| ajflanagan
- 24 Jul 2010
Total Posts: 509
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We did our best to make reasonable estimations based on last years numbers to have enough tshirts to go around. Apparently, there was a shortage of adult medium and large sizes this year. Anyone under 21 was NOT to receive a Zwack tournament shirt due to sponsor agreements. I have a feeling some underage players might have gotten shirts anyway and this is likely the cause for the shortage. We produced some unbranded youth sized shirts for the underage players that just had the Air Hockey World Championship logo.
I am willing to produce a second batch of tournament shirts for those of you who didn't receive one or for anyone else who would like to order extras. Perhaps some players who didn't attend would like to purchase a shirt.
Please email me privately (andrew at gfxwraps dot com) and let me know if you attended and didn't receive a shirt. A few players approached me at the event, but I don't remember everyone. For everyone else, the shirts are $15 for youth sizes through Adult XL and $17 for 2XL, 3XL or 4XL plus shipping costs.
Also, we have plenty of copies of Goalgrinder -- the 2010 Zwack AHWC Tournament Program -- leftover. If anyone want additional copies, get with me and we'll figure out how to cover shipping costs.
Thanks!
Andrew
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| brain
- 27 Jul 2010
Total Posts: 578
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And to supplament what Andrew said, this is why we have pre-registration. When players wait and wait and wait, it makes the decision-making very difficult. Every TAG member took some degree of financial loss this year, and our goal is to minimize that since we are acting as volunteers and not yet into enough money to turn a profit. So when we have 60 players registered going into the final month, what can we do? It's not reasonable to print 100 shirts and assume people will come and Andrew or me has to risk eating the production cost of 40 shirts. Especially when there seems to continue to be an attitude among some that we should not make money for our hundreds of hours of work. Risk/Reward. Capitalism.
Perhaps in the future, those of you who waited to commit might consider an earlier commitment. And perhaps we may change our strategy to either not give shirts away but sell them to all or only guarantee shirts to those who do pre-register by a hard deadline and make those who late register buy them after the fact. That might be a strategy that will reward those dedicated players who commit early as it should be.
Brian
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| Juggernaut
- 27 Jul 2010
Total Posts: 121
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brain said: | And to supplament what Andrew said, this is why we have pre-registration. When players wait and wait and wait, it makes the decision-making very difficult. Every TAG member took some degree of financial loss this year, and our goal is to minimize that since we are acting as volunteers and not yet into enough money to turn a profit. So when we have 60 players registered going into the final month, what can we do? It's not reasonable to print 100 shirts and assume people will come and Andrew or me has to risk eating the production cost of 40 shirts. Especially when there seems to continue to be an attitude among some that we should not make money for our hundreds of hours of work. Risk/Reward. Capitalism. |
Who doesn't think you should make money off running tournaments?
| Perhaps in the future, those of you who waited to commit might consider an earlier commitment. And perhaps we may change our strategy to either not give shirts away but sell them to all or only guarantee shirts to those who do pre-register by a hard deadline and make those who late register buy them after the fact. That might be a strategy that will reward those dedicated players who commit early as it should be. |
This is a much better strategy than complaining about things you can't change. ;) The goal is to get big enough where pre-registration can be mandatory, at least for all ranked/rated players. I don't think anyone would complain about having a pre-registration deadline for shirts and other bennies associated with being a part of the tournament. As the tournaments grow larger, the free participant shirt matters less, and no one has a leg to stand on if it's advertised that shirts are for pre-registered players only.
Alternatively, as sponsor relationships grow, you should be able to have them underwrite the shirts, which is a minor expense on the order of ready cash for sponsors the size of Zwack. They will not mind if you/they are left with 30 shirts, which they can use elsewhere or just give to staff.
Throwing out ideas will always be better received than complaints. If you didn't force pre-registration or make it clear that shirts were in limited quantities, then it's hard to fault players for taking advantage of the options given to them. I'm not saying you have to take a hard line, but a good plan will always account for players/customers taking advantage of options that are most convenient for *them* rather than for you. Risk/Reward. Capitalism. ;)
Great job to you and the TAG team, Brian. You've inspired me.
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| airhockeyjedi
- 28 Jul 2010
Total Posts: 102
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What will help will be to look at the numbers. There is enough history to formulate how many t-shirts to produce based on early registration. Part of the monies collected when the entry fees escalate can be used to cover cost of left over t-shirts, if that occurs.
The monies from those extra t-shirts sold during and after the tournament can be used to initiate the next TAG tournament.
