It seems to becoming more relevant that tournament directors are holding events in open areas such as markets,malls, bars and other venues. I’ve decided to stop playing in the areas because the noise messes with my focus. I just wonder why tournament directors wont go out of their way to get better play areas instead of piggybacking off of other business. I would like to hear some options on this subject.
The main reason is probably cost. Renting hotel space can cost $500 or more a day. I’ve had one hotel quote me a $400 rate for a space that handles about 75 players comfortably, but I would have had to vacate the space by 4:30 PM so they could reset it for an evening function.
In the mid 1980s I played at a major shopping mall located outside of New Orleans. It was amazingly quite, and the few spectators were very respectful. I will admit it was not a very busy area of the mall. I also remember playing at a forest preserve at a small outdoor pavilion. It is all a question of how much noise would be too much noise.
Larry S. Cohen
That’s interesting, I’ve never been to a tournament (or any other chess event) at a mall. I wonder if the organizer was thinking that he could get more people interested in chess if they happened to see a tournament going on, something that they would not normally see.
Come to think of it, I know of a club around here that meets at a nearby mall on Sundays, with other meetings at other places. It doesn’t seem like a bad location for informal chess – lots of space, good lighting, carpet. But they don’t hold tournaments that I know of.
I’ve played in several tournaments in malls, and found them quite satisfactory, especially since there is usually a food court available for meals. We always used vacant store space, so we had closed doors. Occasionally shoppers would poke their nose in, then leave, occasionally asking the TD questions but rarely creating any distraction for the players.
On another occasion we played a league chess match out in the mall. Sure there was more noise, but quite a few people stopped to see what we were doing, and it didn’t seem to interfere with anything.
Whether we got any promotional value out of the location is impossible to know, but it couldn’t have hurt.
Gateway Shopping Center in Lincoln has a room that they used to rent out for things like chess tournaments, but the mall ownership started placing limits on its usage (nonprofit organizations only) and requiring a $1 million liability policy, so now it sits idle. We used to hold an annual scholastic event in early December that would bring dozens of families to Lincoln from as far away as Des Moines or Kansas City, and I know that while the kids were playing chess their parents were shopping at the mall.
They’ve already lost one anchor store (Dillards) and are about to lose another (Sears), and might lose JC Penny in the next year or two. They turned some of their idled space into a bowling alley.
The biggest problems organizers face in setting up tournaments are:
- Overall costs for an event
- Finding a site for the tournament
- Being in compliance with the regulations of the venue you are using.
As for #1, you have certain relatively fixed costs for the event; rating fees, TD fee (if any), prizes, advertising, and site fee. The number of entries will change several of these items slightly, but you have a ballpark range of costs that have to be met. If you are smart, you place a little wiggle room in order to make sure you have a profit. If the event is at a mall, you are likely not going to be able to make money from food sales. Many tournaments make money on the side from selling pizza or sandwiches and drinks. Sometimes there is where your tournament profit lies. If the mall does not allow it, then you will have to find other extra ways to make money.
For #2, you are lucky if you can find a mall or other venue that is low cost or no cost these days. Since a mall needs to make money, too, they will likely expect the players to use the food court. They usually charge a fee for the use of any room they have available. I have seen tournaments held at grocery stores who have space for a coffee shop and a cafe area. These areas are often busy on weekends and dead during weekday evenings. If your event is small, the store might allow it to take place, figuring the players will spend money in the store before they go home. Almost every other venue, be it a fire hall, municipal recreation facility, a church, or a school will ask a fee if you want to hold a rated event if only to cover the cost of custodial duties. For example, we needed a custodian when a kid threw up at a scholastic tournament. It turned into a Hazmat situation with the custodian wearing special clothing, gloves, and spreading powder before cleaning it up.
A real sticking point is #3, being in compliance with regulations of the venue you are using. This will often up your costs or make it difficult to carry off the event at all. Many place want you to carry liability insurance, be in compliance with “child safety” rules that require background checks for two or more of the people running the event, and other rules concerning security, cleanup, and time constraints. A mall which has public areas might be more amenable to having an event, but you still have rules to follow. Sometimes it costs too much to do it even if you can get over the regulation hurdles. Health and safety are not light issues to deal with. Kids run around and fall. Players eat too much and throw up. The stress of play can impact seniors at your event. At one event I played in, EMTs had to be called because a player had a heart attack. At another, we found a dead person who ODed in a bathroom. The police wanted to question a bunch of the players to see if they saw or heard anything. Organizing is so much fun!
So if you are wondering why there are fewer small events in safe, open places, the above give you reasons why small and larger organizers are less inclined to try to hold events. Noise is among the least of the problems, even if a few players complain about it and consider it a major issue.
We used to hold Sunday afternoon events at a local Arbys that had a separate party room. (It was also used for other meetings, like a morning Optimists Clubs.)
We printed up flyers for it that even included a discount coupon for Arbys that the restaurant manager authorized.
It drew fairly well, usually drawing 8-12 players; we even got 2 players from South Dakota to come to Lincoln NE once.
But then the restaurant was remodeled and the separate space was lost.
I don’t know why I forgot this yesterday, but the Pittsburgh area had an actual chess store/club in an area mall, twelve years ago. It was opened and run by Alex Shabalov and a guy from Cleveland named Andrew Smiley. I remember going there once to attend a lecture by Shabalov on his recent win of, I think, the U.S. Championship. It lasted for about half a year. The wall and door facing the hallway were glass, so people walking the hall could see whatever was going on.