I'm interested in seeing what expenses a prospective TO should expect. I figure hall hire, food and drink, and prize support.

What else is the entry fees spent on?

What makes a good prize?

Venue Hire
Printing Costs - Sports sheets / Mission sheets / table numbers / flyers
Trophies
Prizes
Frames and Printing - if doing frames for prizes
Food / drink if your supplying
Truck Hire (if you need to pick up tables terrain etc, Plus work out the time you take off work to do such a thing)

Make sure that your venue includes public liability insurance.

I would suggest estimating your expected event size and then working out how many tickets you need to sell to break even and what is the maximum number of people you can cater for (because of venue size, number of tables and amount of terrain).

Approach a local store for prize support. You may get better prize support from an independant store than a GW store as with the independant store the person who owns the store can make the decisions where GW stores may have to abide by corporate rules.

At the very least having a local store behind the event will give you some flexibility in terms of amount of prizes and allowing players to swap unwanted prizes.

I tend to be fairly conservative with the budgets of events that I am running because I can't afford to carry a loss.

Typically I will order the main prize pool on the basis of ticket sales about 10 days before the event. Your sales to date less your other expenses determines the prize pool.

You will normally get some more ticket sales after that date and I get more prizes for things like 4th, 5th, door prize and terrain prizes. When I have had embarrassing amounts of ticket sales in the last few days I just get more and more terrain prizes.

Terrain prizes are terrain packs that you award to players or clubs that lend you terrain for the event. Not only does this encourage people to lend you terrain, it also means that at the next event in your area there is a larger pool of terrain because the people who lend it out now have more terrain.

Regards

Mark C

If you're running a tournament in Melbourne, we're happy to talk sponsorship. I'm also happy to talk about stuff that TO's sometimes run into.

We hire out our venue on a per player basis for tournaments. So if you want to try running a first time tournament and are unsure about how many people you'd be likely to get it's a low risk option. You pay for the tables you use, and all terrain is pre-setup.

Maria

The other thing is to see if you can get clubs on board. Some of them have access to venues at reduced costs, while others (especially uni clubs) have liability insurance for events on their campus already.

Another topic I did not notice till now.

If you still need any info, I have been putting a "In case of Bus" guide to Cancon.

Send me an email if you want a copy.

Don't run a comp. you get crapped on for every little thing you do, and your hard work is not appreciated!
plus it cost so bloody much!

Bugger - sorry to read this.

I feel sad now.

Financials for tournaments are easy.

You first need to work out your expenses:

For instance:
Hall: $x00
Food: $10 / per person for 2 days
Player pack/gifts (not prizes): $0-5-10 per person

Then you add this up, and get $y00 + $x0 pp
This is your break even.

Once you get beyond this, everything else can be prizes.

You then work out your numbers you need to break even - aim for 10 players.
Spreadsheet this and work out your costs.

For instance: with my example above, food + pack = $15 pp. So if you charge $50 pp you have $35 pp for room and prizes.

You then get your hall hire of $400, and say that the minimum to run will be 12 people, and no prizes (35x12 ~$400)

Anything beyond that is pure prize support.

For Centurion I plan for $10 pp food, $10 pp grab bag and goodies, and go from there.


Finally:
You as TO shouldn't be in this to profit. Sure, take a $50 box set for yourself if you have cream, but you will get better love from your players if you instead give away another 5 $10 door prizes (or 10 $5 ones).
Your players do the above maths in their heads too, so if you are charging $50 pp and have 50 ppl, they see $2500, and if they arent getting a grab bag of stuff, food, or anything, they expect a hot-ass hall and lots of prizes. This is why Centurion gets the love it does - 2 years in a row, with only 30 players each time, there has been no player leave without at least a door prize. Players love that.

I'm sorry to hear what happened, with the negative feedback and criticism and personal attacks you received Rob and for what it's it worth I'm from sydney and am not from Qld but it would be a shame if you stopped running the event just because of a few people.

I know that majority of players, enjoy the tournaments around oz and appreciate the hard work that goes into one by the organisers as you sacrifice a large amount your own personal time to ensure others have fun.

The easiest solution, from my perspective is that these people should be told not to bother coming back again as there is no room for trouble makers my 2c worth.