If you don't isolate the money management to a given tournament you might be better off. T-shirt sales can always produce seed money for the next TAG tournament. That is spillover money from one tournament can feed into the next.
Vince Schappell
2007-2009 USAA Treasurer
USAA Member since 1980
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| travis
- 28 Jul 2010
Total Posts: 530
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airhockeyjedi said: | What will help will be to look at the numbers. There is enough history to formulate how many t-shirts to produce based on early registration. |
We had around 60 players registered two weeks prior to the tournament, and 101 players participated in the singles event. It's hard to predict an 85% increase in registration. I mean, that's a good problem to have, but we just need to find a better way to manage getting the shirts to the people that registered early.
Travis Luscombe
AirHockeyWorld.com Webmaster
http://twitter.com/air_hockey
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| ajflanagan
- 28 Jul 2010
Total Posts: 509
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| I think the answer is clear... players who commit to PREREGISTRATION are awarded with a FREE commemorative tournament shirt. Regular and Late registered players are not. We will have a variety of extras available for sale at the tournaments.
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| Darth_Wafu
- 28 Jul 2010
Total Posts: 117
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That sounds like a fair way to do it to me
Nick Geoffroy
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| Juggernaut
- 29 Jul 2010
Total Posts: 121
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| Thanks for making these available. Can't wait to get mine!
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| airhockeyjedi
- 30 Jul 2010
Total Posts: 102
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If around the end of the pre-registration is the startup date for production of t-shirts and if typically 60% of the players pre-register, then that will mean regular registration and late-registration will add $5 to $75 more funds per future entrant. TAG has some data from running tournaments in regards to how many players are signed up prior to the production date of making t-shirts.
The average regular or late-registrant would be contributing on average a minimum of $10 (TAG will be able to calculate this amount). That extra money will cover the "uncertainty factor" to produce more t-shirts.
TAG might guaranty the entrant will receive their requested size if you pre-register but I will think not getting a t-shirt will discourage players, especially if entry prices are higher.
Much of running a successful tournament is from preparation from analyzing previous tournament data. That's how you know how many table you need, what time to start, what time to end on Saturday, what time to start on Sunday, what matches to start first on Sunday, etc. All decision get tweaked by looking at past tournaments. T-Shirt production time-line and production quantities are driven by past tournaments and pre-registration numbers.
Hope this is helpful.
TAG ran a terrific tournament and I look forward to next years WCO which will be even better!
Vince Schappell
2007-2009 USAA Treasurer
USAA Member since 1980
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| travis
- 30 Jul 2010
Total Posts: 530
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airhockeyjedi said: | If around the end of the pre-registration is the startup date for production of t-shirts and if typically 60% of the players pre-register |
Last year, around 90% of the players preregistered. This year it was more like 60%. I'm all about looking at data trends, but it only works when things happen in roughly the same way from year to year.
I agree with the idea of guaranteeing a shirt for preregistrants.
Travis Luscombe
AirHockeyWorld.com Webmaster
http://twitter.com/air_hockey
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| ajflanagan
- 30 Jul 2010
Total Posts: 509
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| I suspect we had sharp decline in preregistration his year because we were too lenient last year and let too many player squeak by the deadlines no penalty.
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| airhockeyjedi
- 02 Aug 2010
Total Posts: 102
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TAG might have a good guess why one year it was 90% and the next year 60% pre-registration. Might be something to think about some more.
We are in a new age of communication than from when I ran tournaments like the 1991 Houston Classic Open. It is the snail mail vs email eras! Will TAG next year blast it's email list of players announcements of pre, regular and late registration of the WCO? AHW is great source that can be linked to the emails and will be an added benefit.
I feel TAG relied too heavily on players going to AHW instead of bring the news directly to the players in the form of email blast!
Vince Schappell
2007-2009 USAA Treasurer
USAA Member since 1980
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| travis
- 02 Aug 2010
Total Posts: 530
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airhockeyjedi said: | I feel TAG relied too heavily on players going to AHW instead of bring the news directly to the players in the form of email blast! |
I sent out at least 100 personal emails to players with tournament information. I also leveraged AHW, Facebook, and Twitter. Other TAG staff spent time and effort making personal phone calls and text messages to players. I may have missed a few players when I did the emails, and I missed adding some information to airhockey.com and sending out emails via the airhockey email groups.
Travis Luscombe
AirHockeyWorld.com Webmaster
http://twitter.com/air_hockey
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| Juggernaut
- 02 Aug 2010
Total Posts: 121
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| I thought the electronic outreach was adequate.
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