I received a call from a local soccer coach who was interested in planning his spring soccer tournament season for his team. He initially wanted to confirm that some of the events that had not yet received sanctioning (are you one of these tournaments?) were still on. But then, he shared something interesting and very telling.

Part of his criteria for selecting tournaments is whether or not they are hosted by TourneyCentral. Most of the other soccer tournament web sites are just way too confusing and hard to use, he said. We’re flattered, of course. This year, he added a new criterion I hadn’t thought of.

In the local area, there are several coaches who are known for scouting out tournaments that need one of two teams to round out a bracket. They wait until the last minute, contact the tournament and get in for free or nearly free, maybe paying just the referee fees. This is kinda like flying stand-by, so these teams may not get in, but it is still a good deal if you do. The tournament doesn’t disclose this, but coaches sure do talk. And they are pretty good gossips! So, part of his new criteria is: If he sees teams from these coaches, he passes the tournament on by.

Every local area has coaches who scrounge for tournament deals. And, all the coaches from the local area know who these coaches are, even though your guest teams may not. But, I can see the next step for this coach is to start calling some of the local coaches of an away soccer tournament — perhaps a neighboring club — and ask who these flying standby coaches are. Then, they see if they have played in your event and pass you on by.

Our advice: Don’t discount. Ever. Always have a backup plan for a division you need to round out. Can you play a round robin format? Can you move the seed one team up a division or possibly one of your club teams? What if you dropped a team to even out a division instead of letting one in for free (again, one of your club teams)? Short term, you may take a hit on the fees, but long-term, letting coaches in for free to round out a division ultimately hurts your soccer tournament brand. With lasting damage.

It is Sunday evening after the tournament and your photographer said they would post the photos from the weekend after the tournament. So, where are they? Your teams are asking. It is after the tournament, the teams have all gone home and they were promised photos after the tournament.

When you call the photographers, they are dead tired and think that your request that they stay up all night and get some photos up on their site (or yours) for your teams to look at is an unreasonable request. They hang up on you. But, is your request really all that unreasonable?

In the Soccer Tournament Web 1.0 world, it is. Everyone knows that it takes several days to process the photos that were taken and that waiting a few extra days to se and order photos is just the way things are. But, this is Soccer Tournament Web 2.0. Things are supposed to happen real time. The photos are digital and should be uploaded almost immediately. The teams want to relive the experience right now, not wait until Thursday.

Our advice: When working with a photographer, make sure they understand that your tournament is real-time and that they should make arrangements to have a stream of photos going up all weekend long, with the balance of the photos on the site, ready for ordering no later than Monday morning (or the day after your soccer tournament.) The teams have an attention span of about two days. Anything posted after that is just a lot of effort for nothing as very few teams will visit to find photos after that.

Meet Sarah Scheidel. She graduates in 2010 and is top in her class. She is probably a pretty good soccer player. I don’t know much about Sarah, but I know that her profile will stand out from the pile of other profiles that her teammates will have submitted.

Why? Because she understands the purpose of including the photo on her player profile. The photo is there primarily so the college coach can recognize the player when he/she sees them, but a face also communicates who the player is, what kind of personality she has, how confident she is. I’ll leave it to you to determine what kind of person Sarah is and how she handles herself on the field. But, if it was just me, I’d want to see if her confidence on the field matches the confidence she displays in her photo.

Our advice: Encourage player profile photos to be marketing sheets for the players as they are as a person. College coaches will give interesting players with a good photo a second look, even if their playing history is only average if the photo talks to them. Encourage the players to choose their photos as wisely as they choose their words on the profile. After all, 1 photo=1,000 words whereas 1 word=1 word.

Helle Jessen writes:
Kære alle. En lille hilsen med et par billeder af nogle meget glade piger!! De har lige vundet Jysk Mesterskab og er dermed nr. 1 i Danmark i A-gruppen!

Congratulations to the Aab Team. Loosely translated, Hi all. A little hello and a couple of photos of some very happy girls. They have just won the Jysk Mesterskab and are number 1 in Denmark for Group A. (Helle – Correct me if this is wrong)

Do you know the dates for your 2008 soccer tournament? We are trying to plan our team tournaments and need to budget….

You may think this is a question being asked about early spring tournaments, but it is not. Teams are writing in and asking even late summer and fall tournaments!! In fact, it is the #1 question coming in from the contact forms across all our soccer tournaments.

Our advice: Think 365/24/7! When you are done with your 2007 soccer tournament, get sanctioned and get out there with your 2008 dates. Even if your state won’t sanction tournaments until late in the year (Michigan, Colorado, Indiana … are you listening??) get out there with proposed dates. A date range is better than no date at all.