Financial Impact of local soccer tournaments-$$$$ Vulcan Cup

Makes you wonder why clubs, especially those connected to municipal facilities, wouldn't jump at the chance to host.. Or share in hosting games for a nearby club.

Real economic impact for hotels and restaurants, gas stations, etc.

Vulcan is a well run tournament and Birmingham is a great host city. Have fun while you're there! Some good barbeque joints down that way!

Atlanta could do something like that if there weren't so many clubs. We have a Coach new to this area and she couldn't believe the number of small tourneys and keeps saying Atlanta should have 2 HUGE tournaments. That way everyone goes. Talent isn't split amongst tournaments. You get more out of town teams, ect.

I would be highly skeptical of any financial impact number provided by a CVB.  Those are at best estimates fluffed to the highest degree.  It's kinda like the talk a coach gives to you and your child during the tryout process.  Of course your child will play every minute of every game.  I see a ton of potential in your child.  Our team is going to compete on a national level.  Every once in a while the financial estimates may be true; however, the vast majority of the time they are just SWAGs.

Our club hosts between 7 and 9 tournaments per year at our facilities. I put together a presentation for our county commission to showcase the positive impact of our soccer fields.  In researching this, I reached out to several sources to try to ascertain the economic impact of the tournaments we hosted.  Those sources included US. Soccer, Georgia Soccer, and the local CVB.  They all projected numbers based on a formula.  XX players means YY impact per player which gives you ZZ economic impact.  Very rudimentary.  When I asked about more specific numbers from the CVB guy, he said many of the CVBs use the same projected numbers across the board.  Long story short, they all projected numbers that I would not be comfortable standing up in front of our local commissioners and crowing about.  I simply used the number of participants and let them make their own assumptions.

soccergator- You would think that our cities would post something about the impact of soccer here in the atlanta area. I mean the last month alone had to have generated millions. We need to help feed the buzz of Georgia soccer. The level of play is huge. I think the level of press has to be the same.

Agree soccerhouse- Atlanta has great tournaments and the level of play is for sure some of the best in the county here in Georgia. 

Sidelinemama- it's hard to have just 2 main tournaments. Keep in mind these help fund the clubs which in turn player development.

I think when MLS comes they will host a tournament or two. You will then see bigger out of state draw.

Cheers,
J4K 

Article about Richmond losing millions over cancelled Jefferson cup

wric.com/2015/03/06/richmond-area-losing-millions-of-dollars-after-another-canceled-soccer-tournament/

I, too, would be quite suspicious of any numbers put out by a CVB. I'm sure local hotels and restaurants located nearby do see a benefit but I'm not sure it's as much as the CVB is making it out to be. But when CVB's are advertising the economic impact of soccer tournaments, that's when I really believe that tournaments are now just another youth soccer industry. I am starting to really question the cost and whether these tournaments are worth it, especially pre-season tournaments. I know everyone loves to win a trophy but in terms of player development, I'm beginning to think they are useless. Why not skip the pre-season tournaments and instead arrange local friendlies against teams of equal quality? That way, you are getting a good game against a worthy opponent and saving a lot of money in the process. Some of the scores in these tournaments are so mismatched, you know the teams are in the wrong division or simply a strong team playing against weaker teams from another state.

And instead of families spending upwards of $500 to $1,000 on a weekend tournament, could that money could be plowed into other soccer-related projects, like field maintenance or even purchasing field space? I mentioned in a previous post about tournaments that there was a good column on Soccer America recently and one of the items mentioned was containing costs by reducing tournaments, especially travel tournaments. You can read the full column here: www.socceramerica.com/article/62412/tackling-key-challenges-in-modern-day-youth-ball.html

I agree. The costs of club soccer will drive us back to rec ball next year. My kid can play for around $250 a year (both seasons) vs $2000ish at our club team. I just can't justify the expense.

We had a great pre-season friendly, and BOTH coaches were most impressed by the way the girls ran the game all by themselves!  No refs, no injuries.  They called it all themselves, smiled and shook hands afterwards.  It was awesome!  This was not a club that we are close with.  Girls didn't know each other and coaches didn't know each other.  Great experience!