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Whether you want to end your sports season with a bang or are looking for a unique offering for the off-season, learning how to organize a sports tournament can be a great option. Participants can have a bit more friendly competition as they play to become the best team in the league.
Organizing a sports tournament requires careful planning to ensure everything goes smoothly. Throughout this article, we’ll cover each step you need to take to create a thoughtful and successful tournament.
1. Plan your tournament
Every good sports tournament starts with a solid plan. There are a few things to take into consideration as you get started.
First, what are your goals? Why do you want to host a tournament? Some common goals include:
- Engaging the local community
- Creating a revenue stream during the off-season
- Ending a regular season with a fun addition
Knowing your goals and objectives for the tournament may change a few parts of the plan. For example, an end-of-season tournament wouldn’t cost the participants any extra as they’ve already paid for the season—but a standalone off-season tournament would likely come with its own registration fees.
Next, consider your budget. An end-of-season tournament may have a smaller budget than a standalone tournament, as the registration fees have already been stretched throughout the season.
This means you won’t be able to put on as large of a tournament at the end of the season as you may be able to at other times—but at that point, players are getting tired anyway, so it all works out!
So, what do you need a budget for? A few of the costs associated with a sports tournament include:
- Venue: How much does renting the facilities to host your tournament cost? When running a season-end tournament, you can include that timeline as part of the season. But you'll need to find and rent a new venue in the off-season.
- Equipment: Sure, players always bring some equipment for themselves. But things like soccer goals, baseball bases, volleyball nets, and other equipment you’ll need depending on the type of sport will be on your tournament organizers.
- Staff: You’ll need organizers, referees, coaches, event planners, and other people to help make sure the tournament runs smoothly. Some may be volunteers, but others will be paid staff you need to hire.
- Marketing: How will you promote your upcoming tournament? Your budget must also include marketing and advertising costs.
Once you clearly understand what you need to budget for, you can start identifying potential revenue sources. Funding for your tournament may come from things like:
- Entry fees
- Sponsorships
- Concession sales
- Fundraising
- Ticket sales
These are the key aspects to cover at the beginning of your event planning. Once you know your goals for the tournament and the time of year you plan to run it, you can move on to the next step.
2. Form an organizing committee
The planning process will go much more smoothly if you have a set group of organizers who will handle putting together the event.
Step one is to identify each committee member. Step two is to assign specific roles and responsibilities so that you know exactly who is taking care of what. This ensures nothing falls through the cracks by opening day.
Some of the responsibilities people will need to take care of include:
- Locking down facilities
- Setting a time frame for the event
- Renting the necessary equipment
- Getting liability insurance
- Marketing to sponsors
- Recruiting volunteers
Once you've laid out all the roles and responsibilities for your specific sports event, you need to create a communication plan so that everyone is always on the same page, knows when tasks are completed, and knows if someone needs assistance.
There are apps useful for communicating with each committee member. Jersey Watch, for example, makes it easy to communicate with each other directly and send mass updates about progress to both committee members and participants.
Finally, set up regular meetings as you approach the event's opening day so that you can ensure nothing falls through the cracks before the big day.
3. Decide on the tournament format
The next step is to decide on the type of tournament you plan to hold. There are a few different types of tournaments you can choose from. We’ll walk you through the most popular below.
Single-elimination
In a single-elimination tournament, each team plays once. If they lose, they're eliminated from the tournament; if they win, they move on to the next round.
Here’s a visual example of what this could look like for an eight-team single-elimination tournament:
The NFL Playoffs use a single-elimination format. March Madness basketball also uses this format.
The single-elimination tournament is a quick process that helps name a champion without needing much time. That being said, a single-elimination format is a great option for an end-of-season tournament. But you likely want a more drawn-out option for a standalone tournament.
Double-elimination
A double-elimination tournament follows the same concept as a single-elimination tournament, except teams play twice before being completely eliminated.
Here’s a visual depiction of an eight-team double-elimination tournament:
As we can see, there's a winner's bracket and a loser's bracket. The losers of the initial games play each other for a chance to get back into the tournament. This means that even if their first game was a bust, they still can make a comeback.
The NCAA Division I baseball and softball tournaments, as well as the Men's and Women's College World Series, use this double-elimination format.
Round robin
The round-robin tournament style focuses more on overall wins and losses than a bracketed system like we saw in the last two.
Here’s what a visual depiction might look like (however, you can also add a column for ties—by using this system, games don’t necessarily need to have a winner):
The English Premier League uses a round-robin format for its seasons. It has 20 teams, and each team plays each other twice, resulting in 38 total games. Game winners get three points, ties award a single point to each team, and losses result in zero points. At the end of the season, the team with the most points gets the trophy.
