Some tournament organizers are For-Profit companies. Triple Crown Sports and Fastpitch Showdowns are just a couple. They must make a profit in order to stay in business. There are other non-profits, like Lasers, Stingrays, and Wolfpack, just to name a few, which sponsor tournaments in order to help raise monies for charitable events and also for the organization's teams. If they do not turn a profit, then they no longer sponsor a tournament. This is simple economics for both entities.
Let's go back and look at the history of fast-pitch tournaments. When I say "Teams", I am including organizations, coaches, players, and parents.
It used to be that tournaments were a Saturday and Sunday event. Prices ran from $150 to $300. What did this get you?
Let's start with umpires. It got you one umpire per game and then 2 umpires for the Championship game. Then teams complained about the lack of umpires so tournaments went to two umpires per game. So, the cost for umpires just doubled.
The type of facilities being used "back in the day" were most of the time men's soft-pitch fields. Men would put-up with sloping outfields and huge lips on the edge of the infield. There were people that saw the need for fast-pitch facilities and so teams demanded that tournaments be played on fast-pitch type facilities. Along with these facilities came parking fees and gate fees. Some facilities also have a Staff Fee that is separate from the facility rental fee.
Tournaments were small. Maybe 8-12 teams at the most. Teams wanted more competition and organizers saw the opportunity for more profit.
Then teams complained about having to play late Sunday night to finish a tournament. So, tournaments started their tournaments on Friday. The cost for facilities just went up.
Concessions are where non-profits really make their profit for a tournament. So, the cost for concessions is, for the most part, market driven. Some organizations try to keep prices reasonable so that they sell more. Some organizations have high concession prices to gain a for-sure profit. But concessions are the make or break for non-profit tournaments.
Teams complained about the incidentals for the tournaments, such as the above mentioned parking and gate fees so some of the more progressive tournaments worked with the facilities and got standard rates so that the fees could be rolled into the tournament fees. Some tournaments still have a Parking Fee where part of the fee goes to the facility and part for the fee goes to the tournament. To me, this is not transparent and dishonest (jmho).
The bigger priced tournaments are showcases. This is where you can really see the difference between the For-profit and the Non-profit organizations. Teams and college coaches have requested more "Niceties" since "back in the day". The tech age has driven a lot of this. Having a website that handles online registration, schedules, and scoreboards are now a necessity. This requires that organizations have a tech-savvy person or company on-hand all year. This costs money. Just how much of a wiz-bang website you want drives the price. Non-profits have Tournament Directors that are volunteers. For-profits Tournament Directors are paid. That is a cost to the tournament so that is passed along to the teams. Shuttles or golf carts are a cost that is passed along to the teams. The costs of all of the niceties are passed along to the teams.
So, that is how we went from $150-$300 tournaments to $400-$800 (or even higher) tournaments.
