Coaches Hosting Competitions

[Peachyrn]

Hello, I am currently coaching gymnastics, but I am exploring new ventures and I was wondering, what is the approximate profit made from hosting a meet in region 5?

 

[raenndrops]

Hello, I am currently coaching gymnastics, but I am exploring new ventures and I was wondering, what is the approximate profit made from hosting a meet in region 5?

It depends... will you need to rent a facility and / or equipment? Will you have volunteers to work a concession stand and awards and scorekeeping and run the music etc... etc.
You may want to check out this link. I started it at page 3, but it goes to at least 5 pages total. https://chalkbucket.com/forums/threads/why-don%E2%80%99t-parents-protest.63675/page-3#post-569561

 

[Gymcoach93821]

There is a post on here called why parents protest. Have a read of it because by the sounds of it not many parents understand why costs of competitions are expensive and don’t like the idea of profit from competitions. I.e paying to watch etc. have a read. And this is why I stated if there was no profit involved what incentive would anyone have to put one on

 

[Peachyrn]

It depends... will you need to rent a facility and / or equipment? Will you have volunteers to work a concession stand and awards and scorekeeping and run the music etc... etc.
You may want to check out this link. I started it at page 3, but it goes to at least 5 pages total. https://chalkbucket.com/forums/threads/why-don%E2%80%99t-parents-protest.63675/page-3#post-569561

I was planning on renting a high school gym and renting equipment with volunteers to work concessions, scoring, etc. I was also planning on having vendors.

 

[Peachyrn]

There is a post on here called why parents protest. Have a read of it because by the sounds of it not many parents understand why costs of competitions are expensive and don’t like the idea of profit from competitions. I.e paying to watch etc. have a read. And this is why I stated if there was no profit involved what incentive would anyone have to put one on

I plan on using any profit made from competitions I host to be put towards new equipment, booster hat, an athlete in need, and/or a scholarship.

 

[Gymcoach93821]

I plan on using any profit made from competitions I host to be put towards new equipment, booster hat, an athlete in need, and/or a scholarship.

That’s a great idea.

 

[raenndrops]

There is a post on here called why parents protest. Have a read of it because by the sounds of it not many parents understand why costs of competitions are expensive and don’t like the idea of profit from competitions. I.e paying to watch etc. have a read. And this is why I stated if there was no profit involved what incentive would anyone have to put one on

It's not that they are against profit ... it is that they do understand the costs and that the gym is in it to make a profit, but why does the profit margin have to be so high per gymnast.
Take the costs of the facility, equipment, judges (state assignment fee, judges fees for each judge, per diem, and mileage ... estimate if needed), sanction fees, and all other overhead costs... divide by the number of gymnasts attending ... add the state / region per gymnast fee ... add $5 per gymnast for profit.
Then get volunteers and donors to help stock your concession stand. Allow vendors (who give you a % of their profit). If it is off-site, charge $5 for spectator entry (as long as there is free parking). That entry fee is profit - and is low enough for more family members to attend ... which means more people to buy concessions, leading to a bigger concessions profit. Offer gook luck grams of some sort for a low price ... the littles and their parents love that stuff (more profit available there). Get sponsors / donors and list them in your program or hang their banner ... if they give you one ... in the gym (after hanging it at the meet).
Skip the swag to keep the cost lower ... and offer the items as an option that they can order in advance to be given to the coaches at the meet to distribute.
Lots of ways to get profit without charging outrageous entry fees AND spectator fees.

 

[Gymcoach93821]

The main problem is the volunteer idea. Most of the time it works and is great. You can utilise siblings of the gymnasts attending to hold scores etc. but when you don’t get enough volunteers is when you get stuck. And judges too. Finding judges that are available for comps too is hard. A recent state competition my child was in only had two judges to each apparatus. Which is harsher judging as it’s only divided by two judge. And if the two judges scores aren’t similar it hurts. Instead of a 4 panel judge. It’s Hard to find as most people have other jobs and also don’t want to spend their whole weekend at a competition.

