This weekend I was asked to sub for my friend’s recreation league basketball team. The game was in an unfamiliar town. I e-mailed him for an address to get directions. Here is what I was sent:

Take 75 S to 70 West and get off at Eaton Rt. 127 exit. Turn left off the exit and go a few miles pass Kmart and Wal-Mart. At second light where a CVS is on the left and Speedway on the right, turn left onto Lexington Rd. You will stop at Maple don’t turn, stay on Lexington. The next stop sign is at East. You can see the church from that stop. The First Church of God is right there at corner of East and Lexington. It has a blue roof.
Wow, are you lost? Are these directions driving your crazy? You can imagine the frustration I was feeling as I tried to negotiate these directions and drive at the same time. I was traveling alone, so it made it even more difficult. My drive time was 30 minutes longer because of the way these directions were written.

Our Advice: BE DIRECT WITH YOUR DIRECTIONS. Start with basic information like site address, contact person and emergency phone number. Then use a modern form of providing directions (Mapquest, Google, Yahoo, etc). Always be sure to check accuracy of these directions before posting to the public. Imagine how frustrated your teams would be if they had to sort through the directions listed above to make it to your tournament. This can foul up your event very quickly. Let’s face it! One of the most basic elements to managing a successful tournament is to have teams, coaches and referees arrive on time, safely to their game site. All those associated with your event deserve easy to read, accurate and reliable directions to their game site.
Use the website maintenance module to post directions and layout maps for all sites used by your event. This module allows directors to post directions with a map through Google. There is even a feature allowing for latitude and longitude. Talk about precise. Spectators will also appreciate information related to pets, restroom facilities, smoking policy, concessions, etc. This information is crucial to helping promote a positive on-site experience for all parties involved in your event. After all, you want happy players, coaches, volunteers, spectators and referees to participate in your tournament

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.