First time TD needs opinions..

[ChrisAlcott]

DGCR, looking for some opinons on details of a tournament we plan on throwing in December. Lots of stuff for the Dec tournament is locked down in most part to sponcer restrictions and stuff we already ordered for players packs. That being said, still looking for opinions on some of the loose ends and moving forward looking for constructive critisim on what we already have.


1) What food do you like for onsite lunches? Pulled Pork BBQ, Pizza, onsite grilled hamburgers/hotdogs?

2) Whats the best thing you can think of to add to a players pack when you only have a few bucks left a player?

3) We have 36 at Burns Park, but likely will be locked down to the 18 on Red due to a conflicting event in the park. 2 Rounds on the same course, what do you like.. A)Same exact setup both rounds, B)Change pin positions on the 4-5 holes available. C) All out change up, temp tee areas, move baskets, bring in temp baskets, change flow of course..

4) We need to entertain folks for a good 20 minutes after final cards are in, what do you like to do.. Ring of Fire, Special CTPs, what is the best?

5) Take a look at our particular tournament, What are we missing, how can we make this event or future events better?

Asked you guys about the perfect ace pot a lil while ago and was blown away with the opinions offered in a very short time. Been trying to talk with the local core DG group around here on a one on one and didnt feel like I got that much info in weeks of talking to locals.

Anyways, here is some of the specifics to this tournament

http://www.dgcoursereview.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23680

More info and pics via Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50480&id=167295286618186#!/pages/Central-Arkansas-Disc-Golf/167295286618186


And the latest flyer, definetley up for some revisions already..

 

[Three Putt]

I'd do temp tees over moving baskets. Moving baskets between rounds is a hassle, takes time, requires a lot of manpower and coordination. Temp tees require some spray paint and landscaping flags.

 

[mashnut]

Why only 45 players? You'll get bigger ace/ctp pots with a bigger field, and an 18 hole course can easily hold 72 players for a tournament. A ring of fire is a cool way to pass the time between turning in cards and announcing winners/payouts, especially if you do multiple rounds starting pretty close and moving outward, you'll make it last a little longer and make it more fun to watch for the people who are eliminated. The more you change the course, the more likely you are to have misplays, and that turns into a huge headache for you and the people involved, I'd just change the course as much as possible sticking to the usual tee/pin combinations.

 

[ChrisAlcott]

Thats a really good point. Definitely need to keep logistics simple as possible. The pads out there are one set of concrete pads. May open myself up to gripes about playing from natural pads, but thats a really good idea to mix it up while easy on logistics..

 

[ChrisAlcott]

Mashnut, 45 was set as a very high goal based on the closest tournament from last year. It had 35 players and was held in October. December in Arkansas is FREEZING cold compared to October and 45 was originally thought to be an unachievable goal to most locals I talked to. We absolutley had to set a number to build player packs, and sponcer restrictions, so 45 was the high road.

 

[CaptainAnhyzer]

Bump up that pro payout by eliminating the players packs for pros. There's nothing pros like better than playing for more(of their opponents) money.

 

[DSCJNKY]

1. Hamburgers and Hot Dogs will be easier for you and cheaper too.
2. Stickers.
3. Too bad you can't use the Blue Course... it smokes on the red course. Move a few Pins (1/2).
4. CTP
5. Use both courses.

I really like those courses... keep working hard.
DSCJNKY

 

[mashnut]

If you do set up temp tees, be very explicit in the players meeting and on the scorecards about what tees are in use for which round.

 

[Three Putt]

Bump up that pro payout by eliminating the players packs for pros. There's nothing pros like better than playing for more(of their opponents) money.

For PDGA events that is true. For local events it's more of a place by place decision. If there is a shirt or custom stamped discs a lot of time the local "pros" still want that stuff. This one does not look to be sanctioned, and at 35 players they probably don't have much of an out-of-town draw. So they might be OK with the pro player pack. If you want to make it attractive to traveling pros, you would need to ditch the pro players pack.

 

[Greatzky]

1. burgers and dogs is probably the cheapest option... We called a caterer for our tournament this weekend. gonna have salad, chicken, baked ziti... I am sure it's more expensive, but the food will be waiting when the players get done with the 1st round.

2.Minis and Stickers are good when there is less than a disc's value left in merch for a prize. if you have towels printed up that would be good too.. I have hyzer flip towels that I sell for $4/5 a piece when i vend at events.

