Tournament cost breakdown

[jim]

I keep reading that tournament promoters make very little profit, no profit or at times the event actually costs them money.
I'm no promoter and never will be but i'd like to see a cost breakdown of where it can go wrong.
I'd just like to be educated on this, then i may just not be as quick to cry "mugged" when an event is not up to the standards we expect.

 

[Liz]

The costs are going to vary greatly from event to event depending on size, level and location. I know an awful lot of people who have thought that running a tournament is a money spinner until you make sure they have a FULL list of the outgoings - most suddenly change their minds at that stage! One of the biggest variables is the type of venue, it costs vastly more to run a tournament at a stadium type venue rather than an exiting paintball park as the infrastructure all has to be built, torn down and cleared up in a very short amount of time.

If no-one who has run a major posts actual costs here (and I doubt anyone will), try going through the checklist below & putting some reasonable values against each point based on where you are. I've based this list on helping someone run a domestic series at non-paintball venues, though I wasn't party to their actual costs.

Venue - don't forget this cost isn't just for the day, but for however long the set up and tear down/clean up take as well. Also add in time & money to find and inspect a variety of places to get the best one.
Set up - at least 3-5 days maybe more with loads of staff (we used about 6 for a smallish domestic event) to put up scaffolding, hang netting, put up tents and marquees for admin & staging, ensure the playing surface is safe, put the fields up etc.
Admin - person/people on the day for registering, booking in, scoring, dealing with teams etc. Also the small costs relating to getting schedules & scoresheets printed, passes printed, 5000 pens as the players always nick them, time before the event to get the word out and take bookings & money, telephone costs ........
Equipment rental/purchase - fields, the scaffolding, netting, cleaning stuff like buckets & squeegies, machinery e.g. cherry pickers for putting netting up with, staging marquee, admin tent, more zip ties than you could imagine, tables, toilets, bins/dustbin bags, PA system ......
Staff costs on the day - X refs per field, head ref, runners, admin, staff food and in some cases travel & hotel costs for staff
After the day - staff to tear down the fields & marquee, clean up the rubbish & TRY to get the place looking decent, wash off all the surfaces that players have shot "because they are there" (in one case, all the local road signs on the route to & from the site!), almost as many people as set up for 2-3 days.

This list isn't exhaustive, just what came to mind first thing after getting up in the morning, but should give you a vague idea of what's needed for a domestic event with up to 40 teams. For majors/internationals scale up the costs (need more of everything and for up to 3 days of actual play) and add in flights.

 

[Chicago]

I can't do Europe, but I can do stateside.

Event location rental: $40,000
Event Officials: $40,000
Setting up Fields (labor, per event expenses): $8,000 per field
Setting up Fields (amortized equipment costs): $1,000/event/field (figure 2 year useful life out of a $10,000 field cost with netting, poles, etc)
Player/Spectator Liability Insurance: $5,000
Tents: $40,000
Tables/Chairs/Fire Extinguishers/Etc: $5,000
Bleachers: $30-$50,000, depending. I would guess PSP is usually closer to 30 and NPPL usually closer to 50, but it can vary quite a bit from location to location, anywhere from $6 to $16 per seat.
Event Staff (non-salaried): $20,000
Credit Card Processing: 3% of revenue. (Zero if you go the NPPL route and charge people for it)
Travel for you to go to, survey and secure the site: $2,000
Lawyer to proof the site contract: $1,000
Hotels/Food/Travel/Etc for your key staff: $10,000
Renting generators, lights, lifts, golf carts, etc: $15,000
Vehicle insurance (covers yours and rented vehicles/equipment): $1,000
Transportation of all your **** from the last event to this one: $4,000
Air: $10-20,000k (getting it there, fuel for it, keeping your compressors clean and working)
Scoreboards (if any): $800/board/event (amortized expense if you have cheapie ones, more than $800 for more expensive ones)
Prizes: $100,000

That's some of the per-event costs, which got me up to $360,000-$400,000, and I'm sure I'm not thinking of everything. Like just now realized I didn't think of portajohns or trash removal or tent permits or palm-greasing.

Then you gotta put on fixed cost like office expenses, owning assets like trailers, etc, taxes, and most impotantly full-time staff. I'd guess a Shawn or a Lane runs $80,000/year if they get paid a deent amount and are able to provide typical benefits like health insurance for themselves/family, figure a Keely or Camille is $50-$60k. Then you've got your Phils/Dans/Tims/Mikes/Tonys of the operation.

This also assumes that nothing breaks or gets stolen and ignores equipment like chronos, robots, radar guns, printers, etc.

A good estimate is that an event costs about $500,000 to put on, after factoring in fixed costs like staff salaries that need to get spread around all the events. To put that in perspective, PSP took in $307,900 in entry fees for Vegas and NPPL took in $466,600 for Tampa.

Hrm, never added that up before. That means PSP is giving away 42% of its entry fees as prize money and NPPL only gives away 20%.

Regardless, those entry fees are obviously less than event costs; if the series is doing OK the rest mostly gets made up from vendors.

 

[Rabies]

There would be more sources of income for the large series than entry fees alone - trade stand fees, sponsorship income, media rights, the player ID card scam, merchandise (t-shirts etc.), a cut from the caterers, and so on.

 

[Liz]

There would be more sources of income for the large series than entry fees alone - trade stand fees, sponsorship income, media rights, the player ID card scam, merchandise (t-shirts etc.), a cut from the caterers, and so on.

Media Rights? You're joking aren't you Rabies - most of them have had to pay to get coverage rather than get anything out of it!
Player ID card scam goes to running the overall organisation, and if you read Chicago's post carefully you'll see they can have up to £200k to make up from the trade stands, paint licensing etc.

 

[Chicago]

And just to be clear, what I came up with is hardly an exhaustive list - there are definitely more expenses. I was just trying to show that expenses EASILY exceed entry fees, and by a pretty good margin.

 

[ChuckC]

Media Rights? You're joking aren't you Rabies - most of them have had to pay to get coverage rather than get anything out of it!.

According to Pure Promotions website http://www.purepromotions.tv
They charge $1,500 per camera per event.