Unit 2 Notes:

Introduction to Tournament Design

There are several designs you can use in tournament scheduling.  The tournament format you ultimately decide on will be determined by a number of factors.  Different tournament designs include round robin tournaments, single elimination tournaments, double elimination tournaments, consolation tournaments, challenge tournaments (with variations), and meets.  Each has its own design, advantages, disadvantages, applicable formulas, and programmatic procedures.

How do you know which type of tournament to utilize?  Use these 6 factors to help assist you with making this decision:

1.  Objectives of the tournament

• determine a winner quickly?
• provide maximum participation?
• encourage social interaction?
• determine a true champion?
• how much competition do you want to encourage?
• motivation of participants over a sustained period of time?
• increase sport skills?
• provide an equal number of matches per entry?
• rank all entries according to ability?

2.  Characteristics of the participants

• age level (youth, adolescent, early adult, middle adult, later adult)
• gender (men, women, co-recreational)
• ability (beginner, intermediate, advanced)
• interest (participant interest level for the sport)
• attention span (youth -- short, adult -- long)
• intensity of competition (competitive or informal)

3.  Facility, equipment and personnel (this one is KEY)

• policy facility reservation
• number of available facilities
• availability of fields or courts
• condition of facility and costs of preparing facility
• accessibility to locker room facilities
• provisions for equipment rental and checkout
• adequate number of sport officials and supervisors
• funding for personnel

4.  Time parameters (this one is KEY as well!)

• length of time available to complete tournament
• dates, days, and hours available
• provisions for inclement weather, rescheduled games and championship playoffs

5.  Type of Event

• individual/dual sport
• group sport
• team sport
• meet sport
• special event
• co-recreational

6.  Other factors

• budget restrictions
• coaches' qualifications
• administrative personnel requirements
• medical supervision
• publicity and promotion
• efficient maintenance staff
• program control
• governance procedures
• spectator (crowd) control

One of the first areas that should be considered when attempting to design a tournament is facility availability.  This area will be one of the biggest factors in determining, 1) the type of tournament you are able to offer, 2) how long your tournament will last, 3) how many entries your tournament may accommodate, 4)  how many games must be played per day in order to get your tournament played in a given amount of time.   You may have noble goals in designing a program that will maximize participant development, but if you do not have available facilities, you may not be able to meet your objectives.