Planning a tennis tournament: organization and logistics

¶ … Management

The Volvo International (also known as the Pilot Pen International) is a professional tennis tournament played at the Mount Washington Resort in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire MT Washington Resort is now a part of Omni Hotels and Resorts ("Omni mt. Washington," 2011). Despite a hiatus when it moved to New Haven Connecticut, the tournament is now back in Bretton Woods after its tenure in New Haven, CT that had started in 1993 (Cavanaugh, 1993).

Now that it is back in Bretton Woods, planning must be modified to reflect this. Past events planned in Bretton Woods will provide guidance for the present event although largely we will have to start anew, renewing contacts with the local police and local contractors, integrating organizational changes and upgrades and updating and changing the event website. The event is scheduled from August 18-27, 2011 ("Tennis has a," 2011) .

To effectively plan the event, we must define the scale. This particular event is a full-blown World Tennis Association (WTA) tournament that is covered widely in the media (ibid). It is a sports tourism event that will have a major economic impact upon the Bretton Woods area and upon the future of the tournament, so this reentry into the Bretton Woods area needs to be well managed. Our job will obviously be to get the most from the event and maximize profit and public exposure for the benefit of future tournament. This will involve identifying the stakeholders and their needs in the mix with regard to the tournament (Getz, 2003, 50) . However the most major issue for the event organizers will be communications and marketing (Maltese, 2009, 2).

In this general event management plan, you will find the following issues addressed in the following sections. Obviously, more minute planning is going on at a departmental level, so the overall committee will work out sub-issues at the July 1, 2011 general meeting.

1. Listing of activities that need to take place before the event.

2. Event Schedule and Sequence and Time Table

3. Project calendar that shows each activity in sequence, the time required to complete it, and the overall chain of events.

4. Crowd Management and Security

Section 1

A. Reserving the Facility

Obviously, we must begin with the exclusive reservation of the Bretton Woods Resort Complex. This is necessary from a logistical, but also a security and liability perspective. We have to make sure the site have all the necessary amenities, including plenty of parking, restrooms, spectator viewing areas and a visible location for players to check-in. At this time, we will need to inspect the courts to ensure that they have the proper nets, net straps and a quality playing surface. Also, we must meet with the owner or manager of the facility. At that time we will discuss the options for weekend dates and the procedures for reserving the courts. We need to discuss at that time the option of reserving the tennis courts for the following weekend in the case of rain delay. Obviously, we will be locking in the courts several months in advance of the tournament. We need to plan the tournament around the number of courts available. Here we will decide on the number of events to offer.

B. Advertising

The advertising agency Korn Hynes communication will issue print and video press releases, contact local and national radio outlets (released via Youtube, etc.), news crews and other national media outlets ("Korn hynes communication," 2011) . Social media marketing and advertising has been critical in the last few years in major sporting events and tennis is no exception to this rule. Social networking websites allow individuals to interact with one another and build relationships. When products or companies join those sites, people can interact with the product or company. That interaction feels personal to users because of their previous experiences with social networking site interactions.

Social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Myspace and blogs allow individuals "repost" or to "retweet" comments about products, services or events being promoted. By repeating the posted message, all of the users contacts see the message, reaching more people in the process. Social networking sites act by word of mouth. Due to the repetition of information about the product is being put out there and more traffic is brought to the product, company or organization ("Social media's most," 2011).

Through the agency of social networking sites, products, companies and other organizations can have conversations and interactions with individuals. This personal interaction instills a feeling of loyalty into potential customers and followers. In addition, by choosing who to follow on these sites, the products can reach a very narrowly targeted audience.

Cell phone usage has also benefited frp, social media marketing. Now, many cell phones have social networking capabilities. Through these networks, individuals can be notified of any happenings the on social networking sites through cell phones. / This can happen in real-time. The constant connection to social networking websites means that products, companies and organizations can constantly be provide reminders and updates to customers about their capabilities, etc. Because cell phones are connected "at the hip" to social networking sites, pop-up and other advertisements are always in sight (ibid).

Sponsors and VIPs have been promised more information before the event by our inviting them to the event itself for additional coverage. We will hold a preview event as well and this will allow the media members themselves to play the Bretton Woods courts. We are offering them light refreshments. The preview event will hopefully garner more attendees and entrants.

