Tournament
Organization
Introduction
Ultimate
Frisbee as a small amateur sport means that organising usually gets done by
the players themselves, often with little professional experience at organising
a biggish occasion. Thankfully, Ultimate tournaments don't require as many
external people, facilities or other crap as professional sports (we don't
even need referees! All right!)...BUT...Do not underestimate the job
at hand! If you hold a crappy tournament then you'll need a good reason why
people should come back. A smooth, well-oiled weekend will put everyone in
a happy-joy-joy mood, and this is the best and biggest thing you will get
out of all the hard work you put in - just hearing someone say "Hey,
thanks for the tournament, I had a great time", is payment enough.
The prime directive is to start EARLY and enlist help. Delegate specific
jobs such as trophy making to friends - there is just too much work for one
or two people to do by themselves.
Each sub-heading below is in order of priority. Time frame in brackets after
heading is the maximum/minimum time you should aim to tackle the job before
the tournament. Obviously, the further in advance things are planned the better.
Mostly, this is written for a weekend tournament, but much of it applies to
both shorter and longer tournaments as well.
1.
$$$$$$$$
Start
of the financial year or at the AGM.
- Make
sure you have enough capital from your association or rich uncle
to meet the costs. What are the consequences of a financial loss?
- When
collecting fees, try to keep party money separate from the rest, and hand
out tickets.
- Charge
more than you think you will need to. It is always easier to give people
more than their money's worth AFTER the fact. Free food and drink is easy
to supply. You will almost always get less people than you expected.
- It
is much easier to charge on a team basis than on an individual basis.
You are far more likely to get all of your fees this way, and the responsibility
of registration is delegated.
- During
the tournament, try and keep team/player fees separate from food and drink
money separate from sales of discs and t-shirts. This is a bit harder
to do during the tournament, but it makes doing financial statements a
lot easier after the fact.
- Since
Nationals 1997, I have tried to go through and put rough prices on all
of the items. Obviously these are only approximate, but it should
help anyone who has never organised a tournament before. The links
to the Tournament Costs page are marked in the relevant sections by
$$$$$
2.
Fields/Venues
6
months to 1 month $$$$$
- Have
an idea how many teams you are catering for. This may take some ringing
around. Don't GUESS. Often there will be less participants than you optimistically
(and even sometimes pessimistically) planned for. A good delegation move
is to ring league organisers and/or team captains and get them to organise
teams. Make them feel guilty.
- Look
for fields well in advance, particularly for the Saturday of a two day
tourney. Cricket, soccer and rugby can easily stuff up the best plans.
- Make
sure you have a contingency plan for extreme weather. Will your shelter
and rego table blow away in the wind? Will everyone cook in the sun without
any shelter? Will they close the fields on you if it starts sprinkling?
- Check
fields out visually. Make sure you know exactly what areas you are getting,
and when.
- Some
sort of permanent shelter and change-rooms at the fields is desirable.
If this is not possible, then a marquee is essential. Toilets are a must.
- Get
lines marked, if it's possible and cheap.
- A
venue with a grandstand is a great idea for the final.
3.
Party
6
months to 1 month $$$$$
- Organise
well beforehand. Venues are not always easy to get.
- Collect
money separately and issue tickets. This makes sure that the tournament
does not subsidise the party. Of course, you can always choose to make
the party part of the tournament fee. Even if this is the case,
you should still issue tickets for most parties.
- Bring
CDs, tapes of any music you want played.
4.
Massage
3
months to 2 weeks $$$$$
- This
may take a number of phone calls, so allow time.
- A
good karma item. Problem is that masseur(s) will often be sitting around
for a while during games, and get overwhelmed between games. This is not
such a problem at tournaments such as Nationals where games are staggered.
- Best
to hit friends in the business first, then look to physio students. The
Australian Massage Therapists Association is also worth talking to. If
this falls through, contact private masseurs.
- The
actual number of masseurs required is unpredictable, depending on weather,
alignment of planets, etc., but for a ten team tourney you should try
getting three at least.
