That is what drives us and what I hope sticks in your mind as you review potential legislation regarding Net Neutrality.

I urge you to vote with this in mind; to think not only of the wider arc of the health of the internet, but also the health of the businesses that rely it, including your own Ohio-based, TourneyCentral.

Recently, to accommodate a larger holiday meal, another batch of forks were added to my cutlery drawer by someone who thinks a fork is a fork is a fork is a fork.

The fork on top is thin and well-balanced, with long, tapered tines and a flat handle that rests against my palm. It feels like an extension of my hand as I deftly navigate my way through the food on my plate to my mouth.

The fork on the bottom has short blunt tines, with a thin handle where I struggle to keep the fork aligned with my knife. It feels like I’m fighting my fighting my food, bludgeoning it to give up its home on the plate.

What do forks have to do with a soccer tournament? Everything!

Our Advice: If you are using TourneyCentral to manage your soccer tournament event, you are already honing the user experience for your tournament. We are obsessive about sharpening the tines and shaping the handle so your web site and management tools feel like an extension of your event.

But you can do more.

Make sure your news on the front page is clear and concise. Keep updating the news for your event during the tournament. On the ground, make sure your signage to the parking is clear and visible. Make sure all your volunteers know the web address, the twitter, facebook, snapchat and instagram accounts. Update the scores as quickly as you can after the games. Post the standings in real time. Dedicate one or two people (depending on your tournament size) to posting scores during the tournament–that is all they do.

Broadcast about your vendors and sponsors on a schedule. Make this part of their sponsorship package, especially the vendors who rely on you for foot traffic to their on-site booth.

Build a media team.

Highlight some of your guest teams. Write short personal stories about them. Include human interest photos. Crop your photos well; don’t just slap up a team photo. Show your tournament personality. Capture the fun and excitement, the agony and the joy of being there. Shine a spotlight on some of the attendees by picking them out of a crowd and showing an interest in their story. (Get permission from their parents, please, if you are posting photos of minors… preferably a release your media volunteers already have. It’s 2017; be mindful.)

Make stickers with your tournament logo and social channels, maybe even establish a special “secret” instagram or snapchat account they can join. Kids love stickers. (Their parents secretly love stickers, too. Really.) Make sure your volunteers have a ready supply and hand them out generously.

Create a program/yearbook and publish it using CreateSpace, then push it to the Amazon store where participants and their families can buy it for a nominal price. Make it special so it is worth buying by designing it. Yes, hire a graphic designer… a good one.

Give your guest teams a seamless experience, from registration through posting the schedule and field maps to finding the games to enjoying the social activities to connecting with you on social to chatting about your tournament on the ride home to not being able to wait until next year to participate in your tournament. Expand the 90 Minute Attention Span a few more minutes.

Tiny details, huge user experience difference.

We are taking a stand on health insurance and health care.

Regardless of your personal stance on the Affordable Care Act, (Obamacare, ACA) the goal of the soccer community should be to make sure any kid who wants to play on a soccer team has access to health insurance and affordable health care. Expanding the available talent pool and deepening the bench of soccer talent for all should be the goal of any soccer organization. The lack of health insurance with the exception of those who can afford the premiums, threatens this goal.

Despite the myths, slights and shade the media wishes to throw at soccer sometimes, competitive soccer is a contact sport. The sport is growing and has become an American sport in many households across the country.

My son played keeper throughout high school and on select soccer teams. Any parent of a keeper knows the anxiety of seeing their kid being charged at by a forward or the risk of hitting their head on the cross bar. Like any keeper, he was all-in on the field. There were many times when he put his body between the net and several forwards twice his size. He won more than he lost, but there was an injury cost.

My daughter played mid-field most of her club and high school career. Despite her deceptively slight frame, 5’6″, 110lbs, she was a bruiser. When there was a tackle or a challenge, she was going to win that ball. She was fearless and the opposing team got to know that early on. There were injuries, but I was fortunate enough to have an insurance plan to cover her. (I actually increased coverage and decreased my deductible during her soccer-playing years, she was that committed. Don’t tell her that, she would feel guilt.)

Having access to good health insurance on the individual market allowed me to give a quality soccer experience to my two kids when they were growing up. While every parent dreads the time when their kid will get injured playing a sport they love, there was some anxiety in the stands over how much out-of-pocket that love and commitment to the sport would cost their parents. My guess is we all kept that quiet from our kids. We did not want our anxiety to be the reason they did not “win the ball.”

Here is a letter we at TourneyCentral sent to our Ohio lawmakers. (We are an Ohio corporation) We urge everyone in the soccer community to become more aware of how a repeal of the ACA WITHOUT A REPLACEMENT will affect and endanger the soccer community and actively lobby their lawmakers for a specific plan that replaces it and ensures we will not lose players based solely on their access to health insurance, affordable care.

Write, call, blog, tweet. This affects us all. Health care is not a political issue; it is a human issue and also a business issue. Repeal without a replacement plan would affect us all who strive to bring the sport to those with the most talent, instead of the most insured.

. . .

The Honorable Rob Portman, (R-OH)
The Honorable Sherrod Brown, (D-OH)
The Honorable Mike Turner, (R-OH 10)

When a kid does not have health insurance, they cannot play soccer in a club, league or high school. When they cannot play on a team, they cannot play in a soccer tournament. Without health insurance, their athletic skills and abilities—as well as any potential college scholarships—will never be realized by themselves, their parents or fans. Sponsors of the tournaments and the businesses surrounding the event suffer economically.

Since 1999, TourneyCentral has been the front door for over half a million soccer players, their families and fans each year. Furthermore, since we are based in a military town with WPAFB as an integral member of our community, our websites have afforded parents who found themselves stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places, to engage actively with their kids as they played in soccer tournaments. We have stories we could share; they are heartwarming.

Our business depends on a steady stream of talented kids who have access to affordable health insurance and health care.

As a small business incorporated in Ohio, one that provides jobs, tax revenue and increases the economic impact of other small businesses, I am concerned about the cost of employer-based health care. But more importantly, I am concerned that my potential customers will be limited in purchasing our services simply because they can’t field teams of players who have access to health insurance or health care.

As a company and as an active member of the soccer community, we do not support the repeal of the ACA without a solid, specific and accessible replacement in place. The ACA is not a perfect law, but anything less than the protections and access it currently affords the youth population and their parents is untenable.

Coaches, too, must be frustrated to see a kid in a pick-up game who has remarkable potential but can’t be included on a team because his or her parents do not have health insurance. Or, more frequently, the deductible is high and the fear of a costly injury during a game or training is the single issue that holds them back.

It is our official position that our elected representatives craft a plan that goes beyond the current ACA to UniversalCare, SinglePayer, MedicareFor All. The ideal is that every kid should have the right to reach to his or her potential, not limited by whether or not they have affordable health insurance.

While health care is foremost a human issue for us, it is also a business issue. The lack of universal, affordable health insurance endangers not only the soccer tournament business and the soccer community, it stands to limit all organized youth sports, including football, basketball and the most American sport, baseball. It also endangers the small businesses that rely on their support.

Soccer is a welcoming, benevolent community. Help us continue this fine tradition of supporting and engaging in our communities through sport by keeping this in mind as you take up votes regarding the repeal of a health care law many in our community now rely on for access to their team, which gives them strong character and community skills. For many, their soccer team is their purpose.

Don’t rob them of their ability to participate by limiting access to health insurance and health care. I urge you to vote with this in mind, to think of the wider arc of not only the health of sport, but the health of the businesses that support it, including your own Ohio-based, TourneyCentral.