Form a committee to decide when the best time to have the tournament and the fee needed to cover expenses. At this time you will also determine the Tournament Director who will oversee the entire tournament. Decide what fields will be used along with game format and rules. If your tournament will be visited by quite a few out of town teams you may want to contact the local motel and secure a contract price for a block of rooms that the teams can stay in. This information should be provided in the Team mailings (step 2). Decide what Volunteers will be needed, you can start to get the word out that they will be needed.

2.       Initial Team mailing and tournament Marketing.

Design a flyer or document describing the league tournament and include the Date, location and Type of tournament (round robin, double elimination, etc.), entry fee, room rates (If know or if needed), registration deadline, contact information and a entry form. List the Tournament information on the www.leaguetournament.com website to get the word out to any teams in your area that will be interested. This should take place in December, January at the latest. Send out the first team mailing to local area teams.

3.       Team Mailing (Reminder)

One month before the deadline send out a reminder to the local area teams that have not yet responded.

4.       Follow-up team information

Within a week after the deadline complete the schedule and pull together all other information (maps, motel info, schedule, parking and arrival times) for a packet to be mailed to the registered teams

5.       Solicit for Volunteers

As soon as the game schedule is complete start to solicit for volunteers, decide what kind of volunteers are needed (Equipment, Field, Concessions, Scorekeepers, Umpires, etc.) a portion of this work can be done in step one.

6.       Follow up to volunteers

As soon as the volunteers are scheduled notification should be sent communicating their “job” and time slot(s). The sooner they are notified the less risk of no shows. The communication should also thank them for their efforts.

7.       Hospitality committee

This committee will have the responsibility of determining food and refreshment that will be available for the concession stand and or the Banquet. Their responsibility will be to ensure the food is ordered and served if necessary, they would also be charged with soliciting donations for the concession or banquet if required. Solicitation should be performed as early in the process as possible.

8.       Volunteer reminders

A couple of weeks before the tournament reminder notices should be sent out to each volunteer reminding them of their responsibilities and date/times. Ensure that there is contact information for them to use in case there is a problem with the assignment or date. Any maps or instructions should be included with this communication.

9.       Motel Follow-up

If necessary follow up with the motel/hotel to ensure that the block of rooms is still available and what teams have registered thus far. Contact any teams that are not registered yet, reminding them that the hotel registration deadline is fast approaching and no guarantee of rooms after the deadline.

10.   Awards committee

A committee should be set up to determine the awards that will be given out at the tournament (1^st, 2^nd, and third place) as well as any all-star awards. Once that is determined orders need to be placed atleast 3 weeks prior to the tournament date.

11.   Publicity

Approximately 4-6 weeks before the tournament, notification of local TV, Radio, and newspapers need to be notified of the tournament and announcements made to the public. You should also list your tournament on the league tournament listing website they are a great resource that most leagues will use to search and list their tournaments. This is a free service and should be the first place that the tournament is announced.

12.   First Aid

Communication to the local ambulance service needs to be made to let them know of the tournament dates and that their services may be needed. If possible first aid kits should be available at the field and possibly a first-aid volunteer.

13.   Field Crew and Equipment

Any field maintenance should be performed and any personnel needed to make these changes should be present during the tournament in case of emergency situations. Any equipment (balls, field stripping etc.) should be plentiful and easily available.

14.   Team packet

Team packets should be assembled and available for the team upon checking or first arrival at the tournament location. The packet should include maps of the fields and concessions, first-aid, and restrooms.

15.   Night before the tournament

The tournament director should be available at the hotel or Hospitality room the night before the tournament to hand out team packets and to meet and greet teams, this is a good time for the teams to socialize with each other before play begins.

16.   Day of tournament

The field crew needs to be at the fields a couple hours prior to the start of the 1st game to mark the fields (if not already done), set up the bases, and distribute the first batch of balls. Be sure that the fields are marked with field numbers (Field #1, etc.). The tournament director needs to be at the fields to meet with the volunteers and make sure each field is staffed with all of the necessary people. The volunteers should arrive 1/2 hour prior to each game start to get checked in and ready to start working by game start time. Ideally there would be 1 head umpire, 2 field judges, 1 base operator and 1 or 2 scorekeepers per field. There should be a clip board with official scoresheets, pencils & erasers, team roster sheets, and an official set of rules for each field. Have a water jug and cups at each field for the volunteers. If necessary, have someone transport the team(s), that flew to the tournament, from the motel to the fields. Be sure that there is a rover to keep track of the beep baseballs — collect “dead” balls and supply “new” balls. Remind the umpires to try to keep the games on schedule. The tournament director would travel among the fields to be sure things are running smoothly. Someone would need to collect the scoresheets and get them turned in to the statistician for posting. All of Saturday’s games would need to be posted by Saturday night and have the sheets available on Sunday morning to post Sunday’s games. Sunday’s games will probably have to be manually posted to get ready for the awards presentation. After the games are over on Saturday, the field crew needs to pick up all of the equipment — bases, wires, control boxes, and balls. If you are hosting a “banquet” on Saturday night, the banquet committee needs to be sure that someone is at the hotel getting the food ready.

17.   Sunday Morning

Sunday morning the field crew needs to be at the field early to be sure that the fields are still marked and to set up the bases. They should also distribute the balls. The statistician should have the sheets available with all of Saturday’s games posted. The Tournament Director needs to be sure that all of the volunteers show up for duty. As soon as the games are over, the statistician should manually post the stats so the information is available for the awards presentation. As soon as the information is available, have the awards ceremony. (Be sure that the awards are on site for the presentation.) The field crew again needs to pick up all of the equipment. If any teams flew in for the tournament, be sure they have transportation back to the airport.

18.   End of tournament

Your worries are over for this tournament. Go home and rest. Tomorrow you can start planning for next year. Be sure to send “Thank You” notes to your volunteers.