Stay-to-Play Hotel-Booking Requirements: Varsity Brands Lawsuit

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tournament organizers get kickbacks one way or another. I've even seen organizers offer two different entry rates, one where you use their agency to book, and one where you allow teams to book on their own.

Kickbacks make it sound shady. Tournaments are businesses and they need to make a profit or they wouldn’t have them. It seems like people expect well run tournaments on nice fields with good refs and guaranteed available rooms, but don’t want to pay money for it. Believe me, nobody is getting filthy rich from running soccer tournaments. People are allowed to make a living and charge for services. Just like you can choose not to attend.

I prefer basketball just charging at the door for entry. At least that is straight forward and honest instead of having to use some third rate travel agent to overpay for a motel room

Bingo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tournament organizers get kickbacks one way or another. I've even seen organizers offer two different entry rates, one where you use their agency to book, and one where you allow teams to book on their own.

Kickbacks make it sound shady. Tournaments are businesses and they need to make a profit or they wouldn’t have them. It seems like people expect well run tournaments on nice fields with good refs and guaranteed available rooms, but don’t want to pay money for it. Believe me, nobody is getting filthy rich from running soccer tournaments. People are allowed to make a living and charge for services. Just like you can choose not to attend.

I prefer basketball just charging at the door for entry. At least that is straight forward and honest instead of having to use some third rate travel agent to overpay for a motel room

AAU basketball and other travel sports have stay to play tournaments. It’s not just soccer. Unfortunately it’s common practice. Capitalism at work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tournament organizers get kickbacks one way or another. I've even seen organizers offer two different entry rates, one where you use their agency to book, and one where you allow teams to book on their own.

Kickbacks make it sound shady. Tournaments are businesses and they need to make a profit or they wouldn’t have them. It seems like people expect well run tournaments on nice fields with good refs and guaranteed available rooms, but don’t want to pay money for it. Believe me, nobody is getting filthy rich from running soccer tournaments. People are allowed to make a living and charge for services. Just like you can choose not to attend.

I prefer basketball just charging at the door for entry. At least that is straight forward and honest instead of having to use some third rate travel agent to overpay for a motel room

AAU basketball and other travel sports have stay to play tournaments. It’s not just soccer. Unfortunately it’s common practice. Capitalism at work.

If they have them, I haven't seen them. Premier and exposure are the big tournament organizers for basketball and neither does stay to play. For the out of state club run tournaments that I've been to, none have been pay to stay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tournament organizers get kickbacks one way or another. I've even seen organizers offer two different entry rates, one where you use their agency to book, and one where you allow teams to book on their own.

Kickbacks make it sound shady. Tournaments are businesses and they need to make a profit or they wouldn’t have them. It seems like people expect well run tournaments on nice fields with good refs and guaranteed available rooms, but don’t want to pay money for it. Believe me, nobody is getting filthy rich from running soccer tournaments. People are allowed to make a living and charge for services. Just like you can choose not to attend.

I prefer basketball just charging at the door for entry. At least that is straight forward and honest instead of having to use some third rate travel agent to overpay for a motel room

AAU basketball and other travel sports have stay to play tournaments. It’s not just soccer. Unfortunately it’s common practice. Capitalism at work.

If they have them, I haven't seen them. Premier and exposure are the big tournament organizers for basketball and neither does stay to play. For the out of state club run tournaments that I've been to, none have been pay to stay.

Have had kids in 3 different travel sports. Bball, soccer and vball. Whether it’s stay to play or not, you’re going to pay for a hotel when you travel and if you’re lucky enough to find a decent one at a lower rate you’re still paying entry fee. They get you one way or another. Bball - stay wherever you want but hotel rates aren’t always that low and then you have pay to enter every day. Volleyball stay to play and pay to enter and pay to park if you’re at a convention center which you are more often than not. And soccer usually is stay to play but you’re not paying for parking and entry. Regardless, when it’s stay to play, I’ve found that the rates at some hotels are cheaper when you book through tournament. I always look bc we usually need two rooms if the whole family happens to travel. Almost always is cheaper to book through tournament in soccer and VB in my experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tournament organizers get kickbacks one way or another. I've even seen organizers offer two different entry rates, one where you use their agency to book, and one where you allow teams to book on their own.

Kickbacks make it sound shady. Tournaments are businesses and they need to make a profit or they wouldn’t have them. It seems like people expect well run tournaments on nice fields with good refs and guaranteed available rooms, but don’t want to pay money for it. Believe me, nobody is getting filthy rich from running soccer tournaments. People are allowed to make a living and charge for services. Just like you can choose not to attend.

I prefer basketball just charging at the door for entry. At least that is straight forward and honest instead of having to use some third rate travel agent to overpay for a motel room

AAU basketball and other travel sports have stay to play tournaments. It’s not just soccer. Unfortunately it’s common practice. Capitalism at work.

If they have them, I haven't seen them. Premier and exposure are the big tournament organizers for basketball and neither does stay to play. For the out of state club run tournaments that I've been to, none have been pay to stay.

Have had kids in 3 different travel sports. Bball, soccer and vball. Whether it’s stay to play or not, you’re going to pay for a hotel when you travel and if you’re lucky enough to find a decent one at a lower rate you’re still paying entry fee. They get you one way or another. Bball - stay wherever you want but hotel rates aren’t always that low and then you have pay to enter every day. Volleyball stay to play and pay to enter and pay to park if you’re at a convention center which you are more often than not. And soccer usually is stay to play but you’re not paying for parking and entry. Regardless, when it’s stay to play, I’ve found that the rates at some hotels are cheaper when you book through tournament. I always look bc we usually need two rooms if the whole family happens to travel. Almost always is cheaper to book through tournament in soccer and VB in my experience.

I prefer BBall because I can stay somewhere decent and use points.

[Anonymous]

I have found stay-to-play tournaments not a big issue. Many times most of the families stay somewhere else and there has been no penalty. The times we have stayed in the team hotel it's usually a decent price with favorable cancellation policies that have been handy when a tournament is cancelled due to bad weather. It's not worth getting worked up about. I know what we signed up for.

[Anonymous]

Will Jefferson cup enforce stay to play for the hundreds of players that are playing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will Jefferson cup enforce stay to play for the hundreds of players that are playing?

I was told that they were but, at least for the girls showcase weekend, there are 500+ teams playing that weekend! Now, granted, not every team is subject to a hotel stay but the vast majority of them will be. I don't know what the average number of players are for U15 - U19 teams but even if it's just 15 players x 500 teams x 85% of teams needing a hotel, that's 6,375 players needing a place to stay. Anthony Travel told me that teams are required to book at least 8 rooms and that if you can't find a participating hotel that can accommodate that (many places had very few rooms left 24 - 48 hours after the acceptance emails were sent out), players/families can book individually at any participating hotel as long as your team is 1) booking at least 8 rooms and 2) everyone indicates the (same) team name when they register.