ECNL tournament question

Is the entry fee for an ECNL tournament consistent across the board? or does it vary tournament to tournament. Looking at the ECNL website it appears all tournaments are $1,000 ( or $750 for U14)? is that correct, or am I reading it wrong?

I believe they are supposed to be the same, but when the tournament was held in Frisco, I know our team had to pay another $1000 extra for some reason.

That is correct, it is $1000 across the board.

Golgolgol, I know for a fact that some clubs do pay their coaches per diems during tournaments, even when the tournaments are local. That could be a reason for extra $$$.

All in all, you should be able to get a breakdown from your Team Manager, Team Coach or DOC, if you think you don't understand extra $$ charges. At a minimum, may be a simple explanation on what is it about.

golgolgol wrote:I believe they are supposed to be the same, but when the tournament was held in Frisco, I know our team had to pay another $1000 extra for some reason.

Since the Frisco venue was significantly more expensive than the venue in San Antonio, Dallas based teams were asked to kick in an extra $1,000 to help cover that cost.  Mine's been out of club soccer for a couple of years now, so I don't know if they still do that, but that's how the "surcharge" got started.

It was easily worth it, considering that cost was offset by 4 days lodging and meals and other travel expenses for travel to San Antonio.

ballhead wrote:

golgolgol wrote:I believe they are supposed to be the same, but when the tournament was held in Frisco, I know our team had to pay another $1000 extra for some reason.

Since the Frisco venue was significantly more expensive than the venue in San Antonio, Dallas based teams were asked to kick in an extra $1,000 to help cover that cost.  Mine's been out of club soccer for a couple of years now, so I don't know if they still do that, but that's how the "surcharge" got started.

It was easily worth it, considering that cost was offset by 4 days lodging and meals and other travel expenses for travel to San Antonio.

I understand that staying in town is worth the extra "G", but the park had multiple contributors when building the facialities and venue... why should it cost any more, to stay & play in NTX than Austin?! My big question, is why the cheesemo charges for the Frisco tournament in the first place? Who does that revenue go too?

We stayed wth family up there at our last event, and they were highly peeved at having to pay for parking to watch different kids throughout the day! Had my family not been there, they would have suffered that trauma alone...

My underunderstanding may be incorrect, but, the appearance is that FC Dallas comes across as a operator and facility user, that isn't fulling serving 2 of it's business partners & contributors to the facialities - City of Frisco and FISD. Frankly, the perception is the venue could be more utilized and more beneficial to the local economy. It would seem the additional cost would discourage more usage ... Not sure  who it benefits having unused facilities....Maybe the local vendors, hotels, shopping, etc, don't need the extra revenue...

FISD plays HS football and soccer games there. I think Frisco Soccer Assn plays local rec games there since they are the city recreational soccer league. Maybe they have practices there too but I don't know that. But it seems like FISD and the City of Frisco are both using the facilities.

ECNL, LHGCL, Classic league boys have all played games there before, I'm assuming as renters of the fields & complex. I'm not sure they would get any say-so in how the fields are managed or who else uses them as a renter. At least they shouldn't anyway.

Are you suggesting that FC Dallas shouldn't be allowed to use the fields that they built and operate?

Also, on the pay to park thing, that's not unheard of. I've been to other tournaments (Disney, GIT, Surf, etc) and paid to park. Disney was something like $20 for parking and I still had to buy a ticket to get into the facility to watch games. FCD has better fields than all 3 places. The way the fields are in Ft. Worth, ECNL should pay the money to use the FCD complex rather than playing on Rolling Hills where the fields really to have hills and rolls in them. It's not like ECNL isn't making hundreds of thousands of dollars on these events. Pay for some quality fields please.

Yes, ECNL could afford FCD park, but I don't think they want to give or loose revenue paying inflated prices for fields.

technically the Fields are owned by the city of frisco. FCD has a long term lease and management contract. The extra K for the local teams is because they can and I have a sneaking suspicion that this money may go back to the clubs

go99 wrote:technically the Fields are owned by the city of frisco.  FCD has a long term lease and management contract.  The extra K for the local teams is because they can and I have a sneaking suspicion that this money may go back to the clubs

I can't speak for what's going on today, but I was involved the first year when the Texas event was moved from San Antonio to Dallas, and we were shown the figures from what the Star Complex in San Antonio cost vs what was then Pizza Hut Park.  The differences were substantial.  The league would have been fine with staying in San Antonio.

