Are You an Event Killer?

Are you and event killer?

Do you always wait untill just after the deadline to try to get into a tournament? Or are you the one who checks to see how many teams are in before you enter, or worse, who is in so your chances are better at winning?

You may not realize it, but those are real event killers. I had Pat Powers set to do a clinic here at our courts. Posted about 4 months in advance and it stayed on our website, with flyers and emails out to all 900 people on our events list.

Players all said "I'll have to go to that for sure!". When the deadline came around, Pat called me and said not enough people had signed up, so he had to cancel it. I pulled it off my webpage. Then suddenly I got a bunch of emails from people asking what happened to the clinic? I was going to sign up for that.

Procrastination killed the event.

I have a team tally on my webpage for each event, so players can see how few spots are left in each division. It shows pending teams and Paid teams. Of course, they all wait till the deadline to register or call. After the deadline, that tally is frozen. Then they call and say I would have entered, but I saw only 2 teams registered. They waited too long, but I had to take 9 more teams after the deadline to make the event go. If they had registered before the deadline, it would have shown those teams and maybe more teams would have entered.

Procrastination again, almost killed this event.

Upper level players are most guily of this last event killer. They want to wait till there are lots of teams, or the prize fund is big enough. If they all wait, then no one signs up. Again killing an event, or their portion/division.

So help out your tournament directors by registering early if you think you want to play a tournament. You can always request a refund if you can't make it.

Register early so you can get into the division you want before it fills up.

Register before the deadline so the event does not get cancelled.

And please know it takes a hell of a lot of work to host a tournament. Knowing how many players/teams you have is top priority for your director.