3. playing the same layout isn't horrible. You won't have to scramble between rounds to change things. Temps would be cool, but it's all how much extra work you and your volunteers want to do.

4. Ring of fire would be a good way to entertain people. If you were doing any silent auctions or raffles this would be a good time to announce winners!

5. I think the ace pot is too expensive.. and I also think it's not fair to only allow an acepot for local members.. If you are worried about an "out of towner" playing 1 event and getting the ace pot then you should either: a)not have an ace pot, or have a league ace pot and a tourney ace pot.
Personally it doesn't matter how much a single person puts into the ace pot.. if you put in $1 once and hit an ace you deserved it. If you played every event and put in $1 5 times and didn't ace then you didn't deserve it.

Next time don't offer a players package to the pros except the lunch/amenities for the event. Pros don't need plastic from tournaments. Most would rather have a chance at more cash.
The Players Package does sound amazing though.. 2 premium discs and lunch is pretty sweet. Our even this weekend we are doing A free Long sleeve tournament shirt to the first 30 people no matter what division and free lunch/beverages. I print the shirts myself so that helps to keep the costs way down.

Overall it sounds like a good event!!

-Scott Lewis
Hyzer Flip Disc Golf

 

[ChrisAlcott]

Yep, on the pro player pack issue, we were locked down to sponcer restictions saying we had to use money for player packs. With the number of entrants, it was necessary to give everyone a players pack. Moving forward, we want pros playing for cash, but on this one it made sense to do the opposite. Even with everyone getting a pack, its still a very heavy players pack and light on the prizes..


Here is another related question.. Should we have advertised the players pack at full blown suggested retail price which would be around 45 bucks and then have taken the difference and advertised it "added cash to divisions"

 

[ChrisAlcott]

We really want to use Blue, it isnt completley out of the question but the problem is that 4 holes are covered up with Christmas lights for the holidays. City makes big bucks charging every carload to come through and take a look compared to the negative dollars they make from disc golf, they dont want us playing golf around lights. We were planning on a few temp holes to go around the lights use most of the traditional blue setup, but then we found out that gates are going to be locked up from cars coming in and this is the one night you will be able to walk through the lights, along with some kind of organized marathon/race.. Sucks cause thats our DG pavillion behind those gates. The only other place to set up shop is on the far side of red, too far to walk to a starting hole on blue.

 

[Three Putt]

Here is another related question.. Should we have advertised the players pack at full blown suggested retail price which would be around 45 bucks and then have taken the difference and advertised it "added cash to divisions"

The classic "AM Scam" is done in the the prize payout. It's where you charge the full retail cost of your prizes to the AM payout, then take the wholesale/retail differential and add that to your Pro payout and call it cash added. Basically you buy a disc at $5 wholesale but call it an $8 disc in the AM payout and slide the extra $3 to the Pro payout. It's been how the majority of cash added has been generated for Pro payouts for years.

You can do it with players packs as well, but if you charge the full $45 to the AM payout that is more than their registration fee and you are upside-down on your AM payout. So I don't see how you could do it in this case on the players packs.

 

[DSmith]

The classic "AM Scam" is done in the the prize payout. It's where you charge the full retail cost of your prizes to the AM payout, then take the wholesale/retail differential and add that to your Pro payout and call it cash added. Basically you buy a disc at $5 wholesale but call it an $8 disc in the AM payout and slide the extra $3 to the Pro payout. It's been how the majority of cash added has been generated for Pro payouts for years.

You can do it with players packs as well, but if you charge the full $45 to the AM payout that is more than their registration fee and you are upside-down on your AM payout. So I don't see how you could do it in this case on the players packs.

I always do Payout at retail and Players packs at whole sale (of course advertising what the retail value of the players pack would be) That way the money generated from the wholesale/retail difference in the payout pays for the discs in the players packs. Also Innova, Discraft and DGA all run sponsorship package deals which gives you extra stuff that you can count as "added cash" for the AM side. A simplified formula for what I can put in the PP I use is lowest players entry fees x .5 . This'll give you a safe number to work with. This plus all the stickers pencils minis and other stuff the disc companies unload on you can make a good PP for little cost to the TD.
Also consider getting custom stamped discs as for the most part they really don't cost much more than stock, maybe a few extra cents a disc and it makes your event unique.
Here we do our artwork in house to keep stamp fees down and we also have a "Club" stamp that we can use over and over throughout the year and we can use these discs as backup if we run low on the tournament stamped discs. It's better to run out of the tournament stamp cause you don't really want leftovers as they are a pain to move and looks cheesy giving them out at the next tournament.