This is a great way to hold a standalone tournament. If you have eight total teams, you can have each team play each other once for a total of seven games per team. At the end, you tally up the number of wins (or wins and ties) each team gets to find your winner.
Group stage
A group stage tournament is another great option for a standalone tournament. In fact, one of the most famous soccer tournaments uses this format—the World Cup.
The teams that make it to the World Cup start in the group stage. This stage breaks up all of the qualified countries into eight groups of four, which are randomly selected via random draw.
The four countries in each group play each other twice. Then, the top two teams in each group move onto the knockout stage, which is essentially a single elimination format.
Here’s a visual of how the group stage games in the 2022 World Cup were drawn up:
This is a great way to start off your tournament before moving on to a faster elimination sequence. You could also use this format for your season before ending the season in a single or double-elimination tournament.
Choose the format that works best for your sports competition. Then move on to the next step
4. Select a venue
Where will you be holding your tournament? If you already run a sports club or league, you may already have a venue in mind that you work with throughout your sports seasons. If this is your first tournament, you’ll need to do some research to pinpoint your facility requirements before starting your search.
Then, you’ll need to check availability based on the time frame you envision for your tournament. Fit your tournament schedule in between local events to ensure the venue is fully available.
And if you’re looking at outdoor event space, make sure you either have additional accommodations or time built into your schedule in case weather conditions make it impossible to play.
5. Secure sponsorships
This is going to be one of the most essential steps, and it’s because your organization needs funds to hold a successful sports event. One of the best ways to raise funds is by securing sponsorships.
Your first step is to put together sponsorship packages. This will entail what your sponsorship offers interested companies, along with the pricing for each package. You could offer things like:
- Website ad space
- Social media shoutouts
- Team sponsorships
- Jersey logo placement
- Signage at the facility
Then, you need to find your sponsors. There are many different companies that sponsor youth sports, so start your search by reaching out to those brands. You can also reach out to other local companies who might want to sponsor local teams to get the word out about their business.
6. Create a registration process
Once you've developed a plan, determined the type of tournament you'll host, and secured your venue and funding, it's time to generate interest and register participants.
But to do that, you need a solid registration process that makes signing up easy for both your target audience and your organizers.
To get the best of both worlds, rely on sports management software like Jersey Watch. With easy-to-use online registration features, you can set up a system that works smoothly for your participants and team.
Easily create an online registration form using drag-and-drop fields so you get all of the information you need.
More than that, with a tool like Jersey Watch, you can also accept entry fees right alongside the online registration form. Set deadlines well in advance so that you give yourself plenty of time to create teams and start practices before the tournament begins.
7. Recruit staff
We talked about how you’ll need to hire some staff to help put on the tournament. Now’s the time to get your key players on the payroll. You’ll need to fill roles like:
- Referees
- Scorekeepers
- Medical personnel
- Coaches
- Logistical support
- Event planners
Start by identifying your staffing needs, checking with the venue to see if they offer any assistance (i.e., they might have on-site staff already familiar with their scoreboards) before you put out job ads or reach out to sports officials to fill each role.
8. Develop a marketing plan
Putting together a marketing strategy helps you maximize participation. If you’re taking the time to put on a tournament, you want a solid turnout and enough players to make the teams you need.
Start by creating the promotional materials that you need—a sports website (fun fact: you can build one with Jersey Watch), social media profiles, flyers, online ads, local TV ads, and more.
In addition, you can contact local media, such as newspapers, news stations, or even radio stations, to discuss your upcoming tournament, spread the word even more, and improve the success of your event.
9. Prepare awards and recognition
What will the tournament winners get? Determine their prizes so you can have them ready by the end.
Some prize options include:
- Team trophy
- Individual medals
- Player rings
- Gift certificates
- Jerseys
You should also plan an awards ceremony for the tournament winner. They’ve worked hard to get here, and they deserve some serious recognition!
10. Run your tournament
Finally, it’s time for the tournament to start. Be sure to conduct final checks before the big opening day to ensure everything is ready to go. Staff are in their places with their job roles. Players and coaches know when and where to play. Facilities are ready to hold your tournament.
All you have to do now is manage day-to-day operations and address any issues. And if any do arise, just remember that these issues will help all of your future tournaments run even more smoothly because you’ll have a better idea of what to expect.
Use Jersey Watch to manage your sports tournaments
We wish you the best of luck with your next sports tournament! We hope everyone enjoys participating and that the best team wins.
Jersey Watch is here to help. With its easy-to-use sports management tools, you can set up your tournament website, create an online registration process, and communicate with your coaches and players.