We must advertise the tournament with the local newspapers, the online websites and the tennis organizations. Prepare entry forms and make them readily available at all tennis facilities and clubs. Important information to include are dates for the tournament, including rain dates, entry deadlines, fees, the available events, match format, and withdrawal and refund information. The entrant's name and all contact information must be provided.

We will need to solicit sponsors. We will need to court celebrity players and TV coverage. We will need to solicit local businesses like the local banks local newspaper who will underwrite the tournament as a community initiative. For this purpose, we will have a multi-tier sponsorship platform. op-tier sponsors, who get the most exposure, pay the most. The next two tiers pay less, but are guaranteed less in marketing terms. For a national professional tournament to be broadcast on a major TV network, such sponsorships could cost anywhere from hundreds of thousands to $1 million or more. For a small local tournament, sponsorships might sell for as little as a few hundred dollars.

We will also need to solicit sponsorship from companies in the local area. We can trade funding for tennis balls and court rental fees for the use of their company logos on the tournament shirts, forms and advertisements. We can sell advertising space in the tournament program to different sponsors or we can see if one sponsor wants to fund our entire program and use all of the advertising pages. We need to also plan special areas for local media to speak with tournament participants and record the events of each match. We will give press passes to reporters and create a zone for cameras inside the venue to reduce distractions for players.

Sponsorships will be offered for prizes for the winners. These will include trophies, gift certificates and tennis equipment to the players who come out on top in the different events. The highest sponsorships will include as part of the assigned duties that VIP tennis personalities will handing out prizes to heighten the effect of the gifts upon the stakeholders and the public at large.

C. Arranging Hotel Accommodations

The Omni Mount Washington Resort facility will be completely reserved and rented out by our organization for the duration of the event. The most critical issue is making sure that our various stakeholders have lodging during the Volvo tournament. This will include The Mount Washington Hotel with 200 rooms. Our planning is for the Mount Washington Hotel to be available for mid-range stakeholders. VIP stakeholders will be lodged in the Omni Bretton Arms Inn with its 34 luxury rooms. "Run of the mill" stakeholders could be accommodated in quarters available in "The Lodge," a local ski resort that has 50 guest room. Additionally, 80 townhouses would be available from The Townhomes. ("Resort general fact," 2011) .

We will refer general guests who can not be accommodated in the above locations to other hotels in the Bretton Woods area. For this purpose, we have teamed up with Hotelsone.com to handle last-minute bookings. We will receive a 10% commission on every guest that we refer to them during the ticketing process ("Search hotels in," 2011).

D. Ticket Printing and Sales

As mentioned above, we have hired the Korn Hynes Communication advertising agency and PR firm to help promote the event. Social media specialists at the local advertising agency are creating Facebook, Twitter and Myspace pages and wil strive to attract a community of enthusiasts as anticipation of the event builds. The advertising agency has been linked up with past event volunteers who have been approached to provide old video and film clips to be uploaded to Youtube and other video upload sites to aid in a viral video marketing strategy.

We will open ticket sales for the tournament several weeks ahead of the first matches so that spectators can plan for the event. We will highlight donations to charity and potential door prizes for ticket holders to increase interest for the event.

E. Personnel Scheduling.

We will have to line up contractors and necessary organizational employees. In addition, we have to draw up a core of volunteers to help us during the tournament. We will need to set up a seeding committee to assist. We will have to check to see if a racket stringer will is available. If this is not the case, we will have to hire out for this service. We will train volunteers to deal with questions and concerns during registration time. The registration team should be familiar with the tournament regulations and the registration forms. Volunteers can also collect tennis balls after each point. They can also get water for players during breaks. We will need to obtain tennis nets as backups for the nets available at Bretton Woods host venue to ensure smooth operations during the Volvo tournament. We need to ask volunteers to practice removing and installing tennis nets the day before the tournament starts to prepare for potential problems.

Employees that will be recruited are to include qualified umpires. We can solicit assistance for individual matches from local coaches, college tennis players and amateur residents with a knowledge of the rules of the game to give the match a flavor outside of the "professional" realm.

We will need to assemble a roster of players. This will include working with major agents including IMG and WME Entertainment to lure big-name players. We will not have to worry about this with lesser-known pros who often represent themselves.

2. Event Schedule and Sequence and Time Table