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Post by Ron Pittman on Feb 25, 2011 11:57:53 GMT -5
Hmmm.... BG Ams has been mando pre-reg for years. Sure, our local events aren't that size, but what about events like MCOpen ? What if they could become that big? Would it make sense to start "training" golfers to always pre-reg for that event? In the effort to be equitable --- at least with required pre-reg --- everyone pays the same.
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Post by RD on Feb 25, 2011 12:16:55 GMT -5
Hmmm.... BG Ams has been mando pre-reg for years. Sure, our local events aren't that size, but what about events like MCOpen ? What if they could become that big? Would it make sense to start "training" golfers to always pre-reg for that event? In the effort to be equitable --- at least with required pre-reg --- everyone pays the same. Exactimundo, thats my point in a nutshell.....we "train" for the future...the sport is only growing, events will start to fill faster
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Post by billy on Feb 25, 2011 13:16:40 GMT -5
Wow - this has been one of the more active topics I've seen - kudos to slowroll for forcing the discussion.
I will say in the business world I've attended a ton of conferences / trade shows and every single one of them offers two prices to exhibitors and attendees. You guessed it...a pre-registration discount and for the same reason we are talking about - planning and preparation. It also makes it easier to get sponsors when you can say we have 100 players as opposed to we have 25 registered but HOPE to have around 80.
A more professional image of the sport and its players wouldn't hurt.
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Post by Ron Pittman on Feb 26, 2011 12:49:35 GMT -5
Ok, let's attempt a summary.
Craig, what solutions have we come up with that fills your gap, butters your bread, scratches your itch, of maybe, possibly, hopefully even ---- clicks your Bik?
I went back and read a bit and only found a couple of possible winners. 1. Charge a late fee for day-of registrants that is larger than the online fee for online pre-registrants. Thereby the pre-regger pays less. or 2. Somehow waive the online fee for the player and have that cost covered by the organizer in some way. Maybe even offset by the late fees.
Were there any other decent choices? Ron
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Post by slowroll on Feb 26, 2011 17:25:31 GMT -5
Ok, let's attempt a summary. Craig, what solutions have we come up with that fills your gap, butters your bread, scratches your itch, of maybe, possibly, hopefully even ---- clicks your Bik? I went back and read a bit and only found a couple of possible winners. 1. Charge a late fee for day-of registrants that is larger than the online fee for online pre-registrants. Thereby the pre-regger pays less. or 2. Somehow waive the online fee for the player and have that cost covered by the organizer in some way. Maybe even offset by the late fees. Were there any other decent choices? Ron I thought that the TD(Dave242) that chimed in on the DGCR stating that they adjusted their tournament fees to charge an additional $5 to the players that signeup up the day of the event made the best case. I think that using that pool of money to cover the lost cash that the online signups companies charged is an option, but I would never want the players to get cheated by draining the actual money going into an event. I've never handled payouts, but I suspect that more than half of our players will not pre-register even if it is $5 cheaper to play if they did so. It's your call guys, I just wanted to get people thinking about this.
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Post by Ron Pittman on Feb 26, 2011 18:06:18 GMT -5
Yes, worthy of discussion.
As a TD, my option #1(post 18) is rather easy to pull off. Whether you see the online pre-reg cost as a convenience fee or an extra charge---- it will still be less than a $5 Late Fee that day-of registrants would pay.
I got to thinking about my option #2 (which is pretty much what 242 is saying). If the TD covers the cost of the online fees (instead of the player) --- then there has to be a plan in place to fund that deficit.
Those missing dollars could come from a sponsor or from the am payout. But, I can think of a handful of problems with those options. Would advertising "No Online Fee" garner enough good will to offset lower payout?
Or the deficit could be made up from late fees paid by the day-of registrants. At first glance that looks do-able. But, no matter how you sliced it -- if the TD covers that online fee -- that is an event expense that will take away from the overall value of the tournament.
In the case of our last event (the Liberty Ice Bowl), we had 2 snail mail entrants, 6 in-person entrants, and 42 online entrants. If we had covered the cost of the online fee -- the charity donation would have been reduced by $126. Had it not been a charity event, it would have reduced the am payout by the same amount.
Sure, a late fee charge will add income to the event, but ear-marking that money to offset the online fee does not change the fact that covering the online fee always reduces the value of a tournament.
It is just math. ;D Roin
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Post by Ron Pittman on Feb 26, 2011 18:13:07 GMT -5
And if the event covered the online fee ---we would also have to come up with a plan to reimburse the snail mail entrants for the cost of the envelope and stamp, because -- in principal-- they would would be paying more. The injustice of it all.
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Post by ratskrad on Feb 26, 2011 21:22:20 GMT -5
no matter how you sliced it -- if the TD covers that online fee -- that is an event expense that will take away from the overall value of the tournament. Which is why I feel the best solution is to raise prices across the board, give a discount to the pre-regs, and not worry a bit about the online fee. so if a division was previously advertised as $25, now it's advertised as $30 if it was previously advertised at $40, now it's $45 etc But it is also advertised that there is a $5 discount for preregistering. Someone who preregisters by mail in the first division above would still pay $25 like they always have. Someone who preregisters in person would still pay $25. Someone who preregisters online would still pay $25 plus a $3 or $4 fee (we've been calling this a service charge or online fee, but it's also known as a convenience charge . . . and there's a reason for that.) Someone who does not preregister would pay $30. So as long as the online convenience charge stays below $5, then everyone who preregisters will pay less than everyone who does not. There would be no blatant "late fee" punishment label attached to those who choose to wait. There are no costs for the TD to cover and the late-comers pay more, so the value of the tournament increases slightly instead of the opposite. The goal is to provide an incentive which will get more folks to pre-reg. Offering player packs to all who preregister was one suggestion, but this is another cost which takes away from the Am prize pool. With the above scenario, the TD can continue to offer player packs to only the first XX players, but there is still an incentive for preregistering even after the player packs are gone. My humble opinion. Cameron
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