I didn't see anyone suggest it yet but an additional time killer is a CTP throw off for the ace pot if nobody hits it during the round. Consider 1/2 the ace pot goes to the person who gets the ctp and the other half goes to charity.

 

[ERicJ]

1) What food do you like for onsite lunches? Pulled Pork BBQ, Pizza, onsite grilled hamburgers/hotdogs?

2) Whats the best thing you can think of to add to a players pack when you only have a few bucks left a player?

4) We need to entertain folks for a good 20 minutes after final cards are in, what do you like to do.. Ring of Fire, Special CTPs, what is the best?

1) All good; pick whatever makes you the most profit.

2) Sharpie markers.

4) Ring of Fire.

 

[JTacoma03]

1) What food do you like for onsite lunches? Pulled Pork BBQ, Pizza, onsite grilled hamburgers/hotdogs?

2) Whats the best thing you can think of to add to a players pack when you only have a few bucks left a player?

3) We have 36 at Burns Park, but likely will be locked down to the 18 on Red due to a conflicting event in the park. 2 Rounds on the same course, what do you like.. A)Same exact setup both rounds, B)Change pin positions on the 4-5 holes available. C) All out change up, temp tee areas, move baskets, bring in temp baskets, change flow of course..

4) We need to entertain folks for a good 20 minutes after final cards are in, what do you like to do.. Ring of Fire, Special CTPs, what is the best?

5) Take a look at our particular tournament, What are we missing, how can we make this event or future events better?

Good responses so far IMO - I'll add mine to the bunch.

1) Do whatever is cheap and easy to mass produce - if you ahve access to a big grill do that. If you can get a local pizza joint to sponsor the tournament by offering a large discount on an order for the day, do that.

2) 2 discs in the players pack is awesome! If you only have a couple more bucks then Minis, pencils, stickers, clipboards for scorecards, coupons to local food joints, or maybe towels are potential options. As an AM player I love getting things I can USE in the pack - especially when I travel to tournaments.

3) If you have the manpower, move the baskets, if not the temp tees idea is good. Don't leave the course the same - and if you can don't set the course up as it normally is. A more unique layout makes the tournaments more fun IMO.

4) RING OF FIRE. Everyone loves ring of fire. Even if you have to take that extra swag money from the players pack and make more prize packs for more ring of fire rounds - DO IT. Players packs are great, and 2 discs is plenty. Competing and winning a prize is much more gratifying than being given stuff anyway.

5) You've got the basics covered. Maybe if nothing else you could change the Pro payout to a "final 9" or "skins" style finish on the Blue course - just use whatever part is open to you. As an AM player I like being able to watch some of the pro action and see how they tackle situations, and scheme about the day when I'll be up there in that Open lead card

 

[U_NICED_ME]

I like a Final 9 idea for Pro's.

Kan Jam is also really popular to kill time. It's $40 a set.

 

[scarpfish]

I for one have never minded playing the same layout twice. If you screw up the first time around, you have a chance to redeem yourself.

One thing I would state if you're going to change layouts at lunch, try to make sure they're balanced as far as difficulty. I've never been too keen to the 'all short/easy' one round, and 'all long/hard' the other. Doing so will keep the round times in balance.

Oh. And if you're not getting anywhere near the magic 72 players (4 per card), spread as many threesomes as you can. Makes the round go a whole lot faster.

 

[billnchristy]

Why not split that 5 dolla ace pool into a $2 cash ctp and $3 ace pool that can be signed up for separate?

-or- just do a $2 ace fund.

I like subs or something like that for lunch...could buy an assload of rolls and deli meats and just slap it all out there....

 

[Sadjo]

I always have player packs for Pros at the SC Doubles tourney. When pros that have never played that event play for the first time, they think its great they're getting a players pack...mostly because they rarely get one. That being said, I also pay back 100% of entry fees (minus the PDGA $3.00 per player) and add cash, so it's like a bonus for them.

Having food brought in is a great idea...most players will eat on site which allows for more fellowship.