Players have to pay at the gate?

[Jackel2168]

Is this an ASA sanctioned tournament? Cause who would thought that someone running an ASA tournament would EVER do anything just to make more money...

 

[David Carter]

It's bad enough we have organizations that charge fans for league games, that gets really old, every Tuesday for 12 weeks and you have mom, dad and a couple kids paying $8 total just to watch Suzie play and they can't even keep the bathroom stocked with TP, no outside drinks and water is $2 for the small bottle (12oz) and it's 90+ degrees in the evening in Sept in S.A.,Tx.

Charging kids to play after you already have several hundred dollars from the entry fee and all the family and friends paying gate seems over the top, every tourney I have ever seen lets players and coaches in free, guess I don't get around much.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

Amy, I don't recall my daughter paying a gate fee at all. My daughter's organization is putting on a tournament this coming weekend that has become a tradition in the St. Louis area. Teams will come from all over Missouri and Illinois. Sometimes we get teams as far away as Tennessee. (Germantown came a few years.) They will have the best BBQ, grilled pork steaks, corn on the cob, ... it is a feast and at great prices. The diamonds will be done between each game. I know because I'll be doing some of them. They will have free "rides" for the little ones. By that, those "bounce houses" and such. Teams from 10u to 23U will play on 10 fields. It will be so much fun. Oh, the fire department will be on hand to hose down each field between games as well. It is really a community event.

NO GATE FEE WILL BE CHARGED!

Regarding HS ball, I have never paid to get into a game except the Regional, sectionals and state tournament games. Those fees are mandated by the IHSA and so, schools have to charge that.

St. Louis is the only place I've seen beer sold at one of our tournaments.

My DD has picked up with G-town. Good org.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Who can remember, back in the day, having 50/50 drawings and "passing the hat?" We made pretty good cash, doing that and no one had to pay, if they couldn't afford it.

Softball is really restricting who can play, anymore. At least in basketball and volleyball, we aren't hauling around $1,000 worth of stuff, in our ball bags.

 

[guero_gordo]

Been to BLD Manteca a half-dozen times, alway shake my head at paying to get the player in, AND you can only pay with cash.

The snack bars, however take Visa.

 

[ms244]

I'm pretty sure that the Burlington Rec Plex in Burlington, IA also charges $1 for the players to come in but they give a $1 token back to them. The token can be used at the concession stand which always had a 10 minute wait to get anything so most people didn't use the tokens. I know I have at least 4-5 of them lying around the house. Crappy way for a complex to get extra money in my opinion. This complex has 6 softball fields and 5 soccer fields that is packed most weekends.

 

[Dabears17]

It was a USSSA tournament-- USSSA plays out there several times a year. I had forgotten about the $1 gate fee for players, but do remember how strict they were about outside food. They almost throw me out of the park for walking in with a smoothie from Jamba juice about 5 years ago.

The City of Manteca actually owns the facility and gets revenue from the gate receipts to pay for maintaining it and makes some money for their general fund. BLD leases and runs it.

Manteca scores with BLD

 

[Cannonball]

Here is what I don't understand, if you are offended and everyone else is offended, then why not go to the next community to play? Within 30 minutes of my home, our teams easily have the option of 5-10 tournaments every weekend. If enough teams leave, then they will have to change their policy or go broke. We had one community that had great tournaments but was so strict on the coolers and their prices were so high in the concession stand that teams left those facilities. We drove past that place a few weekends ago and no one plays ball there anymore. The guy priced himself out of business.

 

[cmustangsfp]

My beef is paying the entry fee on Saturday, get rained out, not even one full game in and then being required to pay the gate fee again for Sunday too. Really??

 

[Cecelia]

Regarding not allowing outside food in the park...

What does a family do if one (or more) family members has a medical condition? What if I am diabetic and can't eat concession stand food? Do they make exceptions like that?