Getting over the site cost hump

Running Chess Tournaments
1

I recently directed a tournament hosted by my local chess club (of which I’m the prexy) at a local community college. The event was a modest success in terms of turnout, didn’t do much to increase our membership (which was its primary purpuse) but, according to everyone, was a smoothly run affair in a great location. Even though our club still hasn’t met the criteria for USCF affiliation that we agreed to in our bylaws, I’m thinking of simply becoming an affiliate myself and running some more local events, rated this time.

We were fortunate in our recent tournament to have an “angel” who paid the $90 for the conference room we rented at the college, meaning our only expense was the trophies we handed out, and at $5 for advance entry, $7 for same-day, we came out roughly 20 bucks ahead. I’m of the belief that cash prizes would attract more participants than trophies, at least more adult and young adult participants.

However, having run the numbers, here’s what I’m looking at: With a $10 entry fee, I could probably expect roughly the same number of participants, losing a few because of the higher cost but gaining a few back because the event would be rated (our recent event was not). Subtracting out rating fees, a TD fee of $2 per participant (hey, if I’m doing this out of my own pocket, I want something back for it) and the $90 site fee, I’m looking at a total prize fund of $22.50, which is just sad. If I raise the entry fee to $15, I project that I’ll lose about 40 percent of my players – and end up with the exact same prize fund. (The “sweet spot” in between, $12, would yield an optimum $24 prize fund, by my estimation.) Conclusion: The site fee is a budget-buster.

But there simply is no better site in the area. I can rent a park district building for a day for $75, but it’s just a single room – no separate space for registration, skittles, etc. I can get a good space at the public library free of charge, but on the condition that I neither collect entry fees nor distribute prizes. :unamused: The college site, in contrast, was simply perfect.

I also have to contend with living in an economically depressed area. I determined the baseline entry fee of $10 by examining the relative costs of living between here and Boston, where the Boylston Chess Club charges $27 to nonmembers. Imagine if you went to your local club and had to pay an additional $25 for a one-day tournament membership, or become a regular USCF member at a cost of $70 per year. That’s the psychological hurdle I have to clear to get people involved in rated chess around here.

If you were in my position, what would you do? Would you decline the TD fee? Settle for the less-than-ideal one-room park district site? Shop around for a sponsor for every event? Or just conclude that the local market won’t bear rated tournament chess?

2

I think your estimate of how many player you’ll lose with a $15 or even $25 entry fee is on the high side, especially if there are some cash prizes involved. And they don’t even have to be HUGE prizes, we used to get pretty good turnout for Plus Score events here, $15 entry and $100 for a 4-0 finish. The nice thing was that the mathematics worked out so that if there were at least 14 entries, the tournament was guaranteed to make a profit.

3

I didn’t even consider charging $25.

Our unrated $5 open drew 16 players. Six were adults: one rated, two formerly rated, three unrated. Ten were kids: eight rated, two unrated.

My assumption is that, with a $10 entry fee, I’d pick up four additional rated players from around the region and get two of the currently unrated players to join, while the eight rated juniors would also attend, for a total of 15 (seven adults, eight juniors).

With the $15 entry fee, I figure I’d lose two of the adults and half of the kids.

With a $25 entry fee, I think I’d lose all but the one already rated adult and two of the kids. Of course, then I could participate.

4

You can’t go to the movies for $10 anymore (unless you don’t buy popcorn), $10 is IMHO incredibly cheap for 6 hours or more of chess activities. (In fact, that’s one of the problems with finding sites, chess tournaments often tie them up all day when they could rent the site two or three times to other types of events.)

I grew up 40 miles from where you live and still have family living in the area, I appreciate the challenge (and the financial risk.) My brother used to travel further than that to play in duplicate bridge tournaments, though.

5

Getting a free site is really next to impossible now-a-days. In the 60s & 70s you could get space at a VFW hall or American Legion Post. This might involve a quid-pro-quo of helping out at the site on some other day/night with set up and take down. Also, there was the possibility of the local park district, the local forest preserve, or your local church. Now all of these sites want money for the use of the space, or at least some sort of application fee.

With the prospect of only about $20 to spend towards any prizes, maybe you need to consider reducing the TD fee. Also, maybe plan on a series of tournaments where at the end of the series there is an additional prize beyond whatever prizes are awarded at individual tournaments. You may need to stick with trophies and awards, but maybe you can get donations from local merchants for prizes. Look to your local city for excess items used in past years at events as well. Coupons and merchandise can appeal as prizes when the entry fee is not too great. The village of Park Forest has done this with it first 2 tournaments. They were USCF rated tournaments, there was a $5 entry fee, and prizes were items from merchants or the village. Also, there were prizes of free entry in a future tournament.

Larry Cohen

6

Keep your EF, in my opinion, to a denomination that is dispensed in a cash station, hence $20. Makes it simple for players and organizers (change becomes less of an issue). $20 for a day or night of entertainment is on par with other past times.

Movies, which will cost you $7-10 for a ticket, and then the gotchas on the inside at the counter, will rack up to $20 quick per person. With chess, you’ll get more than a couple hours of entertainment, hang with old friends and make new ones, not to mention either increase or decrease your rating :slight_smile:

The site issue will always be an issue. You have to get creative around it.

7

Hold two tournaments (or sections) simultaneously – a USCF-rated Plus-Score with a $20 entry fee, and a non-rated $5 tournament with no prizes.

Bill Smythe

8

And sometimes proof that you have liability insurance, usually at least $1 million.

9

By “Plus-Score,” you mean each player gets $x per game point?

