Quick Tips to Make Your Tournament a Success

Tournaments can be chaotic, and if you happen to run them, it’s your responsibility to keep everything under control. As Memorial Day Weekend and other summer tournaments approach, we thought now would be a great time to go through some quick tips to avoid three common pitfalls this tournament season.

The Bad Reputation

“We’re never coming back to this tournament.” For a tournament organizer, that’s about the worst comment you can hear, and you won’t want the sentiment to spread. It usually happens due to disorganization—whether from scheduling snafu’s, not enough volunteers or staff to help keep things running smoothly, or location mishaps. 

The solution: Plan in advance! Waaaay in advance.

• Make sure your selected dates at your venue are available and secure them.
• Determine what supplies you’ll need to successfully complete your event and order them in advance.
• Start assembling your staff and volunteers—with alternates in case some folks can’t make it.
• Be sure to have safety elements in place, including insurance for your event.

The All-Nighter

This no-no sounds like a no brainer, but we’re including it because it happens! And a lack of sleep can lead to game-day mistakes. 

Create folders on your computer to stay organized and help you plan in advance. You’ll want to think about potential scheduling conflicts and have alternate plans in place.

You can also use TeamSnap Tournaments, which can help you simplify the organizing process. You can auto-generate pools and brackets simply by entering information like teams, start and end times, rinks, courts and fields. 

The Last-Minute Switch-Up

This one might be hard to avoid, because even when you perfect your schedule, a team could miss their flight or another may have to forfeit. Staying organized can help, as can having a plan B and plan C.

If the unexpected happens, you’ll need to focus on getting the word out. Make sure you have a communications system in place beforehand, whether it’s a website you regularly update, Twitter feed or even TeamSnap Tournaments to help you notify event attendees of immediate schedule changes.

No matter which method you choose to spread the word, it may help to enlist one of your volunteers as a communications manager to focus on this task.

Skip the pitfalls above, and you’ll be on your way to a stress-free tournament, along with many more more to come!