Our press conference on the Labor Day soccer tournaments. Click on the video still to watch the conference OR click here to watch it full screen on YouTube. You can also leave comments for us!

It was lunchtime and Rufus and I swing into the local Wendy’s, pulled into the drive-through lane and ordered a #2, no ketchup, pickles, tomato or onions and a vanilla frosty. Rufus likes the frosty and he gets the second burger patty. There were four cars ahead of us. Not bad for lunchtime.

When we were the third car in line, there was a stall of some sort with an order. The cars started piling up behind us and eventually, cars would pull into the lot and pull right around to go somewhere else. We had ordered, so we waited for about five minutes. The guy in front of us had had enough, so he just pulled out of line. A minute afterwards, our van was in gear and we were gone as well. I’m pretty sure all the orders got out of synch for the people behind us. But we had waited long enough.

As I was sitting there, I also counted 17 cars that pulled into the lot and right out the other side after noticing the long line. A quick calculation on an average of $8.00 per meal, over the course of one lunch hour, that long line probably cost Wendy’s about $1,300.00 in sales. I’m guessing.

Our advice: Never, never, never let a line form at the concession stand. If you did a quick survey, you will find people have the patience for three customers deep, but no more. They will approach the line with the intention of standing there to order something, but if more than three people are in it, they will keep walking and go somewhere else. You have lost that sale.

Try putting a greeter at the end of the line when it gets too long; someone who can take orders and money and radio orders to the back. You only really need this extra person during breakfast and lunch rushes. Do ANYTHING you can to prevent the line from forming.

TourneyCentral.com announces that the family of youth soccer tournaments are 100% compatible with iPhone, making iPhone the perfect on-venue mobile device for updating scores and news.

TourneyCentral.com announced today that the web sites that deliver real-time information about youth soccer tournaments are 100% compatible with iPhone. The mobile devices ship with MacOS X’s Safari web browser and allows the user to view the full web site instead of a specially formatted one as used by other popular so-called smart phones such as Blackberry and Treo.

What this really means for tournament directors, McLean adds, is that they will be able to manage their web site in real-time at the venues or en route without worrying about whether or not they have an Internet connection. Since TourneyCentral sites have web-based scoring and news modules, including email broadcast, a tournament director is now always in touch with their guest teams.

Over the past year, we have seen an increase in tournaments attempting to legislate good sportsmanship, either through rewarding a good sport on the other team with a patch, medal or trophy or by penalizing the team by taking away points on red and yellow cards. Has this increased sportsmanship?

No.

What it has done is increase the amount of administration that the tournaments needs to manage the event. Players are either good sports — or they are not. Sportsmanship at the cost of winning is either a character trait or it is not. Ultimately, winning is rewarded. How you got there almost never plays a role. It may not be fair; it may not be ethical but it is ultimately what we measure.

Our advice: Stop trying to legislate sportsmanship with the teams that you have accepted into your tournament. And don’t over-complicate your standings and tie breakers with points off for bad behavior. The red card has its own penalties and players and coaches understand them.

What you can do, however, is RESEARCH the teams that apply a little bit more in-depth. On teams that show some aggression (you know, the ones with the pushy team manager or the cocky coach,) call around to tournaments they have played in recently. Did the team behave? Were they responsible for a large percentage of red cards? Their state association would also have that information. If they gave other events trouble, chances are they will do the same for you.

Also, on every TourneyCentral web site, you have the ability to record notes on the teams to reference for next year. Use this frequently! A whole year erodes memory, whereas a short note in a database lives forever.

Soccer America published an article submitted when launching their new newsletter, Grassroots Soccer Biz

It starts out…
When people start talking about brand, the talk immediately turns to logo design. While a good logo is part of your brand, it is not THE BRAND. The brand is how people feel about and view your soccer organization (league, club or tournament). Your brand is what you can leverage to sponsors, advertisers, guest teams, potential players, potential coaches and the media. (Links to read the rest of the article are below.)

Our advice: Read the article and subscribe to Soccer America for upcoming newsletters.