Today I saw a couple of things I didn’t like on ESPN in the tournaments.

First, in the Senior Girls Softball tournament a girl from Puero Rico came around third and a play was being made on her at the plate. The rule reads that when a play is being made on a runner, the runner must "slide or avoid conflict". She lowered her shoulder and initiated contact. She should have been called out and ejected from the game. No doubt about it.

Second, the behavior of the boy during the Indiana vs. Ohio game was disgusting. Slamming bats into the ground, throwing bats around, showing up the umpires, showing up their teammates, acting disgusted when a teammate made a mistake, unacceptable, but understandable.

In a pressure situation such as this how else would we expect the kids to react? They are only 12! I blame this on the adults! The umpires should have stopped it at first instance, and the managers and coaches should have stepped in as well. It seemed nobody seem to care. This is the first time I have seen this behavior, but it is absolutely unacceptable.

Finally, know why Indiana won? Ohio ran out of pitching. They used 4 tonight, at least 2 last night, that means their number 6 was in the game! Possibly their number 7. It’s all about the pitching!

Do you think the behavior of the teams playing tonight was acceptable?

Yesterday we had the honor of hosting our district’s sectional tournament for the major softball division. The sectional was created to reduce the burden on the state tournaments, but in our case is a bit silly. We have only three districts in it so it is a 3 game round robin . Whoever shows up in their two games wins and goes to states. That is for a different article though. Today, I would like to discuss making money for your league hosting a tournament.

The cost we have to put out to host the tournament is about $700. This includes the flag for the champion, pins, medallions, and medals. The problem with only three teams playing is that there is no way to make that money up with concessions. We sold almost $500 in concessions, but that is revenue, not profit. We still had to purchase the stuff that we sold.

Therefore, we needed to find a way to raise more money. Our initial thought was a souvenir t-shirt. Everyone wants a momento of the tournament right? WRONG! We sold only about 20. Why?

I think it is because the girls play in a tournament every weekend just about and purchasing a shirt at each one is not feasable. Had this been the state tournament we probably would have sold enough to justify the costs, but at the sectional they simply did not sell.

This creates quite a dilima for the hosting league. First we have to feed all the umpires and district adminstrator. There is a cost for that. Then, we have to make sure all the volunteers have water and such to keep them going. And then theres the city guy which we have to make sure he is watered and fed as well. Suddenly we are losing a lot of money hosting this event!

So how can we raise more money at this event? We tried a 50/50 drawing and didn’t sell a single ticket! What tactics have you used in the past to raise money at tournaments? Please share with us so we can all reap the rewards of the hours of effort that goes into hosting a tournament.

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