Should There Be Refunds on Cancelled Tournaments?

Gentleman: Yes, I would take my ball and go elsewhere. Are you really telling me that another city wouldn't take a 30 or 100 team tournament in their city?

Does anyone really believe that a City Parks and Recreation Director is God when it comes to decisions. The power brokers are the Convention and Visitors Bureaus, the Chamber of Comerence, City officials... not some City park and rec director....lol

If you can't get satisfaction from a Park and Rec person... well then you go elsewhere..... but first at least allow the CVB to work their magic.

Every April, there is a huge meeting where CVB's from all over the country meet (this year it was in Denver) and they bid on events, from softball, soccer, in-line skating, hockey, field hockey, etc.... All the major cities are there.

Now, if I can get teams to come to Savannah this Decmber, keep count of motel rentals X amount of days.. then I can go back in the second year asking for monies. A tournament has to have a proven track record of course. and you can't do it in the first year as there is no track record.

But, to tell me a City Park and Rec director makes all the decisions... come on..... use the CVB and you'll never have to worry about a park director ever again. CVB boards are usually made up of the huge businesses of the community.

I had a tournament last Fall, the 2nd Annual Uniform Blowout in Chillicothe. Union ball fields - city park. I personally couldn't line or even put rake on the diamonds.


When I was told that by the Park Director.. I called the CVB and told them of my problems with that. They paid overtime (sat and Sunday work) for four people to work the diamonds. Didn't come out of my pocket. WHY? Economic times. Is any city going to pass up an economic windfall becuase of some silly park director trying to dictate things? Come on. Let the back door people work for you .... Believe me, they have more clout than a park director on a city payroll.

We wildcat the tournaments, many are in Ohio. No sanction. I buy a yearly policy for site insurance from an insurer..(to make the parks happy) teams at check in provide proof of team insurance and life is grand. I don't run qualifiers. Useless to me. I'm not paying any sanctioning body $125.00 plus $35.00 a team for a qualifier.. a qualifier that is useless.

I see tournaments in Ohio called ASA "Eastern Regional Qualifiers" and have to laugh. Wasn't it this past year when ASA allowed teams to go from one regional area to another if they should choose to do so. Maybe in your area it might be different.. but in Ohio and the surrounding states.. the competition by sanctioning bodies is so fierce for that all mighty dollars at their National event... if you don't have a berth.. just ask.

I see USSSA "World Series" qualifiers and laugh even harder. I call them " Put money in my State Director's Pocket" tournaments. Do you really think USSSA would ever turn down a team from going to their National tournament at Disney .. when Disney subsidized them for the amount of teams entered into the tournament.. ? When the team has so many choices (Panama City, FLA National event of one of the sanctioning body), IFA in Beaumont, Texas.. which by the way is a wonderful event and I have seen many ASA 64 teams there before going to play their tournament the following week)......If I had a 100 team tournament, I guarentee with an economic impact of $400,000.00 to 500,000.00 dollars.... there is no City Park Director going to dictate anything in the world to me.. except which cheek should he/she can kiss... the left or right one.

Have a great evening.. And actually, I have been asked by another organization to take over my State as well as a Region... but I am done with all of that..... My umpires are insured with all sports insurance.... no worries and be happy...

I was going to start my own association for fun.. it would be called JAFO ( no- not after the Blue Thunder movie..lol) Just Another Fatpitch Organization.... I got a rule book typed out actually.

 

...i must have missed something along the way in this thread that said that the parks and rec section dictates what the business policy of a city is about renting fields, food sales, parking, etc.

look Ohio, to change something takes a debate handled by folks who don't say, "well in Ohio we do it this way".

i'm really not trying to pick a fight with you brother, but i asked you a simple question on how you would go about changing things in NC and you dropped the ball. you bantered about taking your ball and going to another city, WHAT? how does that help change things anywhere?

you posted that you'd go to the vistors/C of C, and .........and then what?

what are you gonna do?
what would you say?

funny thing is, well its actually not funny, with all of the good points you've made, you've neglected one common denominator......the actions or views of the "bigs" in the control of state or city money will never be influenced positively by "holier than thou, know it alls saying we do it this way in ohio"

next thing you'll post is to slander me, which i'm cool with BTW, and then you'll post the ....BAM! Greatest college showcase gig, that only allows 250 kids from a mass of 6000 interested kids, begging to be part of such a wonderful, must attend event.....yep, we only take the cream of the crop.....PHHLUUUGHHHHH.

cmon ohio, stay in your shoes brother.

 

I think I read.. I am almost sure that I did.. that park dictated if a TD can play or not after a rain.. posted by somebody.

