Reserving spots for pros.

[PWaggoner]

If you are losing money on your pro players you are doing it wrong. Their $3/$4/$5/$10 player fee to the PDGA should be coming out of their gross entry fees and does not count towards your percentage payouts which are calculated based on net once certain fees are removed.

Makes sense.

Did a little bit of "training" with 3 other TDs, they taught me this method. But I've seen other tournaments pay out 95% so the pros pay their own way.

Works for me though, I've always provided a pack "worth" almost double the entry, pay all the fees, registration and trophies with this method. Usually try and do 18 ctps, been able to pay for small ones

I kinda just figure it's like crowd sourcing. Maybe not the most correct way of doing it, but at the end of the day, the pros and ams are happy, I didn't lose any money on a hobby. Win win.

 

[DavidSauls]

I'll stick in a side-note that the spots reserved for Pros are actually Open---anyone can register for them.

It's fairly simple to me, though. A TD wants certain divisions in an event he's running, he sets aside slots---preferably increments that match the group sizes (i.e., 25 spots for fivesomes). That doesn't have to be just pros---it could be for Advanced Women or Juniors or MA70s, for that matter. The alternative is to accept whatever the rush of registration produces.

Holding spots guarantees divisions of a certain size---just like a TD can exclude divisions (such as, Amateur only) if that's the direction he wants to go.

 

[Hampstead]

Aside from the BHMO and Buckeye Classic, I can't recall that many Central Ohio tournaments that have had 25 pros sign up. When the deadline passes, I would be pleasantly surprised if all those spots fill.

 

[DiscFifty]

He didn't say "sponsored players" or "touring pros", just for the pro divisions in general. It is a fairly common practice around here for events to allocate a certain number of spots for certain divisions up to some given point in the registration process. It is partially a byproduct of trying to host 50 bazillion divisions on a course which can only accomodate 72 people.

Unless I'm reading things wrong, this wasn't an allocation of space for players in a division where anyone can still register in said division, this was saying something like there are X amount of spots in a division but X amount are already reserved for other players. This puts unnecessary confusion on players wanting to sign up early so they can avoid the hassles of waiting lists especially if they have to decide on certain tournaments early on due to "life".

 

[ejvogie]

I'll stick in a side-note that the spots reserved for Pros are actually Open---anyone can register for them.

It's fairly simple to me, though. A TD wants certain divisions in an event he's running, he sets aside slots---preferably increments that match the group sizes (i.e., 25 spots for fivesomes). That doesn't have to be just pros---it could be for Advanced Women or Juniors or MA70s, for that matter. The alternative is to accept whatever the rush of registration produces.

Holding spots guarantees divisions of a certain size---just like a TD can exclude divisions (such as, Amateur only) if that's the direction he wants to go.

:gross:

 

[cheesethin]

Unless I'm reading things wrong, this wasn't an allocation of space for players in a division where anyone can still register in said division, this was saying something like there are X amount of spots in a division but X amount are already reserved for other players. This puts unnecessary confusion on players wanting to sign up early so they can avoid the hassles of waiting lists especially if they have to decide on certain tournaments early on due to "life".

I think you are reading it wrong (but then maybe I am). From discgolfscene,

There is currently 25 spots reserved for the Pro division Until June 6th. On June 7th the cap will be removed and it will be open to any division. If there is an AM waitlist by the point, those on the waitlist will be added to the registration page in the order they registered.

To me that reads as spots held for the pro divisions, not for certain players. The tourney is currently full at 90 players, with 26 players across MPO (14), MP40 (11), & FPO (1). This looks like simply tiered registration.

 

[DiscFifty]

I've never seen an event registration with more than 2 reserved spots. Can you link to the discgolfscene page? It is interesting because I'm used to divisions having a cap early on and then if it doesn't fill they open up all divisions, etc. But I've never seen an event where 25 spots are reserved in a division. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the TD could have accomplished the same thing by not having a cap in the open division and simply having caps in the other divisions. Maybe it would have made more sense that way?

 

[DavidSauls]

:gross:

Well said.

 

[DavidSauls]

I've never seen an event registration with more than 2 reserved spots. Can you link to the discgolfscene page? It is interesting because I'm used to divisions having a cap early on and then if it doesn't fill they open up all divisions, etc. But I've never seen an event where 25 spots are reserved in a division. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the TD could have accomplished the same thing by not having a cap in the open division and simply having caps in the other divisions. Maybe it would have made more sense that way?

It's a lot trickier to put caps on each of the 117 potential other divisions (or however many there are). Less tricky if only a handful of other divisions are offered.

I've seen a few events cap each division they offer, but more commonly, I've seen a certain number of slots (30) held for all pro divisions, and the rest (60) for all Am divisions in a 90-player event. I think the idea is that they can mix the Open and Pro Masters on a card, but segregate the Pros from the Ams on the scoreboard.

I've seen similar things for women: holding 5 spots for Pro Women or 5 spots for Advanced Women.

I'm not sure why it's done, other than for even groups on the scoreboard. But it goes to asking why TDs care if any pros show up, at all. But it's their show; if they want a certain size pro division, this is how they can do it.

 

[cheesethin]

Can you link to the discgolfscene page?

OP mentions the name in the first page of comments, have a search. I'm going to get a beer and cook my dinner.