True costs in running a Pickleball Tournament
After months of wanting to write this, here I am.
*I have seen much misinformation and negative feedback regarding tournaments the past few years and I wanted to shed some light on my experience as player and tournament director*
I write this to give a little more information as to some of the tournament costs incurred as a tournament director. Especially more recently, I have seen a large number of people complaining about tournament costs, their experience, etc. While everyone is entitled to their opinion, I think many are simply throwing out negative feedback without having experience in this field or understanding what these tournaments go through. We all read Rob Nunnery’s comments and insights about the true costs for a Pickleball player and I fully agree with everything Rob said and I actually believe he underestimated by a lot in his numbers in player costs, however, I am here to talk about the flip side of players costs - Tournament costs incurred by tournaments - I would like to give a little insight into the costs that it actually takes to put on a quality tournament.
First, a little background about myself - I have been playing professional pickleball for 8 years, always ranked around the top 10. I say this only to give background and to say I’ve been to my fair share of tournaments. I have been to hundreds of tournaments, I have co-hosted tournaments and I have even ran my own tournaments (Summer Lovin, the best tournament out there ;)
To begin, I would say the vast majority of players, even top tournament players don’t truly know the costs associated with putting on a large tournament as most of these players role is to compete in the tournament and have a good time - not to actually run a tournament as the TD and make sure everything goes accordingly. There is nothing wrong with either, simply, they are different areas of experience and expectations.
Getting right into it, here are SOME of the costs that go into putting on a tournament
Venue (this will most likely be the highest cost in putting on a tournament) If you wish to have a quality location with a great courts, amenities, parking, etc, this will cost a lot. I’ve seen facilities cost anywhere from $500-$100,000 per event. This is a huge range to go off of, but if a tournament looks and feels professional, you can be certain the court rentals, were not cheap. If it’s at a high school, a public park, those are generally quite a bit cheaper than if its at a private club, country club, etc, and you cold expect those to be anywhere from $500-$2000 for a few days. There was a recent tournament that cost around $65k simply to rent the venue, this isn’t including many of these other costs that I will be talking about…. That is a large amount simply to rent the courts/facility.
Prize money - There is no way around this, if a tournament is paying out 25k/50k/75k, whatever the number is, add that to the bottom line.
Staff - While volunteers are great and they are needed to run the tournament, not everyone can volunteer their time. People do this for their work and of course, need to be compensated if you are trying to put on a quality tournament.
Tournament shirts - Most tournaments use to include free shirts, some do/don’t, regardless, shirts are not as cheap as once believed. I would say on average if you are ordering large quantities of shirts, that will range from $4-$8 per shirt. My cost on shirts for my small tournament are around $8 per shirt. This number could be higher or lower.
Advertising/Banners/Signage - Some tournament companies will donate this type of marketing, but many companies do not. This leaves the TD in charge of ordering all these signs and promotional type of product. Depending on how many the TD will order, I have paid anywhere from $50-$150 per sign (vinyl banner) depending on size and quantity of each. Most tournaments I attend have dozens of these banners, that means $100’s of dollars just on these signs.
Trophies/Medals - I did not realize these costs to be so expensive, I imagined they would be cents or $1-2. All of this depends on quantities that you are ordering and the size/style of medal/trophy you are creating. I’ve paid $3 for the cheapest and up to $10 for first place prizes. If you see a tournament with a nice looking trophy, chances are it cost quite a bit more than your standard medals.
Food/snacks - Not all tournaments do this, if you as a TD are wanting to provide food/snacks that food/snacks needs to be purchased and it adds up. For a tournament of around 380 players, I spent $400 of my budget to provide free food.
Time - This may be the most overlooked cost that goes into a tournament. Players see a tournament and they participate, yet they do not see the time, preparation, headache that the TD and staff and others have put into planning and organizing for the tournament. For a larger tournament, I would say 400+ players, you can guarantee that the TD is thinking about the tournament and the operations, every single day leading up to it for a minimum of 3-4 months in advance. The TD is putting these pieces together, talking to venues, organizing everything, getting BOMBARDED with emails from players asking to switch partners at the last minute, having players drop out, withdrawals, switching skill levels, asking directions and asking simple questions that they demand an answer if you don’t get back within hours of the inquiry.
I write this not to complain, only to try to shed a little more light on the true costs associated with running a tournament, start to finish. I’ve heard many people say, oh this person or this tournament makes X amount, they must be doing so well, why can’t they offer this in the tournament, or a variety of other examples. Yes, tournaments can be very profitable IF done right, which is one of the reasons people may put one on, its not bad to make a profit, in fact I would say most people don’t do many things where they intentionally lose money, but if they aren’t done right, the tournament could actually end up losing money or barely making a profit which many tournaments do. People simply don’t realize all the many costs that go into putting on a successful tournament.
Also, I realize all of this is relative, if you are putting on a tournament that is targeted towards the lower level players, their expectations might not be as high so the costs may be much lower and may be more leniency. If you are targeting more competitive players, they will have higher expectations and higher costs associated.
So, before you criticize your next tournament, make sure to put yourself in the TD shoes, and well, if you did that and the tournament still messed up, then go ahead.
Stay tuned for my next article where I will talk about how tournaments can make money and be profitable!