What makes a team tournament circuit work?

[Bill Cook]

Consistency, make the same rules apply to everyone

[crawdaddy]

1. Schedule (Family first)
2. Organized staff/smooth weigh-ins (bad weigh ins are the biggest problem-too much talk and not enough action as Elvis said)
3. Venues (I like to fish different bodies of water)
4. Payout (Last because I have seen circuits that paid out well that were poorly run that I would not fish, but I have fished for less to attend a well run and fun tournament)

I would say fun but I always have fun when fishing so that is a given.

[Rick G]

How about a fishoff/Toc where you get what is promised? Rick G.

[Mark Hiser]

Geez Rick, you are asking alot
Seems like that would be under the Honesty and Integrity piece.
Which, quite frankly, should cover all the rest of the issues.

Mark Hiser

[Schneider Fishing]

Good Partner!!!
Honesty
Integrity
Low entry fee
Low drama
BBQ
deep pay back


Me, I'm just looking for a good time. Fishing for fun.

[ken burk]

Wow Mike! now I know why you are the man...

[Joe Bruce]

participation which equals payout per investment

[Rob Dickson]

Bring back Moffitt

[BIG L]

Mike should start a new org. and do every thing he suggested and we would follow. Should pull a 100 plus at ever tourn. Should add no fish off at the end of season. All that money goes to the river anyways. Only one that makes anything from fishoff are the arizona citys, businesses & fishermen.

[Phil]

Have the rules at hand, and stick by them.

[Brian D.]

You have firsthand experience and know what you're talkin about.

Biggest peev with me are the BS fees. Conservation fee. light stick fee. Insurance fee. Membership fee. Permit fee. Awww.. come on now, that's worse than a checking account with Bank of America.

Sure there are certain costs with doing business, but are the anglers truly getting their monies worth? Some orgs, yes. And others, absolutely not.

But from a TD standpoint, how much $$ would you consider a reasonable amount to make hosting a one day derby?

[scottsweet]

Mike, this is an interesting discussion and I have not personally been a TD, but something isn't making a lot of sense. Mike..you know me and that I can be the voice of reason and reality here ..so here it goes.

If you were to assume the average of 50 teams per event (which is high based on the participation in the last couple of years) and 10 events for the year. At $10/team/event, that equates to $5000 for the year.

Now you consider the cost of:
1. Permits - $53/event DFG fee for CA - total $530. (not considering the local lake fees which vary depending on the event)
2. Insurance - $100/event - $1000
3. Website - $500-1500/year including your webmaster
4. Advertising - Brochures - $300/yr, Shows: $500/yr (that is light), Ads in papers - $1000/yr
5. Weigh In facility/equipment - scale, trailer maintenance, tables, batteries, computer, whatever - $500/yr
6. Phone - $600/yr ($50/mo)

If you stay at the low end of these estimates, the cost is $4430/yr without even paying for entering a lake. That means the "owner" of this makes $570 for their time for 1 year! If you assume you did 3 of these tours, you could make a whopping $1700 for the year! This does not consider the "owner's" fuel, auto maintenance, insurance, and the hours of phone calls and meetings with all sorts of people to make a tournament circuit work.

Mike, we both know, you don't work for $1700 a year . I don't know about all of you out there, but I wouldn't put my heart and soul in to a tournament circuit for $570/year let alone $1700/year. Calculate that hourly rate!

The reality is, it isn't quite this simple. My hat goes off to those who put on great events. It takes a lot of work, time and MONEY that people just don't see.

Oh, none of you out there would EVER call the "owner" or TD to complain so there is no cost or aggravation for that right . We participants just would show up, smile, say what a wonderful day it is and fish...take our check, if we are so fortunate, and post on this site how terrific the "owner" is about their circuit . RIGHT...sure .

Whether you are a TBF, ABA, WON BASS, NBW, Anglers Choice, West Coast Bass, FLW, Top Stick Tour or any other circuit, IT IS HARD to do an event well and it costs more than $5000 for the year.

Look at the bright side, there are lots of folks trying. If it was so easy, they would be rolling in the money and none would be struggling to fill their fields. Instead they are trying very hard and many are listening better than others, but they are trying for US! One thing is for sure, they aren't getting rich off of it...when was the last time you saw an "owner" showing up with their expensive car and expensive trailer and having everyone else do everything for them while they drink a beer or martini...NOT! .

Hopefully we all will have some good choices this year for circuits and the "owners" will provide us with a great year of competition.

Tight lines for 2010.

Scott

[scott h]

I am not trying to hy-jack this thread guys but alot of what is being talked about you will find in the new national bass west team circuits.Give em a try you will not be dissapointed.Great payouts, quick turnaround and food in the morning along with a bbq in the afternoon immediately following weigh in. the payouts from the last two tourney's were incredible up the amount of participation and they get bigger and better.They are open book and have variety in the schedules. check em out @ nationalbasswest.com

[2ndsuks]

$15 per team from the basic entry fee retained and paid out at the last event to the top 5 AOY teams in the standings. (40% to 1st, 30% to 2nd and the 3rd thru 5th each get 10% of the total purse for the AOY payout. That would increase the payback from 75% to 87.5% since we are taking $120 per team and paying back $105 per team during the course of the entire season when you take into account the AOY payout. This of course means no fish-off since the cash is going straight back to the anglers.

It sounds good on paper, however, after two or three tournaments there will be anglers knowing they have no shot at the AOY money and your participation will start to drop.

I understand that times are tough right now but fishing for small payouts that result from low entry fee events I'm afraid will not go over too well unless we had big turn outs and we all know the problem we have with drawing big numbers. I know there is no perfect team tournament organization out there but we may have a couple of them that are getting real close. With all things equal, the organizations with the best payouts will rise to the top and with a little luck, we may see the days of the 75-100 boat team tournaments again.

[RMARX]

Come to an ABA Motherlode event and you will see how a team event should be run!! Robert and Jamie go above and beyond for the anglers, I have fished them all and MANZO has it figured out! Come out and see you will be impressed for sure!!