When considering a venue,
Sherfinski says it’s important to
focus on more than just the facility
and date. “There are a lot of creature
comforts that must be built into your
tournament to ensure people will
return year after year,” he explains.
“You need seating for players and
spectators—a lot of players may want
to bring family and friends. You also
must decide on what food and drink
you’ll provide for the players and
volunteers, and whether it’s free or if you will sell it. One
commercial venue we used offered it for sale, but players
were given coupons for food and spectators could purchase
food. Most of these events are at least one day, so you want
to have food and beverage available.”
Once you have the venue, seating and food in place, the
next step is to market the event. According to Sherfinski,
old-school methods of advertising such as fliers in facilities
where pickleball is played are fine, but social media is
where your event will get the most attention in a short
amount of time. “Being able to forward or ‘like’ the event so
friends can see it allows them to make it a social endeavor.
It also allows for quicker response times if there’s an
urgency behind your registration deadline,” he says.
The next step in planning a successful tournament is
lining up volunteers. When planning for helping hands,
Sherfinski advises to base estimates on the number of
courts, not the number of players.
“For the Gamma Classic, we had more than 600
participants in our third year, and our volunteer coordinator
had more than 400 people on her email list. Smaller
42
tournaments don’t need
that many,” he notes. “We
have an event coming up
with 50 to 75 participants,
and we’ll be fine with
six to eight volunteers
covering the three courts.”
Inviting referees,
while not essential for
small tournaments, is a
goodwill gesture that not
only allows them to get
tournament experience, but helps them get qualified, filling
a void in the sport.
Sherfinski adds that other technical details, such as
ranking, aren’t an issue on a small scale.
“I’ve never been involved with a sanctioned tournament,
as far as seedings, rankings and brackets go,” he says. “It’s
all been players self-rating, and we haven’t seen too many
issues with that.”
As far as budget, Sherfinski advises to stay in the $25 per
registrant range, which keeps things affordable for players
and can yield a little extra money
for small swag bags or other
favors for them.
“It’s always nice to have
something to give away. We try to
have swag bags with a few little
things in them every time,” he
says. “It might be a guest pass
at the facility or a bottle of water
and protein bar. We also offer
inexpensive medals for first,
second and third place.” •
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