Is Stay to Play Getting Worse?

[Anonymous]

The prices are ridiculous. $400 for two nights at a Holiday Inn Express in the middle of nowhere.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely do your own “tournament” at u16 and u17.

We did it for recruiting purposes, and invited every coach in the State and within a reasonable distance from out-of-state.

Play short halves with no subs. Overpay to get good officials. Three teams for 1 field or 4 for two fields.

We did it at an indoor arena and had a coaches room for food/drink. Every coach got a book of each teams’ soccer resumes and cover letters. We also paid for a post-game dinner at a local restaurant. Parents weren’t really around because sideline space was pretty limited. That was fine. It was strictly a recruiting thing.

My guess is you could do the whole thing for $200 to $250 a kid which is obviously a lot cheaper than traveling to a tournament. The coaches liked it and we had a good turnout.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like the tournament has an issue with teams backing out if they dont get the games they want. Also it sounds like they dont have a lot of teams signed up.

I think in past years, the ECNL teams have attended this showcase, but they're going to an ECNL tournament in Kansas City instead. The College Cup is in Kansas City this year, too. I assume Kansas City is where most of the better college coaches will be. This must mean attending the Raleigh showcase is less of a draw for the rest of the teams, and maybe there are fewer teams attending this year for that reason. Why go to a showcase if the right colleges won't be there to see you.

The College Cup is involving (4) teams, so not that many colleges. But, it's nice that's happening that weekend so the girls can go to the games. Bigger issue is the fact that the Chiefs also have a home game that weekend. Airfare to get to KC is crazy. Our team decided that only a limited number of parents are going and we are going to carpool. Just makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Guys, have a heart. An organization like NCFC that puts on this tournament is a charity, and they need all the financial support they can get. According to their last public tax filing, in 2021 they only brought in $16 million in total revenue, and only made a profit of $1.4 million dollars. If they don't think of every way they can to get funding, they might have to close the doors.

[Anonymous]

We don’t do any of that foolishness. We get the hotels that are most convenient to us. We already get fleeced enough for a child to kick a ball

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We don’t do any of that foolishness. We get the hotels that are most convenient to us. We already get fleeced enough for a child to kick a ball

Nobody wants to do the foolishness, but it sounds like they just kick teams out of the showcase if they don't comply with stay to play. So do we all just boycott the tournaments that enforce stay to play, force you to book hotels blindly without information on assigned field location, jack up the room nights, and tack on extra fees?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We don’t do any of that foolishness. We get the hotels that are most convenient to us. We already get fleeced enough for a child to kick a ball

That's great you're the one screwing it up for the club, but the club generally has to meet a minimum requirement for the "stay to play". If everyone on your team did that, you don't play, so since you are such a special butterfly, you can explain to the kids why they won't be attending the tournament (and you might lose out $$$ on that hotel reservation that now can't be cancelled).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don’t do any of that foolishness. We get the hotels that are most convenient to us. We already get fleeced enough for a child to kick a ball

That's great you're the one screwing it up for the club, but the club generally has to meet a minimum requirement for the "stay to play". If everyone on your team did that, you don't play, so since you are such a special butterfly, you can explain to the kids why they won't be attending the tournament (and you might lose out $$$ on that hotel reservation that now can't be cancelled).

Most tournaments/showcases police the requirement by simply having a minimum number of hotel bookings per team. It is a huge headache for the team manager to get a "RESERVATION BOOKING VIOLATION" email two weeks before the tournament, threatening to kick the team out of the tournament, when 9 families booked through the required link, and the rest saved money by booking on their own. Then you find out you wouldn't have gotten hassled if 10 rooms were booked.

Of course, it's Stay to Play itself that is at fault, but team manager is already a horrible role.

[Anonymous]

How close can you get to the minimum without meeting it to avoid a nasty email?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don’t do any of that foolishness. We get the hotels that are most convenient to us. We already get fleeced enough for a child to kick a ball

That's great you're the one screwing it up for the club, but the club generally has to meet a minimum requirement for the "stay to play". If everyone on your team did that, you don't play, so since you are such a special butterfly, you can explain to the kids why they won't be attending the tournament (and you might lose out $$$ on that hotel reservation that now can't be cancelled).

Cool story. Can you cry harder? I may change my actions if so

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How close can you get to the minimum without meeting it to avoid a nasty email?

I honestly don't know the answer to this, but even if we did know, how do we choose which of the 18 lucky families can book outside the required stay to play policy? There's really no fair way to do this.

[Anonymous]

Its so stupid. We are already paying for the tournament. I would much rather just do local tournaments and showcases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Its so stupid. We are already paying for the tournament. I would much rather just do local tournaments and showcases.

This! For the GA and ECNL-RL levels, there are plenty of local teams to play that would offer good competition. Heck, have some GA teams play against some ECNL-RL teams. Would be some interesting match-ups.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, do clubs get kickbacks from the tournament organizers for signing up teams? No one likes to go to these, the coaches don't want to go to them either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, do clubs get kickbacks from the tournament organizers for signing up teams? No one likes to go to these, the coaches don't want to go to them either.

I think it comes down to the entrance fee. They keep those lower so the clubs don't have to directly charge parents more. And everything costs more now especially refs. So they make it all up on the hotel fees. I would much prefer they just charge the entrance fee what it costs to run the thing.