Tips and Tricks to Make Your Facility Tournament Ready

Tips and Tricks to Make Your Facility Tournament Ready

Coaches, athletic directors, complex managers, and administrators know the benefits of hosting tournaments. A well-organized tournament brings positive attention to the school, often attracts collegiate recruiters, and can bolster the local economy with economic support. Our years of experience in the sports world have given us valuable insight into creating appealing tournament experiences.

We've found facility infrastructure is one of the more critical criteria organizers use when deciding on tournament destinations. Having the capacity to hold teams and fans is important. Other essential criteria include key technology features, equipment, and proximity to hotels and restaurants. 

Here are tips to make your sports facility more appealing for tournaments:

• Utilize an engaging display. A high-quality, engaging, and multi-purpose digital scoreboard is an attractive asset for school districts. Smooth communication is essential for a tournament and today's LED technology brings you an interactive and informational fan experience. Tournament directors rely on quickly delivering instructions and critical tournament information to fans and participants, and your scoreboard matters, especially when thousands of people visit your complex.
• Facility Capacity: Organizations are often drawn to the most prominent venues available for their tournaments. Use what space you have wisely and consider expanding where needed. Consider parking, foot traffic, restroom facilities, and spectator space.
• Advanced equipment: If you have access to the latest equipment for your sport, teams will love playing at your complex! The latest flooring, court lines, warm-up equipment, etc., impacts the tournament experience for attendees, coaches, and players. 
• Food options: Everyone will need to eat throughout the tournament, including the players, fans, and referees. Will you provide a hospitality room for the coaching staff? Concessions for spectators? Are there fast-food options near your complex? The level of ease and organization in getting a bite to eat at your tournament is vital for everyone and can make or break your fan experience. Call in your local army of food trucks if budget and logistical restraints damper the in-house options. The popularity of food trucks is rising; many locally-owned providers will jump at the opportunity to get in front of a large audience.

Tips to Organize a Successful Tournament

Once you have the tournament dates booked, you'll need to ensure the more minute details are addressed. Here are a few elements to consider when organizing a tournament:

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  Pay attention to parking logistics. Provide detailed and clear instructions to attendees on parking. Make sure you have ample parking, and there is a contingency plan for overflow parking. 
• Shuttles: Do shuttles need to be booked to help with traffic for out-of-town teams?
• Vendors: Will there be T-shirts for sale? Tournament swag? Trophies? On-site food catering? These things will need to be planned several months in advance, so keep this in mind.
• Sound Support: Many organizers enjoy having music during warm-ups or during the game to get the players and fans excited. Many sports also do well with a commentator during big games or announcements throughout the tournament. 
• Weather: Do you have a backup plan for bad weather? You can't predict the weather, so you should have a backup plan in place that prevents organizers and teams from losing all the time and money they put into a tournament, only to have it canceled due to a storm.
• Work closely with the community to keep them engaged, updated, and on your side. Alert them to any possible disruptions in traffic or their typical weekend local outings. Having the community on your side means explaining to them the benefit of the tournament. 
• Consider setting up a small website with tournament updates, instructions, available vendors, and parking. Find a local webmaster in your community who may be willing to trade some quick web work for some free exposure.

The Sports Marketing Team & VCRNOW

Ready to host a tournament? Purchasing your LED scoreboard from VCRNOW is a great first step in creating fantastic experiences for your tournament crowd. While many districts express concerns over funding this investment, we will show you how to utilize your board to generate revenue streams to not only cover its own cost but provide additional revenue through advertising for years to come.