Bethesda Cup

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bethesda Premier Cup has been going on for over 35 years and has always been played in early November. Yes, last year the tournament had major issues with the cancellations primarily due to inclement weather but also because they were trying to do too much in two weekends (too many teams and age groups to re-schedule to fields that were not closed due to the snow)

This year they expanded the tournament to three weekends to help spread teams out over better quality fields and lesson the risk of running out of fields due to bad weather. They had Nov 9th weekend (u9-u13 Boys and Girls), Nov 16th weekend (older girls showcase), and this past week, Nov 23rd (older boys showcase). They also offered insurance to all guest teams in case of weather cancellations.

Yes, there is still room for improvement, but for the most part, the first two weekends went smoothly and largely issue free. There were even comments on this forum on how much better the first weekend went and the usage of Morven Parks (instead of Muldoons) was well received. For the first weekend, they did have to reduce games by 5 minutes per half during the first day due to frost, but the Finals on the second day were full games.

Reducing games by 10 minutes a half seems a bit much but most likely had to be done to fit in all the games before sunset. Most likely the Finals held on Sundays were all full games.

It is never a perfect tournament and is largely run by volunteers but without the volunteers it couldn't be run at all. Most of the dues go to the field fees, referees, and medical staff needed for each group of fields...along with trophies for division winners and runner-ups.

For the most part the Bethesda tournament is meant to be a showcase tournament for college recruits to view high school age boys and girls. The tournament remains very popular with college recruiters hence it will continue to draw a lot of teams all over the northeast..with some teams coming from other regions as well.

Due to its popularity roughly only 3/4s of the teams who apply get accepted for age groups over 12, so the tournament does self relegate its overall size and it isn't necessarily and all out money grab as some here may imply.

Very well said and I completely agree on all points. Our team played the first weekend and it couldn’t have been better. Field closures and delays is dot rates by Soccerplex to protect the fields. No one has control over the weather and Mother Nature.

The officiating left something to be desired that weekend. In the first two games there was a ref and two lines people. The last and most important game for us, there was single official and lots of missed calls. They should be able to guarantee consistency in the number of officials.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bethesda Premier Cup has been going on for over 35 years and has always been played in early November. Yes, last year the tournament had major issues with the cancellations primarily due to inclement weather but also because they were trying to do too much in two weekends (too many teams and age groups to re-schedule to fields that were not closed due to the snow)

This year they expanded the tournament to three weekends to help spread teams out over better quality fields and lesson the risk of running out of fields due to bad weather. They had Nov 9th weekend (u9-u13 Boys and Girls), Nov 16th weekend (older girls showcase), and this past week, Nov 23rd (older boys showcase). They also offered insurance to all guest teams in case of weather cancellations.

Yes, there is still room for improvement, but for the most part, the first two weekends went smoothly and largely issue free. There were even comments on this forum on how much better the first weekend went and the usage of Morven Parks (instead of Muldoons) was well received. For the first weekend, they did have to reduce games by 5 minutes per half during the first day due to frost, but the Finals on the second day were full games.

Reducing games by 10 minutes a half seems a bit much but most likely had to be done to fit in all the games before sunset. Most likely the Finals held on Sundays were all full games.

It is never a perfect tournament and is largely run by volunteers but without the volunteers it couldn't be run at all. Most of the dues go to the field fees, referees, and medical staff needed for each group of fields...along with trophies for division winners and runner-ups.

For the most part the Bethesda tournament is meant to be a showcase tournament for college recruits to view high school age boys and girls. The tournament remains very popular with college recruiters hence it will continue to draw a lot of teams all over the northeast..with some teams coming from other regions as well.

Due to its popularity roughly only 3/4s of the teams who apply get accepted for age groups over 12, so the tournament does self relegate its overall size and it isn't necessarily and all out money grab as some here may imply.

This. And will personally echo that weekends 1 and 2 (U13 and under, and girls U14 and up) went very well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes you can’t control weather, but you can anticipate what might happen on grass fields in late November. Rent better fields, look for turf, lights so the daylight isn’t an excuse. Rent heaters for the fields maybe if frost continues to be an issue, as it was last year. As for the reduced halves and ridiculous amount of brackets with a very little amount of teams in each bracket, that is 100% controllable. This tournament used to have a good reputation but the past couple years it has been an absolute mess. Maybe stop trying to do so much to expand it and instead focus on making it a quality product. We’re talking about one of the more expensive local tournaments here, after all.

Grass fields for an “elite” tournament is embarrassing. My youngest played in a rec-only tournament in VA a few weekends ago and even the u8s played on turf. And this was all rec!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes you can’t control weather, but you can anticipate what might happen on grass fields in late November. Rent better fields, look for turf, lights so the daylight isn’t an excuse. Rent heaters for the fields maybe if frost continues to be an issue, as it was last year. As for the reduced halves and ridiculous amount of brackets with a very little amount of teams in each bracket, that is 100% controllable. This tournament used to have a good reputation but the past couple years it has been an absolute mess. Maybe stop trying to do so much to expand it and instead focus on making it a quality product. We’re talking about one of the more expensive local tournaments here, after all.

Grass fields for an “elite” tournament is embarrassing. My youngest played in a rec-only tournament in VA a few weekends ago and even the u8s played on turf. And this was all rec!

This shows you have not seen the Soccerplex grass fields. They have one of the best grass fields in the country. They only have 3 turf fields which cannot accommodate all of the full-sided games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes you can’t control weather, but you can anticipate what might happen on grass fields in late November. Rent better fields, look for turf, lights so the daylight isn’t an excuse. Rent heaters for the fields maybe if frost continues to be an issue, as it was last year. As for the reduced halves and ridiculous amount of brackets with a very little amount of teams in each bracket, that is 100% controllable. This tournament used to have a good reputation but the past couple years it has been an absolute mess. Maybe stop trying to do so much to expand it and instead focus on making it a quality product. We’re talking about one of the more expensive local tournaments here, after all.