I can assure you, at least at that point in time, that the money did not go back to the clubs.

Could this all have changed now?  Sure, but I doubt it.

why not spread the additional cost out to all of the teams not just the local ones. I am sure spread among all of the teams the cost would not have been that much.

It was the local teams that were lobbying not to have to travel to South Texas.  The other teams had to travel anyway, so whether they went to Dallas or San Antonio, they still had hotels, meals, transportation, etc.

As I mentioned previously, for us, it was easy to justify, since we easily saved much more by not having travel expenses.

But when it was in S Texas did those teams have to pay more than out of town teams. It's always easy for leagues and clubs to justify because they don't actually have to cut the checks. I suspect that if the local clubs had to pick up the cost themselves they would have been less enthusiastic. Maybe a move to moneygram would save the extra $5K? Nah! what was I thinking. Onces you pay more the cost never comes back down

go99 wrote:But when it was in S Texas did those teams have to pay more than out of town teams.  It's always easy for leagues and clubs to justify because they don't actually have to cut the checks.  I suspect that if the local clubs had to pick up the cost themselves they would have been less enthusiastic.  Maybe a move to moneygram would save the extra $5K?  Nah! what was I thinking.  Onces you pay more the cost never comes back down

You're missing the point.  Not trying to argue with you, but the tournament costs in San Antonio were apparently in line with the tournament costs in other parts of the country.  It wasn't the South Texas teams that lobbied for a more expensive venue to benefit them, it was the NTX teams that did that.  

Just trying shed a little light on the situation and how it came to be from some direct knowledge I happen to have.  I personally don't think it was "The Man" stepping on the "little guy" to take advantage of them.  

The primary benefit was the elimination of the travel expenses for the teams, which the parents pay, so I suspect you're right, if the clubs had been asked to foot the bill, it wouldn't have been so appealing, but I can tell you that the parents on our team didn't have a problem at all with paying $50 per player to keep from paying travel expenses for a 3 day tournament.

The 5 clubs benefited by having the tournament in their own back yard.  The teams benefited by not having to travel.  

Now to your point about MoneyGram, I don't have a clue.  I don't even know if they still charge the 1K (which adds up to not 5K, but 20K (1K per team, 4 team's per club, 5 clubs), but if they are, that would be a legitimate question.

I'll leave this to y'all to argue about now.

twotone wrote:FISD plays HS football and soccer games there. I think Frisco Soccer Assn plays local rec games there since they are the city recreational soccer league. Maybe they have practices there too but I don't know that. But it seems like FISD and the City of Frisco are both using the facilities.

ECNL, LHGCL, Classic league boys have all played games there before, I'm assuming as renters of the fields & complex. I'm not sure they would get any say-so in how the fields are managed or who else uses them as a renter. At least they shouldn't anyway.

Are you suggesting that FC Dallas shouldn't be allowed to use the fields that they built and operate?

Also, on the pay to park thing, that's not unheard of. I've been to other tournaments (Disney, GIT, Surf, etc) and paid to park. Disney was something like $20 for parking and I still had to buy a ticket to get into the facility to watch games. FCD has better fields than all 3 places. The way the fields are in Ft. Worth, ECNL should pay the money to use the FCD complex rather than playing on Rolling Hills where the fields really to have hills and rolls in them. It's not like ECNL isn't making hundreds of thousands of dollars on these events. Pay for some quality fields please.

I'm suggesting the publicly-built complex should be more competitve venue and more beneficial to its community.

I don't think ECNL is keeping the money, and personally, Balllhead is right-- I'd rather pay the extra $1,000 (divided by 18-20 parents) to stay in NTX and sleep in my own bed, than go spend a couple thousand in Austin.

My point (I obviously didn't make earlier) is the complex doesn't get built without City of Frisco and FISD - tax payer-funds. Yes,  the stadium and fields are used by the local high schools; yes, the fields are excellent, which should make for a excellent tournament venue (and public revenue) destination. Why would the city let that revenue go to Austin?

I think most assumed the complex, and surrounding zoning wasn't built just FISD and FCD uses. The point being missed is that, had the local clubs hadn't ponied up the extra money-- ALL of the travel (hotel, dining, etc) revenue would have gone to Austin.

There is no justifying charging for school-age soccer parking is cheesemo BS and Disney left a bad taste in a lot folks mouths. A family spend a lot of money to get to a destination, just to have to pay to watch their kid play...  Haven't been to a FCD LHGCL or ECNL soccer match or school event that charged for parking at that complex.