Tournament Insurance

At least 30 days in advance, teams would be able to pay additional 25% of their entry fee.  If team plays 0 games before tournament canceled for rain/snow, team would get full refund, including insurance.  If they play at least one game, the most they could get back is 50%.  If they play three games, they get 0%.

For those of you who voted "NO", please give me a little feedback.


A. 25% is too much to pay for insurance

B. It depends on the time of year that the tournament is held

C. Other

No. For a traditional $600 tournament fee, the insurance cost $150. Most tournaments refund 50% if canceled already, so once you pay insurance over the next 2 tournaments you are behind. If half of the tournaments get canceled then $150 is reasonable.

I'm not sure if it would work for all tournaments but 10% insurance would work for me.

Agree. Per swg's example, $150 to insure against losing $300 is over the top excessive.

I have not run a tournament nor investigated the cost of insurance to recover expended start-up costs for any type of event.   That said, and with the risk of making a ridiculously uninformed assertion, I believe that the tournament and not the patrons should bear the risk.  The tournament treats me like a business partner if it cancels (loses up-front costs) and a customer otherwise - I certainly do not receive a dividend, i.e., partial refund, if the tournament makes a profit or exceeds its fundraising goal for the sponsoring club.

I expect that the response will be "there would be no more tournaments".  If the economics don't work but we want and need tournaments, then we the customers will keep assuming the risk.

upper95 wrote:Agree. Per swg's example, $150 to insure against losing $300 is over the top excessive.

I have not run a tournament nor investigated the cost of insurance to recover expended start-up costs for any type of event.   That said, and with the risk of making a ridiculously uninformed assertion, I believe that the tournament and not the patrons should bear the risk.  The tournament treats me like a business partner if it cancels (loses up-front costs) and a customer otherwise - I certainly do not receive a dividend, i.e., partial refund, if the tournament makes a profit or exceeds its fundraising goal for the sponsoring club.

I expect that the response will be "there would be no more tournaments".  If the economics don't work but we want and need tournaments, then we the customers will keep assuming the risk.

Here is what I posted on the boys forum when asked if tournaments make a profit when they cancel.


Depending on the referee assignor, assignor fees are non-refundable and can be as much as $12 per game assigned.

Tournament Director and/or Game Scheduler fees are non-refundable, but some will take a pay cut for rained out events. TD's can be paid by the team, by the game, percentage of overall tournament profit, or a combination thereof. Some make more than others, but most are underpaid Smile

Referee fees are refundable for games not played.

Depending on the complex, you might have to pay for lines. If someone painted them, then they are non-refundable. Cities will refund other field rental fees if the city closed the fields.

T-shirts, pins, bag tags, medals, trophies are non-refundable. If they do not have specific date or year on them, they can be reused. That saves money on next year's tournament, but still comes out this year's tournament budget.

If you rented a venue for check-in, that is non-refundable.

NTSSA sanctioning fee and late fees are non-refundable.

Paying Gotsoccer to be a featured event or taking out an ad in "The Pitch" are non-refundable."


There are other incidentals that are not refundable, but you get the idea. One thing I forgot to mention is that Gotsoccer does not refund credit/debit card fees.

I posted this poll hoping to discuss something that might appeal to those people who deeply regret registering for a Fall or Spring tournament in North Texas. Offering insurance could be a marketing tool for a tournament to draw more teams, if the price is right. Maybe 25% is too much, but 10% is not enough to make the gamble worth it for a tournament. A tournament needs to collect a couple of tournaments worth of insurance from a fair amount of teams in order to have some money in the bank in the case of a future pay-out (or have only an extremely small amount of pay the insurance and get the full pay-out).


There are insurance companies that offer event insurance for sports tournaments, outdoor festivals, marathons, etc. They charge a premium based on the number of days, the amount of rain, the amount of money, and the location. For rain, you can insure for an amount of inches on one day or total inches over the course of a number of days. And, rain amounts are calculated at a weather station (usually an airport), not at the fields.

Tournaments could pay for rain insurance and shameless self promotion the entry fees for all ages. The upfront money scares off most tournaments. And, the fear that a tournament rains out without meeting the minimum rainfall amount for the insurance company to pay-out, scares tournaments, as well. Imagine if a city closes their fields and forces the tournament cancel, teams demand their 100% refund, and the insurance company doesn't pay-out. A large club/association could absorb that kind of a loss, a smaller organization could not.