Am Payouts - C Tier

[Martin Dewgarita]

The events I've ran in the past have been unsanctioned - cash payouts to all divisions.

Now my boss is requesting that I sanction the event this year. I have about 2 months to prepare. As an am player, I've seen lots of tournament and payout styles, I've also acquired lots of plastic over the years. Curious to what my options are, or how they work.

Could I put prices on all of my plastic I've gained over the years? I probably have 200 or so, mostly new, some used, lots of tourney stamps and such. I don't think I've ever seen this in the years I've been playing tournaments, and it seems pretty tacky, but it also seems to kill two birds with one stone...

I could buy some stock inventory, I don't even know where to begin here...

I could buy some tourney fundraiser discs - I've done this before through innova but not for payouts. I've forgotten, How long does this process take?

I could bring in a vendor? Seems to be the way to go for a lot of tourneys that I've been to.

Online vendor? Very few tourneys seem to do this, is it really an option for a small c-tier?

What to people like best?

 

[Horsman]

If your c-Tier sells out with a good majority of them being ams then 200 discs for those ams to choose from will not suffice as payout. Most of them will probably not be able to find what they want and if they do then a lot of the popular molds will be gone right away and then you will be left with stuff that nobody wants. I could see it leading to a very unhappy crowd when payouts are done. Id suggest having that 200 available for payouts but also doing some CFR discs would help a lot to stock up on popular molds to help keep people happy.

 

[kenjiac]

Online vouchers. If you don't have a local vendor that is willing to come to the course. You can usually get a discount from the online vendor as well. We have done both the local vendor and the online vendor. They gave our club 15% discount. I'd reach out to Marshall Street or Community Discs. Our club has done online vouchers to both in the past. At awards had out a paper stating how much the player has won and ask them to provide a valid email address to send the voucher to. Tell them they need to hand back the paper with a legible email address to get the winnings.

 

[JC17393]

Buying stock for payouts is ultimately going to be no better than using your own personal collection. Unless you're willing to eat a whole lot of leftover inventory or go into business selling discs, you're still going to have a limited selection and players unhappy that they didn't get any "good" stuff. Same goes with buying custom-stamped discs...almost more so because you have minimums to meet for each mold you order (10-25 depending on who you order from) and not every mold/plastic is available for custom stamping.

IMO, you have two reasonable choices as a TD with presumably limited support/resources: partner with a vendor or a player-pack heavy/only set-up.

With a small event, if you go with an online vendor, you probably won't get much of a break price-wise (they're looking for volume, generally) but contact a few to see what your best deal might be. All you'd have to do then is collect email address from all your players, then send them their digital certificates directly through the online store. Simple and requires nothing upfront on your part.

If you went player packs heavy or player pack only, you'd really only order what you need. If you expect 60 ams and are giving two discs to each, you only need to order 120 discs. The plus is that if you figure player pack value at retail or close to it, you've got a margin to work with. Say those 60 ams are paying $25 each toward the player pack, but the two discs will only cost ~$18-20 at most. That extra $5-7 per player can cover you if you don't sell out the tournament or have other costs to cover. Or you can buy more than 120 in case you exceed the 60 player expectation or you want to have a small payout for the winners.

 

[Stardoggy]

Player pack/trophy.

 

[sjberry2017]

One of the small C tiers I played in this past spring (The Spring Fling at Shaver Rec Center) used discgolfcenter for payouts. We got an email within a week with a giftcard code for the payout. That'll work

Or you can also just do trophy only with a pretty nice player's pack. That works too

 

[LHASU]

Use entry fees to buy a Player Pack and trophy and you all are done.

Then you can then take all your awesome discs and set up a raffle. Give every player (and volunteer) one ticket with the player pack and don't sell any tickets. Donate what you need of your 200 discs so the every player/volunteer wins a disc/item in the raffle.

You could put a fun spin on your raffle. As each ticket is drawn, the winner can take the disc they just won... or trade it for any other discs that have already been raffled. Super fun way to get everyone a prize. Last guy to get drawn gets whatever they want!

 

[DavidSauls]

On-site vendor, if you can get one, or online vouchers.

A local tournament was recently the first in my area to go with online vouchers; it seemed to be a BIG hit with the players, due to the enormous selection. (I'm not a big fan myself; I'm not into how much I win, and it feels like it divorces the winnings from the actual tournament. But I'm certainly in the minority there).

The option of going with 100% players packs and no payouts is the simplest, but it comes to a TD Guess: Will that draw more players, or fewer?

Consider finances, too---whether an onsite vendor or online retailer will give the TD back a portion of the payouts, to offset other expenses.

