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.

They could just charge it all as part of the entry fee

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

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.

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.

Does anyone do team travel anymore? Our club used to do team travel but eliminated it during COVID and stated they do not plan to bring it back.

That is kind of where some of the 6 room minimum stuff made sense - bunk up 4 kids per room plus a couple for chaperones and you are off and running.

Once that went away, you are talking about rooms / family and you get into much higher room needs and frankly needs for better hotel options.

There have been a few times when the stay and play hotel lottery put us into a really crappy hotel and we bought out the minimum room requirement and nights and spread it out amongst the team and went elsewhere. As long as they get their $$, they don't care if you are in the hotel or not.

Anonymous wrote:the # of rooms you have to book in a stay to play is based on how many people are on your roster. The Coach or TM can email the tournament to ask how many are required as each tournament can have their own set of standards. We have a roster of 18 and sometime it is 9 rooms and sometimes it is 12 or even 15 rooms.

For ECNL, they told me 6 rooms need to be booked. I have found in general that the hotels are reasonably priced. The problem is that finding the hotel you want to stay at.

the # of rooms you have to book in a stay to play is based on how many people are on your roster. The Coach or TM can email the tournament to ask how many are required as each tournament can have their own set of standards. We have a roster of 18 and sometime it is 9 rooms and sometimes it is 12 or even 15 rooms.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We often stayed with relatives when possible at expensive soccer tournaments. Couldn't pay for hotels on top of all the other costs. Never got dismissed from a tournament ever for doing this.

Has anyone actually ever seen a tournament enforce this?

Yes I received an email from ECNL that i hadn't booked the minimum number of rooms, which is 6.

6 rooms isn't the whole team

It's not as long as six families stay at the required hotel. Everyone else can stay with friends, relatives, camp, sleep in the car, staying some cheap motel, stay out of five-star deluxe resort ....whatever they want.

Anonymous wrote:When they ask you to book through their link, are they limiting you to one hotel?

I was asked for how much I spent when visiting a nonprofit type of conference so they could make a case for grants. By showing that we visitors spent money in the area, they could show some of the value they brought to the economy.

My example is in the arts and not soccer, but the situation just seemed focused on securing future funding.

i assumed stay to play, in the op’s original example of Virginia Beach, and for the city to be able to track tax / revenue was two fold: 1) for the soccer club hosting to show value for grant reasons 2) for the soccer to club to show value to the city (perhaps for lower rates / expenses for field rentals)

Anonymous wrote:Armchair lawyers are jumping to conclusions.
Need to examine the facts to determine the current market power of the parties allegedly engaging in anticompetitive behavior, and the actual harm being caused to actual people, not just theoretical harm.

actual lawyer trying to save someone from wasting time and money on a clearly losing argument.

When they ask you to book through their link, are they limiting you to one hotel?

I was asked for how much I spent when visiting a nonprofit type of conference so they could make a case for grants. By showing that we visitors spent money in the area, they could show some of the value they brought to the economy.

My example is in the arts and not soccer, but the situation just seemed focused on securing future funding.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We often stayed with relatives when possible at expensive soccer tournaments. Couldn't pay for hotels on top of all the other costs. Never got dismissed from a tournament ever for doing this.

Has anyone actually ever seen a tournament enforce this?

Yes I received an email from ECNL that i hadn't booked the minimum number of rooms, which is 6.

6 rooms isn't the whole team

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We often stayed with relatives when possible at expensive soccer tournaments. Couldn't pay for hotels on top of all the other costs. Never got dismissed from a tournament ever for doing this.

Has anyone actually ever seen a tournament enforce this?

In other sprints absolutely. Volleyball is very strict about it. You get dropped from tournaments if you don’t book the required blocks. In soccer, bigger tournaments like Jeff cup do as well.

Is this hearsay or did it actually have your to DC's team?

Armchair lawyers are jumping to conclusions.
Need to examine the facts to determine the current market power of the parties allegedly engaging in anticompetitive behavior, and the actual harm being caused to actual people, not just theoretical harm.

Soccer tourism.