Lasers 2018

[finfan365]

Reading through the refund policy, i am curious to know if this is standard. I ask purely because I am not familiar with the process of running a tournament.

I understand that there are costs in securing fields, supplies, and umpires for the weekend. But it looks like a team could sign up and lose out on $450 without ever playing a game. Is the cost of running a tournament that high? Just that high at Berliner?

 

[jt7663]

Just played 1 - 1/2 Games cancelled due to weather & we paid $300.00 Total after Refund /// $150+ per Game makes you ??

 

[JoeA1010]

There are fixed costs (park rental, balls, umpire assigner, etc) that are there for anyone running a tournament no matter what. And then umpires likely get paid for a full game by just showing up to that game, so even one pitch of a game probably needs to count as a game played when determining refunds. Organizations at least need to be made whole if rain disrupts a tournament - and should be able to profit some percentage - or nobody will hold tournaments. For example, it seems to me a 50-50 split of assuming the risk of rain is reasonable. In other words, if I'm a TD and I was going to profit $400 off of your team if I refund nothing and you played half of your games, now I'll profit $200 off of your team and you'll get $100 back.

Note that I said profit and not gross revenue. If a team pays a $600 fee, a TD might profit $200 once all is said and done.

 

[BA824]

Rain Refund Policy - Because of the expenses in running the tournament, we can’t give a full refund if the tournament is cancelled. Here is the number of games played along with the refund for that: 6 – $35, 5 - $70, 4 - $105, 3 - $140, 2 - $175, 1 - $210, 0 - $245 (started games are considered played games)

The refund policy posted is basically the money he saved on umpires. Each ump gets $35 a game so if you were shorted one game you get $35 back or the cost of one umpire for that game that they did not have to pay. They are still keeping their original profit

 

[FastBat]

This happens every year. Last year my dd's team went to two different tourney's (highly regarded, notable tourneys) that had rain issues, both required the cost of two or three night stays. This year it was Laser Nation's turn. Was she disappointed? Yes, especially sad since she rode down on Thursday night in her 2014 Laser Nation shirt...she was really excited. Was I disappointed? Yes. But, it's an outdoor sport and we live in Ohio, this happens every year.

 

[snoman76]

This happens every year. Last year my dd's team went to two different tourney's (highly regarded, notable tourneys) that had rain issues, both required the cost of two or three night stays. This year it was Laser Nation's turn. Was she disappointed? Yes, especially sad since she rode down on Thursday night in her 2014 Laser Nation shirt...she was really excited. Was I disappointed? Yes. But, it's an outdoor sport and we live in Ohio, this happens every year.

I think everyone "accepts" the fact that weather may affect their tournament.
The issue is the communication... or lack there of.

 

[Pacerdad57]

This happens every year. Last year my dd's team went to two different tourney's (highly regarded, notable tourneys) that had rain issues, both required the cost of two or three night stays. This year it was Laser Nation's turn. Was she disappointed? Yes, especially sad since she rode down on Thursday night in her 2014 Laser Nation shirt...she was really excited. Was I disappointed? Yes. But, it's an outdoor sport and we live in Ohio, this happens every year.[/

Absolutely the problem was a total lack of coherent communication.
Weather happens, nothing anyone can do about that.

 

[absolute59]

14Uteam we played 5 batters on Friday before lighting/rain came, played 2 one hour drop dead games on Saturday (quite frankly why even bother with that format) and then Sunday's games cancelled at about 8:00 AM. I know weather was a problem but our team traveled 3-4 hour stayed in a hotel for 3 nights and played literally 2 hours and 5 minutes of softball. Doesn't seem right that some teams in other age groups got in 5 or 6 games.

Oh and a game started counts as a game for refund policy even if as in our case we didn't even finish a half inning.

 

[McGinger]

This happens every year. Last year my dd's team went to two different tourney's (highly regarded, notable tourneys) that had rain issues, both required the cost of two or three night stays. This year it was Laser Nation's turn. Was she disappointed? Yes, especially sad since she rode down on Thursday night in her 2014 Laser Nation shirt...she was really excited. Was I disappointed? Yes. But, it's an outdoor sport and we live in Ohio, this happens every year.

This does happen. Happened the previous weekend at Berliner. Happened in Chattanooga during a Connect Sports tourney a few years ago, where we played one game in three days.

Difference is, the other tourneys communicated with the coaches and parents. Lasers personnel did not. That was the frustration. We could have stayed home in Cincinnati Saturday morning with a little communication. The Fastpitch Connect folks are right on the ball in updating their website, and letting you know via email and text what is going on. With the technology of 2018, there is no reason that this past weekends fiasco should EVER happen.

Weather issues happen every year. The lack of communication is what made this so terrible.

 

[SonicMojo]

I think everyone generally understands that when it rains, there are going to be scheduling changes and decisions made on the fly. When those changes are not communicated, or are communicated poorly, you are going to have some understandably unhappy campers. Then, you pile on things like: having 3 teams show up to a field for a game with an ensuing argument about who is playing whom; seeing playable fields not being used when at the same time games are being cut to an hour; waiting over an hour for umpires when teams are ready for play (and game times have been shortened); the widespread use of plastic balls (simply unacceptable); cutting a whole day of 14u play in favor of 10u when the event is supposed to be a college showcase (when Sunday's weather was fantastic, which unfortunately meant I had to mow instead of watching my daughter play softball); changing rules from one game to the next; not first eliminating crossover pool games before shortening game times; not updating the great communication tool you have everyone tied into before the tournament (Tourney Machine app), and so on and so on. All this is indicative of problems higher up the food chain. One wonders if the damage can be undone. When the word for this once great tourney goes out next season, it's going to have to include an apology (in addition to the one that should be forthcoming this week) along with a lengthy explanation of what steps will be taken to avoid a repeat of the 2018 debacle. It may be too late though. I talked to more than a handful of coaches who are adamant that they will not play this event next year. It's a shame for the Lasers, and a valuable lesson for others.

After everything the Lasers did wrong with their event in June of 2018, I feel compelled to come back and say they did everything right with their event this weekend. The only thing similar to June 2018 was the rain!

Communication all weekend was excellent. Yes, the rain causes havoc but updates were clear and constant. They even made sure that teams got games on Sunday even after they were eliminated from the bracket.

Plus, there was an impressive amount of coaches in attendance given this was the same weekend as D9 and St. Louis.

Kudos to the Lasers for this weekend.

 

[Stedman00]

After everything the Lasers did wrong with their event in June of 2018, I feel compelled to come back and say they did everything right with their event this weekend. The only thing similar to June 2018 was the rain!

Communication all weekend was excellent. Yes, the rain causes havoc but updates were clear and constant. They even made sure that teams got games on Sunday even after they were eliminated from the bracket.

Plus, there was an impressive amount of coaches in attendance given this was the same weekend as D9 and St. Louis.

Kudos to the Lasers for this weekend.

I disagree. Commo was sketchy and conflicting. Where's the kicking the dead horse emoji?

 

[Passion4theGame]

I agree w Sonic Mojo. Very smooth, great communication, and we got our games in.