Around here, higher tiers generally attract more players. Not just more top players---more local pros and advanced and recreational and the rest.
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Struggles from a Tournament Director
- Thread starter NPCTour
- Start date
Around here, higher tiers generally attract more players. Not just more top players---more local pros and advanced and recreational and the rest.
Wait, what? How did the PDGA take $200+ out of your added cash? On what grounds? I've never heard of that and I've been running a B-tier for 10 years now. They get their player fee ($3 per) and the non-member fees ($10 per) and any membership dues you collect, but that should be it. They have no claim to nor do they ask for anything more.
Unless you're not accounting for the required fees in your entry fees (which is what you're supposed to do), I don't understand what you're talking about.
biscoe
* Ace Member *
personally i fail to see why anyone would want to run an event at a higher tier than C. the ORG just wants more money and more control of what you do without any increase in benefit.
running A-tiers was one of the biggest wastes of time and local money i have ever been involved with in dg.
running A-tiers was one of the biggest wastes of time and local money i have ever been involved with in dg.
biscoe
* Ace Member *
i'm with Josh on this.
biscoe
* Ace Member *
evidence?
grodney
* Ace Member *
Thank you.
I totally get the "party" aspect that David mentions above. That's what unsanctioned or C-Tiers are for. I don't see how the want for "party" translates into an event that requires so much time and money, only to attract people from out of town to take not only your local players' money, but also added money.
grodney
* Ace Member *
(Bolding by me.) I find this hard to believe, at least as worded. Certainly every Parks Dept is different, but I think they are more interested in usage. Day to day usage of their facilities. And events of a local nature, catering to the people who live and work and pay for those facilities.
If you're happy with running a C-Tier, then run a C-Tier. No one is forcing you to raise the standards.
It's up to you to raise the tier if you feel the extra time and money is worth it to attract more players.
I'm not thinking of tournaments as parties, as such, but throwing one is like throwing a party.
I can throw a party for just locals. Or, if I want more people to come, people I don't know, I might reach in my wallet for better drinks and foods, a bartender, a band, whatever. It costs me more money to throw a bigger party.
Similarly, I can host a tournament for just locals and make it a C-tier. Or I can pull more money out of my wallet---or beg it from people I know---and make it a B- or even an A-tier. It'll bring in more players, from further away, and be a bigger party, uh, tournament.
Maybe it shows more to the city than the parks dept who sees that bigger events get more people form out of town to spend money in town, lodging, food etc...
I would venture that most Parks Departments, and the governmental entities that run them even know what the PDGA is, much less give a rat's fink about the tournament tier system.
Just my two cents, but unless he's running one of the few marquee events, I think the whole idea of a TD getting traveling players into town by running a high tier event is a waste of energy. Back in the day, (and back in the day might have been as little as 5-10 years ago for some of us) those people would come to your tournament because that was all there was available. Now with all of the explosive growth, they have options a lot closer to home, where they don't have to incur as much of the ancillary expenses of attending.
Just my two cents, but unless he's running one of the few marquee events, I think the whole idea of a TD getting traveling players into town by running a high tier event is a waste of energy. Back in the day, (and back in the day might have been as little as 5-10 years ago for some of us) those people would come to your tournament because that was all there was available. Now with all of the explosive growth, they have options a lot closer to home, where they don't have to incur as much of the ancillary expenses of attending.
turbosteve
Eagle Member
I disagree. Parks Departments love it when events are held at their park that bring out of town visitors in because it helps bring in more hospitality tax revenue which funds their budgets. Convention and Visitors Bureaus exist to bring people into the town. Many of them have supported A-tiers and above. If you are trying to run a high tier event make sure you have the support of the local C&V B and the park department.
This only applies when the out of towners actually get hotel rooms.
I would hope that most C&VB's don't get onto the demographics of our sport, in comparison to say, team sport events that make the economic impact of even our bigger events look like a pittance.
When an event is capped at 72 or even 90 players most will still be local anyway. So the economic impact is maybe 5 extra hotel rooms sold and a couple more tables filled at local restaurants.
To say it's a drop in the bucket would be an overstatement.
Thumber
Double Eagle Member
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2010
- Messages
- 1,712
I agree.
As DGrs we tend to see the sport and its contributions as significant, but in reality, we are very small fish
We had an interesting club discussion last night on if running a B-tier is actually beneficial to our local DG community. The general consensus seems to be that it is more work than its worth. The only real benefit we could identify was official rated rounds, which are needed by the 3 members who are actually trying to qualify for big events, and a few non-locals getting to play our courses. meh
While some tournaments pull off the A-tier quite successfully (TIML comes to mind) I am not convinced its something that every tournament needs to aspire to
Lastly, on the level of competition in sanctioned versus un-sanctioned events, I think this is more of a local culture issue. Our club takes the rules seriously in all competitive events, regardless of sanctioning. While most players wouldn't care if a player had a beer or a puff during the round, they would not tolerate someone sloppy drunk or zoomin high in a tournament.
ScottyLove
Double Eagle Member
Just depends on how you present it to them... or at all.
I'm about to do my 5th presentation to a park board/convention bureau and they love this stuff. Can't wait to throw their money at us.
We're bumping up to a B-Tier and adding a second day of rounds to get "heads in beds"... that is the key. If you can show them you will generate $$ for the city, they'll gladly help you out.
At least that is my experience and I have a very nice power point presentation and short video about disc golf in my presentation.
^^^ this ^^^
after hosting a few ice bowls i hosted my first c-tier this past summer. i look at it a lot like dave. i have to work my ass off but i get enjoyment out making something happen where people have fun and look forward to doing it again the next year. my c-tier will be a b-tier in 2014.
Again, this success is largely due to the factor that as a sport we are somewhat under the radar, and they generally don't check up after the fact to see if the money a particular event brought in was worth what they paid out.
biscoe
* Ace Member *
if i felt like i needed to attract more players (which i don't) i can do so without giving the pdga any more money or more control of my event by increasing the quality of my event. the amount of added cash is only tangentially related to this in the eyes of the vast majority of players.
turbosteve
Eagle Member
Why are you assuming that when disc golfers travel to a tournament they don't stay in a hotel? In my experience most communities get more than $2000 in direct spending from out of town disc golfers during A tiers and some disc golfers do indeed stay in hotels. Even if a disc golfer stays in a campground most visitors bureaus consider that a head in bed because you usually have to pay to stay in a campground.