5.
First Aid
3
months to 2 weeks $$$$$
- Ring
St John Ambulance or Red Cross - this should only take one or two phone
calls, but should still be done early - then you can forget about it (although
a final check ensures peace of mind).
- They
will usually send someone to sporting tournaments, however they will expect
lunch and drinks, and a donation box on the rego table is karmic.
It may even be worth adding a bit into the tournament fee to donate to
them.
- Make
sure you have the answers to the following questions before you phone
:
- Location
of tournament
- Times
that they are required
- Dates
of the tournament
- Number
of competitors (approx)
- The
contact details of the organisation running the event
- Is
a covered area or tent available? (Yes/No)
- Is
power available? (Yes/No)
- Are
you making refreshments/meals available to the officers? (Yes/No)
- The
contact details of at least two of the people running the event, including
both home and work phone numbers
- Make
sure plenty of ice is always available on the days of the tournament.
6.
Media
6
months to 1 months $$$$$
Don't send the letters until 1-2 weeks away.
- This
is actually a big job if you don't already have contact addresses and
a press release stored on someone's computer. Jonathan
Potts has all the media conatacts for Sydney, while John
Greenfield has a general press release on the game and its history.
- Send
out press releases early in the week, and earlier for TV. Apparently Thursday
or Friday is not enough notice. Chances are that only the local rag will
come, but you never know.
- Remember
you will probably need to send out scores and a summary of the tourney
so access to a fax is needed.
7.
Flyers and other handouts
6
months to 1 week $$$$$
- This
is the reason everything else should be organised early. Generally you
will need two flyers - one to hand out to everyone (flyer), and one to
hand out to participants (program).
- Flyer
should include :
- Cost
- Friday
night info - Pub and golf
- Saturday
- Field location and time (at least an hour earlier than when the games
are scheduled to begin)
- Saturday
- Party location and cost
- Sunday
- Field location and time
- FREE
fruit
- Emphasis
that EVERYONE can participate, not just experienced players.
- Program
should include a copy of the flyer plus:
- Map
of field locations and party spots.
- Food
info
- Golf
links map and score sheets
- Registration
sheets
8.
Trophies
6
months to 2 weeks $$$$$
This may or may not be a big deal, depending on how much effort you want to
put in and whether there is already a perpetual trophy or not. An example
of the types of awards are:
- Tournament
winners (perpetual trophy plus small individual trophies)
- Player
of the final
- Male
and female rookie of the tournament
- Spirit
of the game
- Square
disc award
- Disc
Golf
9.
Music/P.A.
1
month to 1 week $$$$$
- Hiring
or borrowing a P.A. for the weekend is a good move. Play your own funky
music to the games, and plug in a mike to make announcements.
- Don't
make the music too loud! Also, some tapes sound like distorted mud no
matter how much fiddling with the E.Q. you do. Get someone on the field
to help you mix the sound. The style of chosen music will affect how you
play. Funk, blues and acoustic rhythms seem to go down well (techno makes
me play like a robot!). Turning off the music at the end of each game
is also nice so that you can think of a cheer with a clear head!
- The
P.A. also has the advantage of being able to be used for the party on
Saturday night.
10.
Marquee/Shelter
1
month to 1 week $$$$$
- Get
one if possible. It gives you somewhere to store food, have massages,
etc. out of the sun.
- Make
sure it is well pegged and staked. Wind can play havoc with poorly pitched
marquees.
11.
Helpers
1
month to 1 week $$$$$
You will need at least one person to be permanently at the rego table
and who is not playing. Remember, they have to handle late arrivals, media,
photos, recording scores, time caps, defusing bombs, delivering babies, not
to mention drinking all the beer in the eskies. Basically it's a full time
job.
1
week to night before.
Food
Try
to make sure there is always food and drink available. Don't budget on it
being a money spinner either. We mostly sold on an honour system, and even
allowing liberal quantities for helpers, lost about $290. Well, actually
we lost $130 when we should have made a profit of $160. Luckily we had overbudgeted
elsewhere!
