Bad News

[doc]

Yesterday Batavia ran their usual great tournament, but instead of 600-700, they had 400 wrestlers show up. Only one team (from Indiana) even bothered to call to say weather would force them to stay home. A lot of teams did not have the courtesy to even return a call, let alone the politeness of saying they weren't coming.

IKWF should develop a "watch list" of teams that 'blow off" reservations to closed tournaments. Tournament hosts can go to that site and then determine if they want to accept that teams registration, ask for a deposit, or require payment up front.

Otherwise many teams will start developiong a standard policy of X% up front, to hold your spots and that puts a lot of teams in cash flow problems if they collect on attendence only a week or so before the meet. Plus, it screws a lot of teams out of a chance to attend a great tournament because they were closed but could have accepted late registrations if they knew of the cancellation.

I assume Batavia will not accept these teams back next year, but other tourneys need to know who they can trust and who they can't

[coachmn-lcwc]

all the time...its happened to our club... and it STINKS!!! Your right..simply remember who the club was and dont let them back in next season

[outsider]

I am sorry to here that Batavia's numbers were down. If I am not mistaken, doesn't Batavia request payment in full prior to the start of their tournament. I understand that the number of wrestlers are way down, but financially they are should not be affected by the no shows. All in all, I do agree that there should be some sort of watch list for teams that blow off tournaments. We as organizers need to be more proactive when registering teams for our events.

[doc]

no payment was required, AND registration fees are only a small part of the profits. 200-300 wrestlers are 300-500 paid adults and missed concessions I would estimate at least $2,000 of profit

[outsider]

with you 100%. Net profit per wrestler averages $10 to $14. Parents envoled with programs and all the time spent volunteering can never be replaced. I am all for tournament requesting payment in full one to two weeks prior to an event. Any sooner than that and you cet no cooperation. I think the main problem is that club are being run on the fly with no solid leadership. I hope in the future we all can resolve this issue. Do you have any suggestions?

[doc]

The problem is, at two weeks, can you replace those kids that were no shows? (a popular tournament can get another team, but they then pull out of their scheduled tourney....its a viscious circle.) I guess you are right, the only thing I can think of is that each team must verify # attending 2-3 weeks out and payment must be received in full 7 days out. Although, I would still like to see if there is a set group of teams known for "no-shows" I would be willing to bet 90% of the teams are fine, and 10% are notorious in booking two-three tournaments the same week and at the last minute choosing which one to go too

[THEKIDSAREWHYWE'REHERE]

2-3 months out, and wants to hold 40 spots for your tournament, ask for full payment then for 40 spots. Give that team a week to get their finances in order, after that let them know their spot is in jeopardy to the teams that can get their payment in if you don't receive it. At that point you'll find out how "solid" the forty spots are. From here on out, that is exactly the way our tournament will be handled. Popular or not, most tournaments we attend are as full as they want. Most tournaments, say 500 kids, have 300 from clubs that you are very familiar with and have an excellent working relationship with, the other 200 or so are the clubs you have to "play hardball" with. If we all adopt this, it will work. I understand some clubs are tight on money, but they have to find a way to do it, we did. Some might argue that this will cause teams to underbook, then call and beg to bring more if they need. My only response to that is, if you have the room, take the additional kids, if you don't, sorry. Some may also argue that you can't hold someone to a number that is 2-3 months out. To that I say why not? If they want to cover their *** by having me commit to their number, I'm gonna cover mine by getting a full committment. How did they get their number? From here on out maybe they'll be more careful about how many spots they reserve.
Just my 2 cents-

[outsider]

This is truely the answer. Year after year I have closed my tournament due to early registration. All clubs that have requested entry after tournament has been closed have been put on a waiting list. If teams do not comply with some soft of financial payment their spot is given to the next team on the waiting list. Do not be afriad to ask for "payment" in advance.

[29857]

Maybe part of the problem is that there are too many tournaments. And therefore too many options. It seems like every one wants to host them for the $. More and more it seems to be all about the money...What's the profit on a pizza when you sell them for $4 a slice? It's supposed to be all about the kids isn't it?

[doc]

Look at the IKWF list of tournament sites...90% of these tournaments are closed within 1 week of announcements... ours closed in 48 hours! Try to find a tournament right now in Chicago that is open for the rest of the year!

The problem is, some teams sign up for two or three tournaments for the same week at the start of the season...then just blow one of them off, based on either the coaches or parents decision. I guess the deposit scenario is the only answer

[Jeff Pape]

I proposed a by-law to require tournaments to be pre-registered only and another one to only allow a certain number of wrestlers per wrestling area. It did not even get a second (meaning they did not even vote on the topic).

The long days of waiting until after 5:00 p.m. is too long for most non-diehards to continue to wrestle.

The same parents that are complaining about the overbooking of tournaments are the ones creating the problem. If the spots were prepaid, a tournament director can know how many mats he/she needs, how many refs etc. and make it so they are done by 3:00 p.m. or so.

I think the IKWF should require all prepayments for tournaments. I helped run several baseball tournaments a couple summers ago, and they were all prepaid, why not wrestling tournaments...

Also, I think we need more tournaments (since most are getting filled up quickly)...someone said there are too many choices, I don't think there are enough tournaments...that is why everything fills up so quickly.

I think requiring the prepayment would improve the planning of tournaments dramatically...and allow the teams to make some money to help run their program.