I am considering running some one-day Sunday events to avoid conflicting with all the Saturday tournaments (open and scholastic) in my area. Does anyone have any experience with running one-day Sunday events? How much is attendance hurt due to church, football, etc.
Won’t know til you try 
There’s many a tournament game played on Sundays - just not one day’ers (a new word I just made up).
If it is possible, schedule the rounds so a church-goer can take a half point bye in round 1. If round 2 starts at 1:00 or later a church person can still make it. Even if it’s noon, an early service may be possible. If round 2 starts at 11:00, there is virtually no chance.
That is a bigger issue where you live than where he lives.
See
uschess.org/msa/AffDtlTnmtHst.php?A6020681
All of the tournaments with Quest in the name are on Sundays with the first round at noon.
Also see
uschess.org/msa/AffDtlTnmtHst.php?A6027051
The Kumbaya tournaments moved from Saturday to Sunday. You can see the attendance change.
True, but as a way to mitigate the concern the suggestion is still valid.
I run 4-round G/30d5 Swiss on Sunday mornings (finishing by 2:00pm) and then 3-round G/30d5 Quads starting at 2:00pm. I get 10-30 players in the morning and 25-40 players in the afternoon.
tom
I suspect that’s more a function of the night owls aversions to getting up early than to the accessibility for the church crowd. And of course swiss vs quad is a factor. What time did the first round start in the morning event?
The night crowd is probably a more significant reason not to start too early on Sundays. And Saturdays.
The Massachusetts Chess Association runs (almost?) all of its one day events on Sundays. The kids love it because it lets them get out of Chinese school.
Alex Relyea
At the old Lunt Avenue club in Chicago we often ran a 4-round G/60 d/5 on Saturday and an identical event on Sunday. Usually the Saturday event outdrew the Sunday one, by a ratio of perhaps 4:3 or so. Several players played in both events.
Before that, Jules Stein at the old Chess Center did the same thing, with similar results.
On Lunt Avenue we started at 10 a.m. both days. That way the tournament was pretty much guaranteed to finish no later than 8 p.m.
Bill Smythe
Hate to say this Micah, but either the “Bible Belt” in the South is sleeping, or becoming more dormant with each passing year. Church attendance from most of the stats I have seen is a declining phenomenon. Sunday football unless he football is round as in soccer is relatively unheard of. I have run many very successful Sunday Scholastics and in fact, have a few online right now, and more planned in the future. And, more and more even for those who are religious, Sunday is not their primary day of
worship. in fact, that day is Saturday for a good number, and Sunday represents a great opportunity for them. So, run your Sunday event. With proper publicity, I think you will have plenty of success.
Rob Jones
Rob unwittingly raises a valid point. If your target audience is scholastics, football and church don’t matter much in your attendance. On the other hand, if you are after a primarily adult market, those things may matter some. Neither should be a deal-breaker. Schedule your rounds appropriately if you are afraid of the impact of either one, and see what works.
You can’t schedule around football during football season totally, even if you want to. But you can look at the local team’s schedule. If they have a Sunday night game or a Monday night game, hey, that’s a good weekend for a Sunday chess tournament!
Sometimes it is easier and cheaper to get a venue on a Sunday than on a Saturday. A lot of places are heavily booked on Saturdays. Sundays are usually a more open day. Even a school or college site might have multiple bookings on Saturdays, but little to nothing on a Sunday. Your next step is to see if you are competing for attention with a pro sports team or other major local activity on that day.
I am shocked, simply shocked, that people in Texas would rather go to a chess tournament than watch the Dallas Cowboys play on Sunday afternoon! One of the scheduling problems in Pittsburgh is to avoid having a tournament or a Pittsburgh Chess League round on the same day as a Steeler home game. You lose people who have tickets and the players have to deal with the traffic snarl in the morning before the game. When the Steelers are away or on Monday, Thursday, or Sunday night, scheduling is easier. When scheduling problems are unavoidable, it is good to have a TV handy for the players to watch the game. Sometimes half the room is in the hall cheering or yelling at the TV screen while their clock is running.
brings back some “fond” memories when i had a crushing position in a cleveland tournament against a much higher rated player. michael puls, you still around? had the old browns game on with brian sipe and the kardiac kids. i ended up blowing the game. and, i don’t even remember who won the football game!