 

[Gymcoach93821]

Our gym posts us the emails we receive from the competition asking for volunteers they need for each session. And my goodness the amount of blanks left on that page a day before competition is rediculous. It leaves our coaches feeling bad that not more families will help. And leaves the people who run the competitions at the entry door asking people as they walk in to help. Which a lot of people do. But it’s leaving it so late to organise as we can all ask and help where we can . But a lot of parents won’t help out and most of the time there the parents that complain about the costs and the ones who get upset when a competition doesn’t run exactly the way as programmed

 

[raenndrops]

The main problem is the volunteer idea. Most of the time it works and is great. You can utilise siblings of the gymnasts attending to hold scores etc. but when you don’t get enough volunteers is when you get stuck. And judges too. Finding judges that are available for comps too is hard. A recent state competition my child was in only had two judges to each apparatus. Which is harsher judging as it’s only divided by two judge. And if the two judges scores aren’t similar it hurts. Instead of a 4 panel judge. It’s Hard to find as most people have other jobs and also don’t want to spend their whole weekend at a competition.

We have some meets with only 1 judge panels ... and if there is a judge not rated high enough to judge level 9 happens to be at a meet where we have a Level 9 competing, the head judge has to leave her event to judge the other girl on that event.
We never have 4 judge panels, always a max of 2.

 

[raenndrops]

Our gym posts us the emails we receive from the competition asking for volunteers they need for each session. And my goodness the amount of blanks left on that page a day before competition is rediculous. It leaves our coaches feeling bad that not more families will help. And leaves the people who run the competitions at the entry door asking people as they walk in to help. Which a lot of people do. But it’s leaving it so late to organise as we can all ask and help where we can . But a lot of parents won’t help out and most of the time there the parents that complain about the costs and the ones who get upset when a competition doesn’t run exactly the way as programmed

For our home meets, the team girls each work a session they aren't competing in. Parents volunteer to bring in things OR work a 2 hour shift in the concession stand OR help with score table or awards. We also have extra coaches that we can put into any position that we need (timer on an event, playing the music, helping with flashing scores). We also have siblings of team girls and even former gymnasts or high school team members that come back just to help. We are lucky that most parents understand that a meet can't run without cooperation. And now, we have so many girls on team that we definitely have it all covered.
I know it would be harder with fewer gymnasts, and that is something that must be considered before deciding to host a meet too.

 

[Gymcoach93821]

We have some meets with only 1 judge panels ... and if there is a judge not rated high enough to judge level 9 happens to be at a meet where we have a Level 9 competing, the head judge has to leave her event to judge the other girl on that event.
We never have 4 judge panels, always a max of 2.

Wow that’s not the greatest. And that’s what I mean. It’s so so hard to find judges to be able to accurately judge a competition. And they get paid. Imagine how hard it is for competitions to rely on volunteers

 

[raenndrops]

Wow that’s not the greatest. And that’s what I mean. It’s so so hard to find judges to be able to accurately judge a competition. And they get paid. Imagine how hard it is for competitions to rely on volunteers

It was a rough weekend. The judges in the state were at several big meets. Since we were a 1 day meet, we were lowest priority. We had 3 that were rated for L9, but the last one was only rated to L8... and there was 1 Level 9 at the meet. Our volunteers come from our gym. Even when we had a small team, we didn't have trouble getting volunteers... several of us would do multiple jobs (there were 4 of us that did concessions AND awards for every session we didnt have girls competing in) and we had a big rec program and those girls would come and volunteer too. Now, we have so many girls on team that we can do a 4 session meet and nobody should need to do more than 1 job (but I still do awards EVERY SESSION).

 

[Gymcoach93821]

It was a rough weekend. The judges in the state were at several big meets. Since we were a 1 day meet, we were lowest priority. We had 3 that were rated for L9, but the last one was only rated to L8... and there was 1 Level 9 at the meet. Our volunteers come from our gym. Even when we had a small team, we didn't have trouble getting volunteers... several of us would do multiple jobs (there were 4 of us that did concessions AND awards for every session we didnt have girls competing in) and we had a big rec program and those girls would come and volunteer too. Now, we have so many girls on team that we can do a 4 session meet and nobody should need to do more than 1 job (but I still do awards EVERY SESSION).

You are very lucky with everyone putting in a lot of effort. Our gym parents run their own fundraising group so 90 percent of the time parents put all their volunteering into this as it provides them back with money for their fees. So when it comes to volunteering for competitions they think they have helped out enough and/or would prefer waiting to help out at a bbq instead.

 

[Starfly]

We only have one judge or event as well, except at State when we have 2. Parents are required to volunteer for at least 1 session. At our new gym, if they don't volunteer at the meet, they are fined. This is only or second week there, so I'm not sure how it all goes. Our old gym usually had a few spots open at the end, but not many.