Oh how many times have I heard these words uttered by tournament organizers who have hired or enlisted me to run
their events based on low registration numbers the week prior to an event. Rarely have these events not at least broke
even, but for the most part they have been successful. It does appear that at least in some markets, like DFW where
I reside for example, that registering ahead of time regardless of late fees, is very often not much of a concern for a good
number of registrants. With the busy schedule parents and their kids lead, quite often it is not possible, at least in their
minds, for them to make a decision until the last moment.
I have never canceled and event because of low pre-registration numbers. I have always looked at it this way:-I knew
the risks going in. And I have lost money at several of my own events. And to the credit of many fine USCF tournament
directors and organizers, most of them that I know, anyhow, have not cancelled their events for this reason, either.
Chief and foremost, it is nearly impossible to take back what is advertised. People will show up for cancelled events.
This creates a bad taste for those players caught off-guard.
My question is not about the common sense of such cancellations, but is this: What percentage of the events
do you feel “comfortable” with until the week prior?? That is, How often do the bulk of registrations meet the terms
of the early fee? What are you all’s (I am Texan, this is how we talk), thoughts about this and late registrants??
Rob,
I’m not sure I fully understand the question. I’d say 80% of the time the preregistrations follow a predictable pattern and we’ll know the total we’re going to have based on the count a week before the event. Scholastic events are more predictable than open events. Our scholastic fees are structured such that there is a large percentage increase for at-the-door registrations. This allows us to avoid any registration lines on Saturday morning and start round 1 on time.
Open tournaments get a larger fraction of at-the-door registrations. I think for many playing in the two-schedule is something that local players aren’t sure of until just before the event.
Mike
I’ve never tried to go to an event only to find that it had been canceled. It’s just not done. It’s never acceptable short of a national disaster level of event.
I would never go to an event held by somebody that had canceled a tournament after I had traveled to it.
On the scholastic side (K-8) it used to be quite common here for more than 90% of the entries to come in during the final week, and that is at tournaments with advance entries only. I remember things like a tournament have 12 entries on Monday (mostly from the host school) and more than 400 entries by Friday for the tournament the following day. Having only advance entries allowed the events to start on time (after somebody spent hours Friday night getting the last big batch in), but the massive crush meant that checking USCF memberships (and getting them paid for or renewed) usually wasn’t resolved until at least half of the tournament was done.
Nowadays a lot of bigger tournaments use on-line entry that can do a lot of that checking, so you can get that quick start and not have many membership issues (often related to inaccurate IDs during the entry - usually similar names or siblings).
Thank you all for your heartfelt responses. I now have seen this happen twice. Both very in disaster for the organizer.
It should not happen, but it does. And I agree with those who would not even consider going to the next event that
an organizer has who does this, short of an earthquake excuse.
As an organizer, I have tended to only run events with guaranteed prizes. Didn’t matter whether it was a trophy tournament, merchandise prize event, or Grand Prix tournament. Of course, you need to plan it out properly and advertise. I was pretty sure not only how many would come but who would enter. I think I only lost money twice. Once was just for a few bucks on a trophy tournament because it snowed. I was amazed how many showed up just for a trophy. The other was for about $60 on a Grand Prix tournament. I’ve noticed that tournaments that always guarantee prizes do better over the long run and are larger than based on events.
As a player, I am inclined to avoid tournaments in some places because of their tendency to always cut prizes, even when they come very close to their based on number. I go mostly to guaranteed prize tournaments or to events that increase prizes when they go above their based on number. The goodwill this engenders makes me encourage other players to go to these events. On a couple of occasions I gave some prize money back so that the organizer would not take a loss. I have seen other players do that, too, because they liked the site and the TD. Nobody wants to see a good guy go under.
Cancelling because of low pre-entries is never to be done. Players will exact appropriate revenge.
And this is the punishment that cannot be appealed. From Players. It is HARD to rehabilitate the name of an organizer
who either cancels tournaments or does “strange” things at tournaments. Some of these “strange” things can be very
well meaning. But, delays in the tournament because of side presentations, or unannounced side events, can an do cause
playrs and coaches not to return. It is nigh impossible sometimes to convince folks that “Yes, we did blow it last year, but
this year will be different.” Hard to sell.
On the other hand, Goodwill goes a long way. A period of goodwill paying of prizes and addressing issues will lead to
some forgiveness quite often when issues may arise.
I had a school administrator start the tournament an hour late one morning simply because, at the last minute she
decided that 9am was simply too early, and the kids needed additional sleep.
The next year, her attendance was 30% off. It took years to rebuild the confidence of local players and coaches.