I think if an organization who have tournaments, expecially large ones, can't have a say so in whether they can play after a rain or not.. then they should look elsewhere or b) set with the CVB people, C of C leaders, even a mayor rep.. a set a guidelines for bringing their tournament to that city before they ever brought it there.

I was looking at the Cardinal tournament a second ago and I can see they use a motel rep... to do their motel scheduling. There is a reason for that and good for them.

A lot of organizations use a company called Helms-Briscoe. Google them at www.helmsbriscoe.com and you see what they do as a company. Now, I would of gone to a CVB with their earlier tournament numbers and got money from them too.

I don't slam anyone, sir..... heck I like your posts actually. Brings out the discussion on the boards and this is what it is all about, isn't it ?

My only suggestion is more money for the organizations who set up, work hard, to bring an economic impact to a city. I just suggested using the CVB more often.. instead of letting them collect bed taxes and giving nothing in return except a thanks and come back and see us next year.

 

Check out Cincinnati Sports Commission, or Cleveland, or Pittsburgh, Indinanpolis and Chatanooga on the internet. Google them. It's their job to seek out sport/events to bring to their cities for economic impacts. Google your big cities and see if they have a sports commission.

 

How you change it, sir, is you let the wheels behind the cog change it for you... just tell them you are indeed going elsewhere.

Personally, if I had a track record with a tournament.. I would set down and type a letter of my guidelines for bringing this tournament to your city.. and then send it off to the CVB of a few cities and let them do the leg work and change policies. It's done all the time. In your letter.. SHOW you sent this same letter to other cities....

I run a college showcase for an organization.. I don't run one for myself. Too much work getting colege coaches.

Kurt Herbstriet.. with ESPN.. well he is an Ohio State grad and he use to run this tournament on Labor Day in Columbus. Girls could sign up as individuals... they would ask the player their position..... and put them in a hat... like two weeks before the tournament type deadline.

They would play a tournament type set up. Four games - two on Saturday and two on Sunday.

It would be Team 1 vs Team 2 and so on. College coaches would come to it for looking at individual players and not teams. Great event actually and well attended. It makes the coaches look at the players and not just the team they play on.

 

.....pardon me for being a jerk but as long anyone, you, me ohio, texas, whoever is giving their time to help the kids....well i'm down with that and give props for sure.

NC rocks with talent, and it sucks that some cities don't recognize the value of economic bonuses by having a bunch of teams and families roll into to town and spend a bunch of cash.

We in NC did not just fall off some bus on a dirt road.
We've produced teams that. well come to think of it, I've never known or heard mention of any team from ohio that beat any of our teams while the Fish was involved. not saying the ohio kids are not capable but the proof is in the puddin as we say in Mayberry.
hands down, every thing that you're posting is full of holes that folks in NC have already dealt with and moved on.

Atom Bomb Theory.....so have the bomb and lots of ya'll don't.

Peace, I'm done with this guy!

Marlin

 

I think quakerman is making some very good points here.

I have no doubt that if the Cardinals organization, for one, with their proven track record year after year, were to go to an area and tell them to build them a state-of-the-art complex and they would keep it filled with tournaments it would be built before the summer.

All they would have to do is show them the economic impact. Businesses do it all the time in the news.

Now I know Raleigh/Cary kind of snubbed PONY but everyone knows that was a big mistake. Especially considering the state of the economy. They might even would turn their noses up at any mention of better benefits for softball now. But the point is the cities that do not have that money would certainly be interested.

I would love to see big improvements in Raleigh but I'm not above driving to Burlington, Greensboro, etc.

I'm hoping some of quakerman's ideas find their way to our local softball leaders. I don't believe he's trying to show us up; I believe he is sincerely interested in the sport. He may not be aware that we still don't quite trust people more than a hundred miles north of Richmond. And usually for good reason!

 

Gentleman: Surely not ever trying to show anyone up. I have no idea where that comes from... I'm just saying if I had a tournament that generated dollars for a community... I would expect respect from the community that is getting all the dollars from me bringing a tournament of a certain size to their community.

If not, I'd find me one that did give me that respect.

 

Heck, I don't trust many people north of Richmond....lol My mother and her family comes from the deep woods of Cow Creek, Kentucky where a wonderful drink is still made even today down along the river. Family reunions are three day events ! ....lol

But, yes policies should be in place and play one city against another if you have a big tournament and maximize your efforts of getting the tournament together.

I don't come to the forum very often as I am very busy right now.

If you need me...lol PM and I will come back to visit...

I like you gentleman. Spirited I should say. But, I have a passion for softball and the girls who play the game. But, then that passion grew for the parents who spend money for the girls to play the game and understanding their needs in this economy to for better rates on motels, etc....

Sometimes you might not be able to do it all... but you can do what you can do for them. At least I try.