Puttin Together a Tournament

(all_thats_left_lake_rental)

What's up guys and gals, I'm putting together a wake boarding tournament. I need all the advice and/or ideas that you peeps might have, maybe things you saw at other tournaments that you thought was a good idea, or something they needed... Its going to be held in Bryan/College Stations, Texas... The lake is 886 with one bar on it, and I own the lake rental across the street... we have the Texas aTm wakeboarding team so I think we could gather a pretty good crowd here in a college town. I have a D.J./announcement system, maybe a judge, we have a boat. Next I'm gathering local and other sponsors... any advice there would be nice...

(lakemiltonwake08)

Insurance

(stephan) · (stephan) **Join Date: Nov 2002** 06-15-2009, 9:25 AM

Call the WWA, they will send you a packet of all required stuff and are a good resource to bounce ideas off of.

The best advice I can give is to get EVERYTHING ready beforehand so that on the day of the event you can just start pulling riders. Events that lag piss everyone off.

(johnm_ttu) · (johnm_ttu) **Join Date: Jul 2005** 06-15-2009, 10:29 AM

Research the possible dates extensively that you want your tournament to take place and pick the weekend with the fewest conflicting events. This is crucial to getting a good crowd and enough riders to make it worth while.

(spoon5285) · (spoon5285) **Join Date: Aug 2008** 06-15-2009, 12:10 PM

I know a couple of Guys that go to blinn that would probably compete if you do go through with it. I graduated 07 but i would come down to watch and party on Northgate. Good lake for a tournament. Might talk to the guys that put on Zeigfest, that would be cool to kinda piggy back that event maybe.

Maybe on an early home game weekend. There would be a ton of people in town.

Probably stuff you already thought about, i just get excited when i think about my college years and a chance to get away from real life.

(andy_nintzel)

Another Idea is Run two boats with the Outlaw/Pro Riders going between the other classes of riders, that keeps the crowd into it.

(johnm_ttu) · (johnm_ttu) **Join Date: Jul 2005** 06-15-2009, 1:34 PM

I am not sure how much similarity there is to the Lubbock market and the College Station market, but I actually held a tournament on an early home game weekend TTU vs. Massachusetts Cream Puff U and it definitely hurt attendance. In Lubbock TTU football/tailgating is everything and I would think that College Station would be much the same and most likely even more so. Home games also eat up a ton of potential lodging for traveling tournament riders and the rate is usually higher.

I like the piggybacking idea to increase the value to sponsors.

(malibuboarder75)

Dustin,

I am head of the texas A&M club. We threw a tournament at lake bryan before, kind of difficult.

What local sponsors are you going to get? We tried that also. Not many companies want to sponsor a sport they have no idea about.

(all_thats_left_lake_rental)

I'm real good friends with the guys that run the Icehouse(and host Ziegfest) there on the lake so my company and the lake will be the start of sponsors, Next I thought about the boat companies, Bryan Marine, The Jet ski dealers in town, i thought about asking Aggieland Outfitters to come out and put a tent sale out and would hoped to get some bigger sponsors to come put a booth up, Cwb, hyperlite, etc... as far as date I'm thinking the weekend atm starts for the fall semester, either the aug. 15-16 or 22-23.

d_fresh 06-16-2009, 4:45 AM

The first year is always tough. Do you have, or do you know anyone that has ran a wakeboarding event. If you are succesful the first year, then it will be easier to get people on board the following years. Make sure you have a good crew to set up the coarse, load down the boats (at least 2 boats pulling), pickup boat, sanctioning, safety person, registration
(credit card machine). This my third year of running a wake tournament in Michigan. I typically have at leasy 4 dealers bring in boats, get merchandise from most major companies to raffle, hire the local ski school to set up, run, judge, and break down the event. This event has become the largest grass root event in
Michigan.

www.wlwake.com

Doug

(boynepat) · (boynepat) **Join Date: Jul 2008** 06-16-2009, 8:52 AM

Dustin,
Putting a tournament on the weekend that school starts might not be a good idea. Where I go to school that first weekend is the time when everyone parties the hardest because people are back from home for the summer and classes havent really started yet. I know that I probably wouldnt be waking up early or be in any condition to ride in a tournament.

(all_thats_left_lake_rental)

no doug, Ive never actually put one on myself, been to a couple but thats it... I think I have all the connections as far as making it happen, Im just worried about the amount of competitors attending might not be enough, how many riders makes a "good" turn out?
Ive got a Credit card machine at my store for registration...
Leo call me @ 979-777-3795 lets talk...