10

No, just that prizes are awarded by score rather than place. For example, with 4 rounds you could have:

4-0 wins $100
3.5 wins $50
3-1 wins $25
2.5 wins $10

That way, each prize is guaranteed, yet the total prize fund automatically increases or decreases with the turnout. It amounts a low-risk way to guarantee prizes.

Bill Smythe

11

I agree with Bill and Mike. The Plus Score format is a good way to entice participation through cash prizes, but not have to worry about losing your shirt. I’ve been using them for about half of my events and they seem to be received well. IMO, they have also increased the participation of higher rated players from the levels we had 3 years ago.

12

Interesting idea. I’ll have to run some numbers on it and see what I get.

13

I think perhaps you would gain more participants for a rated event than you think, you said you’re in the 'burbs of Boston? I’m in that area and constantly on the scout for rated tournaments, even smaller ones, and mostly unsuccessfully. I’d probably drive up to an hour for a small weekend rated tournament, and would pay $20 without thinking, though I might not make every $25 one. If I’m willing to drive an hour for such a tournament, think of the larger radius you could count on for those kinds of tournaments…

P.S. Let me know if you do end up running one and I’ll show :slight_smile:
P.P.S I like the point-pay structure idea as well

14

No, he lives in Freeport IL, about 100 miles west of Chicago. (There’s a link to his club’s web site in another thread.)

I think he was trying to find a comparable geographic area, one somewhat near a major metro area but not a suburb.

15

In the Baltimore area my club charges a $20 entry fee for one day weekend tournaments of 4 or 5 rounds. The entry fee is discounted $3 for club members and $5 if the player is under 18. These discounts cannot be combined so only one applies if eligible. The $3 discount on all club tournaments has helped increase club membership which is only $10 per year. We don’t have an issue with rooms as we are a part of the local Recreation and Parks Council therefore we are able to use the local community center. We’ve been affiliated with them since 1959. The Council does charge an annual assessment based on membership; last year our assessment was about $90. It will be above $120 this year based on increased membership. We organize 8 weekend tournaments every year skipping the months of January, February, July, September. We also organize Friday night Quick events twice per month, the entry fees for these are $8 for non-members and $5 for members.

You may need to try a number of scenarios regarding cost and format to find what will work best for your market.

I hope some of this information will be of use.

Joe S.

16

Ah, tear

17

One of the other things to consider… With rated play you may well draw more players then from just your local area. For examples, when Ron ran his tournament I thought nothing at all of making the hour drive up to Oglesby. It was good to meet him at last. :wink: At the January tournament here in Bloomington there were a number of players I hadn’t seen before. I’ve almost committed myself to the David Mote Memorial Open in Springfield.

I can’t promise that I’d come up as far as Freeport - that’s quite a haul. But I guarantee you we’d talk about here in Bloomington, and I could conceive that between a twosome and a foursome of us would carpool it. (For example, Dennis Bourgerie and I were surprised to see each other in Oglesby… we decided that we’d coordinate our tournament schedules to see if we’d carpool or whatever.) But that assumes you’d have around a $20 EF or so. :wink: I’d be really surprised if, picking the right weekend, you didn’t get a draw out of Chicagoland.

One thing I wouldn’t do: eliminate your TD fee entirely. If you’re really lucky your club will outlast you. :wink: At that time (or at any point you’re in a position to have multiple directors,) that you have a TD fee may make the difference as to whether others will pitch in. I can’t claim credit for this bit of advice; it was given to me by a much more experienced TD when my TDing partner and I kicked that same idea around at the club for our upcoming tournament. :slight_smile:

One idea to play around with: See if any suitable places in your area would consider a contingency-fee kind of situation. (Maybe something like between 10% and 25% of the EFs received. Maybe 25% of EFs up to double their normal rate.) If you can get a percentage rate, maybe cap it at two times their normal rate. A community college may not go for that, but a church building might. Design the rest of your tournament with percentage payouts and it becomes harder to go in the red on the it.

A second idea to play with: Maybe you can find a vacant building or a vacant stripmall suite, then trade giving their place a really good cleaning for being able to use it for the day. I’ll admit to only toying with that idea - I haven’t given it a real try yet. You’ll almost certainly not have Internet, but hopefully might have power and water. :wink: You could file this under, “Won’t know unless you try…” :smiley:

A third idea when it comes to negotiating: Be upfront that you’re only just running the first cash tournament in the area, and that you’re trying the idea out to see if it will be sustainable. You might get a little more latitude if whomever you’re renting from knows that there might be future events that they can continue to make money off of. (And no money at all for them if they’re not willing to negotiate with you.)

18

Actually, I only used Boston as a benchmark because that’s the last place where I lived, and the only place where I’ve ever had the opportunity to observe tournament chess firsthand. Fortunately, the tournament chess scene in Boston is very successful and active, so it makes a good starting point.

19

I’d be surprised if I ever got a draw out of Chicagoland. The gravity well is just too deep. I estimate that DeKalb and Woodstock are the absolute outer limits of our pull in that direction.

On the flip side, our unrated tournament attracted a guy from the Quad Cities. I’m not nearly as worried about my ability to get players from that direction.

ETA: Thinking about where I might draw players from, I wonder whether I could make prizes contingent on a certain number of entries: “Cash prizes b/entries if 20 or more participants.” Fifteen players with a $2/per player TD fee leaves me with an anemic $22.50 prize fund, but just five more $10 entry fees, with the TD fee capped at $30, would add $47.50 to the fund, for a total of $70 – giving me solid first- and second-place prizes. As long as I explicitly advertised it with the phrasing above, it would be kosher, wouldn’t it?

20

I think there’s a lower limit before based-on prizes have to be 50% guaranteed. However, you might have some players that would be surprised. Better to pick a prize amount so that you can guarantee at least 50% of the prize.