Tips For Hosting Baseball Tournaments From Our Facility Management Expert

For baseball facilities, weekend tournaments are the lifeblood of your success. As youth sports moves further and further toward club-style teams, the focus moves away from league play and emphasizes tournaments. If you are going to be a legitimate baseball facility, running tournaments will have to be a major part of your facility management. There are a lot of moving parts with weekend tournaments, but there are three are three things that will help set your facility apart, and those are:

• Well-maintained facilities
• A capable staff
• Direct lines of communication between teams and staff

In today’s blog post, SFM will look at these three attributes of good facility management and how they will make your sports facility more attractive to prospective teams.

Maintain High-Functioning Facilities

Facility management for baseball fields is difficult because there is a much higher demand for field maintenance than there is with basketball courts or other indoor facilities. Keeping your fields well taken care of is vital if you want teams to keep coming back to your complex. Making sure your infield dirt is well watered and your outfield grass is cut are simple things that go a long way. Dragging and watering your fields in between each game may seem a lot to ask, but your players will love you for it.
Another thing to consider is whether or not to have a dirt mound or invest in a turf mound and batters box, either portable or permanent. Turf may be more expensive, but you also won’t have to fill in holes and tamp them in between games.

Be Properly Staffed

The biggest mistake made by baseball facility management is understaffing. If you have multiple fields, which most facilities do, it will be nearly impossible to properly maintain those fields over a weekend-long tournament without a proper staff. When your fields aren’t properly staffed, you also forget about the little things, like re-chalking in between games, refilling the water jugs, and stocking the concession stand.

Be Great Communicators

While running a baseball tournament is chaotic for a facility management staff, it is also chaotic for coaching staff and parents, especially ones that are from out of town. Your facility needs to be on top of tournament communication, especially when there are potential weather delays. For pre-tournament communication, setting registration deadlines and creating a bracket that gives teams plenty of notice to plan is a major step. For in-tournament communication, establish lines of communication, whether it be through Facebook groups or texting, that lets coaches and parents know when any changes are made, such as weather delays.

Let SFM Help With Facility Management

Running baseball tournaments can be a tough task for sports facility management teams across the country. The volume of games combined with the heightened need for field maintenance makes for very busy weekends. At SFM, we want to help you run your facility. Contact us today at (727) 483-7910 or visit our website for more information.