This guide/checklist is a skeleton guide to get you up and running quickly. It only contains the basics to allow you to manage your tournament effectively. It is important that you do each step in order and completely for maximum effectiveness. When information is incomplete on your website, teams call you, send emails etc and ask for clarification. This eats into your management time that you have precious little of.
There is a lot in your Admin Area that allows you to extend your tournament as much as you need, including advertisers, sponsors, referee scheduling and more. Since TourneyCentral is dedicated to only soccer tournaments, it has a lot of tools that are very specific to competitive (and High School) soccer.
Ok, let’s begin. We will assume you have been sent the invitation email with your Admin Area Access Point and your SuperUser password. If you have misplaced this document, please email us at helpdesk@tourneycentral.com or call at 937-836-7477.
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If you are a new tournament director, but your event has gone through at least one season with TourneyCentral, most of these steps will need simple edits. Again, do these steps in order, don’t skip around and make sure your edits are correct for the current season before moving on to the next.
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A word about nomenclature:
When you see notation like WebsiteMaint Module>Variables>Go!
it means, in plain language:
– Log into your Admin Area
– Find the Web Maintenance Module
– Select Variables from the ActionMenu™
– Click GO!
Ok, let’s get started!
Getting started, the basic information
We have plugged in some basic information for you to help get you started. You should do the following at minimum before marketing your tournament.
WebsiteMaint Module>Variables>GO!
Complete the information on the Web Site Variables form. If you had a sanctioning form when we set you up, we most likely filled in all the dates and prices for you. If not, you should fill these in. Also, check to make sure all the age groups and genders you are accepting are represented. If more are there than is necessary, send a support email and we’ll take care of that.
If fees are NOT included, teams applying will be asked to submit fees of $0.00 so make sure you fill out the fees.
Email Distribution
Web Site Maintenance Module>Email Distribution
We have included the emails requested on set up, but please verify and edit as needed:
Make sure the emails are set to receive the various notifications from the site. You may use multiple emails per role, separated by a , ex: user1@domain.com,user2@domain.com,user3@domain.com Avoid using spaces and make sure the emails are ACCURATE. As with admin users, keep the number of emails per role to a minimum as some ISPs will see multiple emails sent many times as spam. Soccer tournaments produce a LOT of email, so you should also avoid using tax-payer emails such as schools, military, etc. (if we find government emails, we will remove them. We’re taxpayers here at TourneyCentral as well)
Website Pages
Visit each of these sections and add content. For the FAQs and Front Page, you will be able to add multiple records.
WebsiteMaint Module>
Edit the Rules page
Edit the About page
Edit the Referees page
Add an FAQ
Edit the Latest News/Front Page
In each of these, if you copy/paste from MS Word or a another web page, please look at the end result on the public side and make sure any funky characters and funny line breaks are removed/corrected. Please do not use HTML in these pages
Venues, Maps and Fields
A venue is a location that contains fields. The Venue will be included on your public map. We have added at least one venue when we set up your event.
WebsiteMaint Module>>Add a New Venue
Add as many venues as you will have fields. To make them show up on the general map, you will need to add the GPS data, longitude and latitude (Google Maps is an excellent product to find long/lat. especially for places that do not have physical addresses. Find the location on the google maps website, scroll way to the @ and copy/paste the GPS data…)
Example:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ward+Field/@39.8594463,-84.3268985,15z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0xff5174a13bbf83e5?ved=2ahUKEwjc8-Log5bgAhWM2YMKHXxJBgQQ_BIwDnoECAYQCA
39.8594463 is the latitude
-84.3268985 is the longitude
We will help you if needed… just let us know.
SPECIAL NOTE ON MAPS
If the map does NOT appear on the Maps Page, please double check that the following are included in the map record:
– One of the venues is marked as the Main Venue. You must have a main to provide the center point for the map.
– The ZIP code is included in the main venue
– The GPS (latitude/longitude) information is included for the main venue and it is correct. If your map plunks your playing fields in Turkey or China, chances are your GPS data are wrong 🙂
We have included the main venue in your initial set up, complete with GPS data.
Hotels
If you are working with a Rooming Agency, they should give you a web address. Simply paste this into the Rooming Link field, add your Stay to Play statement and a short blurb on Hotel Front Page about how teams go about getting rooms. Save changes and you’re done with hotels.
HotelModule>Hotel Variables
Place a message on the Hotel Front Page at minimum to explain your hotel policy, how you wish teams to find hotels or work with your hotels. This is also a good place to plug your local community to teams visiting from outside.
Hotel Module>Add a Hotel
Add a hotel. To make them show up on the general area map, you should include GPS data
Hotel Module>Manage Reservation Dates
If you are using one of the forms that takes hotel requests, please be sure to include the dates. Otherwise, this is not needed.
Advertising and Vendor Module>Add a Company
You should enter your major sponsors here, checking the Major Sponsor and Visible. If you wish them to show up on the DEALS page, you should check DEALS. However, all DEALS will be charged our listing fee of $10.00. Major Sponsors ONLY are free, but if you also check DEALS, they are not.
Add advertisers here as well.
Referee Module>Manage Application Dates
The referee application allows you to split each day into am, am/pm or pm availability. You should set this for each date now to save your assignor some confusion.
That should get you up and running. There are a ton of other features and you are welcome to explore each of them, especially in the Advertising Module.