Making
rolls takes a long time, but is good karma. A possible alternative is to
supply all the ingredients, but let people put together their own. The rolls
cost about $120 for 120 rolls, about $1 per roll, and we sold them at $1.50
each. They would have sold better if we had had a lunch break. The rolls
had cheese, carrot, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, and optional slice of meat
(ham or chicken) and mustard.
The
most recent fad has been to try and include as much as possible in the cost
of the tournament. As a result, we've taken to buying trays of rolls
from Subway and supplying them 'free'. This makes life easier for
the players, as they don't have to find extra money for lunch, it's served
up to them almost on a plate, and it makes life easier for the organisers
as we don't have to make 200 rolls, or find people to sell them!
Chocolate
bars (Mars, Snickers, Milky Way, etc) will sell as well. They are hard to
find in bulk - possibly try Campbells Cash and Carry if you can get a Campbells
card. They cost about 70c-80c each and sell for $1. We had :
- 42
Mars Bars
- 18
Snickers
- 24
Picnic
- 30
Kit Kat
That's
only just over 1 per person per 2 days. We could have sold more, particularly
Mars Bars. Another 20 or 30 chockies would have gone, I think.
Fruit
Ideally
buy fruit on Friday arvo or Saturday morning. Go to a smaller fruit shop
on Wednesday or Thursday and tell them what you need - they can give you
a good deal on bulk fruit which the supermarket can't, and they will have
it ripe and ready to pick up on Friday afternoon or even Saturday morning.
Even
better, for large tournaments make a trip to the local markets. The
prices are less (sometimes half as much), and you can bargain all you like.
You can also pick your quality. In Sydney, remember that the Flemington
markets tend to start packing up at 9am, and are mostly deserted by 10am.
Also remember that 20 cases of bananas usually requires a trailer!
With
regard to quantities, it depends a lot on the tournament (how long, how
many games a day etc), but for 100 people, we went through :
- 5
boxes of bananas
- 1.5
boxes of oranges
- 1
box of mixed apples
The
total cost for fruit was around $150, or 75c per person per day from a local
fruit shop. For 200 people and a 4-day tournament we spent $250 at
the markets, or around 30c per person per day. At that price you can
sometimes afford to splurge and buy some exotic stuff like watermelon, pineapples
and even mangoes.
Saturday Night Party
We
had a sort of party on Saturday Night at the field. We provided beer and
pizza (and some soft drink, for the non-beer drinkers), and told people
where to meet later on in the evening if they wanted to keep partying. Seemed
to work well.
We
supplied 40 large Pizza Hut pizzas and 8 cases of beer (4 VB, 2 Tooheys
Red, 1 Carlton Cold, 1 Reschs), total cost about $500 for 100 people. Actual
cost was a little more because of soft drinks. We probably should have ordered
another 5 or so pizzas, but numbers worked out pretty well.
As
a general rule, 1 pizza between 2 results in very few complaints.
Just make sure you get the right distribution (vege, Supreme, hawaiian,
BBQ chicken, meat lovers). BBQ chicken always seems to be popular,
but no-one seems to like hawaiian.
BBQ
Usually
rolls, fruit and chocky bars are fine filling food for the first day, but
a BBQ on the Sunday is a good idea. Here's a grocery list for a BBQ to feed
80 hungry mouths:
- 2L
Tomato Sauce
- 2L
BBQ Sauce
- 30
eggs
- 95
small choc bars
- 10
plastic knives
- 100
paper plates
- 1
kg plain flour
- 160
cheese slices
- 4
kg tomatoes
- 5
lettuces
- 1
kg margarine
- 124
burger buns
- 3
pineapples
- 3
watermelons
- 60
thin sausages
- 26
chicken kebabs
- 10
kg mince
- 40
onions
Don't
forget big knives, tongs, trays, turners etc. This should come to around
$200 (Oct '95 prices). Charging $3/head should cover costs and is very reasonable.