Grass fields for an “elite” tournament is embarrassing. My youngest played in a rec-only tournament in VA a few weekends ago and even the u8s played on turf. And this was all rec!

This shows you have not seen the Soccerplex grass fields. They have one of the best grass fields in the country. They only have 3 turf fields which cannot accommodate all of the full-sided games.

Seriously. Great grass fields are vastly better than turf, which is why the US women raised holy h*ll when they had to play games on turf while the men competed on grass.

[Anonymous]

Not on rain and frost they’re not. It’s like they don’t anticipate what the weather will probably be like in late November. Again, this is one of the more expensive tournaments in the area. Where’s the value?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not on rain and frost they’re not. It’s like they don’t anticipate what the weather will probably be like in late November. Again, this is one of the more expensive tournaments in the area. Where’s the value?

This has been explained to you many times. If you don't care about getting decent competition or getting your kid in front of a lot of college coaches, then it is probably a waste of your time and money to attend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not on rain and frost they’re not. It’s like they don’t anticipate what the weather will probably be like in late November. Again, this is one of the more expensive tournaments in the area. Where’s the value?

There were approximately 18,000 boys and girls that participated in this 3 weekend tournament. Hence, there were at least 17,999 parents that saw value. It seems that you are the only one that didn’t see value. Your team/league must have seen value too that’s why they signed up and paid knowing the potential weather in late November. LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not on rain and frost they’re not. It’s like they don’t anticipate what the weather will probably be like in late November. Again, this is one of the more expensive tournaments in the area. Where’s the value?

There were approximately 18,000 boys and girls that participated in this 3 weekend tournament. Hence, there were at least 17,999 parents that saw value. It seems that you are the only one that didn’t see value. Your team/league must have seen value too that’s why they signed up and paid knowing the potential weather in late November. LOL

For us, the value was in a number of college coaches that saw our kid play. We were disappointed that one of the games in the prime college recruiting group was shorted to two 30 minute halves, which limited opportunities for players to showcase themselves. I understand that the rain requires scheduling corrections, but for the college recruitment class these games meant more than for U15 players.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not on rain and frost they’re not. It’s like they don’t anticipate what the weather will probably be like in late November. Again, this is one of the more expensive tournaments in the area. Where’s the value?

There were approximately 18,000 boys and girls that participated in this 3 weekend tournament. Hence, there were at least 17,999 parents that saw value. It seems that you are the only one that didn’t see value. Your team/league must have seen value too that’s why they signed up and paid knowing the potential weather in late November. LOL

Not the only one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not on rain and frost they’re not. It’s like they don’t anticipate what the weather will probably be like in late November. Again, this is one of the more expensive tournaments in the area. Where’s the value?

There were approximately 18,000 boys and girls that participated in this 3 weekend tournament. Hence, there were at least 17,999 parents that saw value. It seems that you are the only one that didn’t see value. Your team/league must have seen value too that’s why they signed up and paid knowing the potential weather in late November. LOL

Not the only one.

Agree

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes you can’t control weather, but you can anticipate what might happen on grass fields in late November. Rent better fields, look for turf, lights so the daylight isn’t an excuse. Rent heaters for the fields maybe if frost continues to be an issue, as it was last year. As for the reduced halves and ridiculous amount of brackets with a very little amount of teams in each bracket, that is 100% controllable. This tournament used to have a good reputation but the past couple years it has been an absolute mess. Maybe stop trying to do so much to expand it and instead focus on making it a quality product. We’re talking about one of the more expensive local tournaments here, after all.

Grass fields for an “elite” tournament is embarrassing. My youngest played in a rec-only tournament in VA a few weekends ago and even the u8s played on turf. And this was all rec!

Audi field is grass as is most "elite" professional stadiums. Also, I am sure your rec tournament was only a fraction of the size of the Bethesda Premier Cup.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not on rain and frost they’re not. It’s like they don’t anticipate what the weather will probably be like in late November. Again, this is one of the more expensive tournaments in the area. Where’s the value?

There were approximately 18,000 boys and girls that participated in this 3 weekend tournament. Hence, there were at least 17,999 parents that saw value. It seems that you are the only one that didn’t see value. Your team/league must have seen value too that’s why they signed up and paid knowing the potential weather in late November. LOL

Not the only one.

Agree

Ok. It’s 17,998 then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many brackets

Money grab.

Hopefully, they are making money. So that they can keep one of the best clubs in the DMV open for kids to play soccer at all levels. I don't see anything wrong with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes you can’t control weather, but you can anticipate what might happen on grass fields in late November. Rent better fields, look for turf, lights so the daylight isn’t an excuse. Rent heaters for the fields maybe if frost continues to be an issue, as it was last year. As for the reduced halves and ridiculous amount of brackets with a very little amount of teams in each bracket, that is 100% controllable. This tournament used to have a good reputation but the past couple years it has been an absolute mess. Maybe stop trying to do so much to expand it and instead focus on making it a quality product. We’re talking about one of the more expensive local tournaments here, after all.

Grass fields for an “elite” tournament is embarrassing. My youngest played in a rec-only tournament in VA a few weekends ago and even the u8s played on turf. And this was all rec!

If you rate a tournament based on whether they play on artificial turf vs good grass fields, that laughable.

The delays and the shortened games are unfortunate. But ive seen this occur at all of the top tournaments in the area, and north and south.

BSC should take a few less teams per age group, and start all games no earlier than 9/930am each day. This would focus on one of the last gripes about this tournament.