Vending yourself means committing to a huge inventory, and a chunk of capital. In the long run, you can make more in the wholesale/retail margin, but you won't make that until the long run is over.

The caution with customized stuff, for players packs or payouts, is that some players will love having something tied to the event.....and many will feel that they're receiving junk, something they didn't want and will never use.

*

The good thing, though, is that if you run a good event on a great course, all of the "player happiness" aspects of the payout will be secondary.

 

[JRW III]

If you are going to be running several over the next couple of years, I would recommend investing in your own stock. It will take some upfront cash and a few tournaments to break even, but well worth it in the long run.

As far as ordering goes, the major manufactures have great tournament sponsorship programs. With Innova and Discraft, works best to get a tournament stamp. With DD (Trilogy) ordering stock stamps is good. Basically, they give you a good wholesale price and then throw in swag for the tournament on top of it based on your order size.

Innova recommends a 2 month lead time (if you move fast you can get it done). With DD, there is a much shorter lead time.

If you go the player pack route, check out the great Innova Sponsorship program.

I started doing this in the Fall of 2015 and run 2 C-Tiers a year. Feel free to PM me if you have any detailed questions.

 

[JC17393]

As far as ordering goes, the major manufactures have great tournament sponsorship programs. With Innova and Discraft, works best to get a tournament stamp. With DD (Trilogy) ordering stock stamps is good. Basically, they give you a good wholesale price and then throw in swag for the tournament on top of it based on your order size.

FWIW, Dynamic no longer does their sponsorship deal with stock stamped discs. They, like others, require custom stamps to get sponsorship swag. Still a good deal, though.

 

[Discette]

Innova does not require you to place a custom order to get player packages. That is just one option.

Presented by Innova events can choose one of two complete player packages for either $15.00 or $25.00.

Details about full player pack packages here:


https://www.innovadiscs.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/innova-player-packs_2016.pdf

Details about Custom Stamped discs here:

https://www.innovadiscs.com/disc-golf-discs/custom/event-custom/

 

[mike]

most of the manufacturers have various levels of sponsorship options.

DD now has when you get custom discs...a $10ea option to get a hat/towel/key chain and sharpie for each custom disc purchased.

DUDE also has a couple various sponsor options as well

I know Legacy, DD, Gateway and Innova will also custom tailor a tournament sponsor package to fit a specific budget.

=======

in a recent poll on a local fb group.....we had a guy start a $20 dollar 1 rd c tier series...and the players voted to forgo payout to have a disc with entry. If a field has 5 or more...an extra disc for first place will be offers...if 10....first and second..etc...

any of the poll options could be used effectively for the player pack. problem at hand is....access to capital for upfront investment vs. using club stock if available vs. vendor/voucher....i feel there really isn't a perfect solution

 

[kinger]

The best option I've encountered has been an on-site vendor who also has a local shop in our area. The winnings were distributed via store credit certificates so those who cashed had the option of selecting from the inventory set up a the tournament, or using some other time at the local shop.

 

[Casey 1988]

I said Online Vendor but try to find a local vendor that has an online site, hard to do when if even then they only ship in the State/Provence they are in or worse are only local, can purchase online but have to then pick up in store, and is not a bigger chain like say Scheel's or Sports Authority. This besides the Trophy that is more then the small guy throwing what looks more like an Ultimate Disc then a Disc golf disc, or more then a medal with just the name of the tournament on back. Use a Min basket for the winner, the ones from DGA work the best, the top number part is blank.

 

[araytx]

I responded from the perspective of a TD. using the online vendor is best; however, YOU MUST post that on the flyer and all of the tourney ads.

I might have a different answer if the poll was posed as "which is best" from the players perspective.

 

[hellbound]

I used an online vender. Biggest thing is finding the one that will give the best selection. Most of the ones i talked to gave us a 15% of the Total spent back. Only down fall to doing the online vending was the hour or so of me making a list with all the emails addresses for the players. It did slow check in a little having everyone double check the emails.

I have personally talked to about half the people that placed at my event and enjoyed the Discgolfcenter payouts better then stock on hand at a tournement. If I remember right i could have gotten a better deal at another location but you also have to remember ease of use and not everyone throws what you like so limiting to some sites will not have the players happy

 

[JeremyKShort]

What I did in that situation was make a deal with a local brick and mortar vendor. Basically I paid the vendor the entire payout, and gave him a list of everyone that was paid out, and how much each one was paid. Then I gave each of the paid out players a voucher. Usually you can find a vendor willing to do this. They get a bunch of sales and get people in their store. I also got them to throw in a few ctp prizes, so it gave us some other stuff to put in. I had to list them as a sponsor, but that wasn't really an issue.