If
you've got the time, make up a big batch of vegetable patty mix the night
before - I don't think you can buy vege patties in bulk.
This
time round we tried the same thing. For the same stuff for 120 people, we
paid $185 (Apr '96 prices). Things didn't go quite as smoothly at the other
end however. Problems with the BBQ meant big difficulties preparing the
food. The burgers in particular took quite a while to cook, and a fair bit
of space on the grill. They also took time to get on the grill, even though
the mixture was pre-made. Likewise, the onions also took too long to cook.
Next
time, I propose :
- Ditching
the burgers and doing all sausages.
- Par-boiling
the sausages and pre-cooking the onions. This means we will only need
to brown and reheat the sausages and the onions
- If
we really want burgers, maybe use No Frills self-greasing patties which
cook real quick and nasty!
- Have
salad and coleslaw available
- Not
sure what to do about vege burgers
- Have
more rolls/bread - we ran out too quickly.
For
a big tournament, hire a pro. That way, there's no organising, no
mess, no fuss. It costs a bit more, but when all your volunteers are
elsewhere it's a blessing.
Drink
Buy
drinks early in the week and ice on the way to the tourney. If you look
around, you can usually get cans for under 60c. Get name brand cola and
orange drinks(Coke, Pepsi, Fanta, Sunkist) but cheaper lemon squash and
lemonade will usually sell just as well. Lemon drinks are generally more
popular than the others. Sports drinks are now also very popular. We never
really had enough of them. Get the cheapest ones - they all sell equally
well. We had :
- 97
* Lemon Solo
- 24
* Lemon/Lime Solo
- 72
* Coke
- 34
* Sprite
- 24
* Pepsi/Mountain Dew/7-Up
- 24
* Sunkist
- ...and
98 Sports Drinks
Sports
drinks cost about $1.30 each and sell for $2. We could have sold 150 to
200 of them, I think. The other drinks averaged about 75c to buy and sold
for $1. We could have had 2-3 cases more lemon drinks, and a case less of
Coke/Pepsi.
For
big tournaments, talk to the local distributor of your favourite soft drink.
At $14 a case for soft drinks and sports drinks, you can probably
save a bit. And it's much easier to buy by the case than at the supermarket.
Eskies With Ice
Getting
enough eskies (coolers, chilly bins, whatever else you call them) is always
a problem. One solution - buy large cheap recycling bins from your local
council, tape up the holes in the bottom and fill them with ice. Our council
sells them for $5 each. Maybe you can even get something cheaper/better
from your hardware or Big W store. The big styrofoam fruit boxes also work
well. You can never have too many of them. Beer, soft drinks, sports drinks,
chockies, BBQ stuff all needs to be kept cool.
Ice
is a must. Don't expect St John's to have any. Having ice with the drinks
plus a separate esky with ice only is desirable, the latter for injuries
(throw in some plastic bags) and to replace melted ice in the drinks esky.
Remember to pick up ice each day on the way to the tourney.
For
big tournies, consider hiring a refrigerator trailer. We went through
about $400 and a lot of hassle with ice one year. The next year we
spent $200 and hardly any hassle on the trailer. When you can walk
inside, keep 50 cases of drinks cold at a time, and you're not elbow deep
in ice cold water fishing around in bins for the last can of Coke, you've
got to be a bit happy! Plus it doubles as overnight storage since
you can lock it.
13.
Cameras / Publicity
1
month to 1 week $$$$$
- A
video camera and B&W photos are not essential but are a nice touch.
- You
may also need to send out photos to lazy journalists who didn't make it
to the tourney but want to do a story. Photos provide a good break for
the helpers, but a video camera requires an extra hand.
14.
Table/Chairs/Cones/etc
Things
to brings $$$$$
- Rego
table
- Chairs
- Cones
- Hooter
- to start and finish the games
- Bins
- to keep drinks in
- A
sealable money container, preferably something better than an ice-cream
container.
- Whiteboard
or blackboard
- Whiteboard
pens or chalk
- Banners
References
http://www.afda.com/
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