Running A Regional Pickleball Tournament: The Most Important Thing is Not What You Think

SOOO.... My Pickleball club just finished running the 2015 Great Lakes Regional Pickleball Tournament in Fort Wayne, Indiana. My thoughts? 1. You CAN'T make everybody happy 2. You CAN make most people happy 3. You should make sure the restrooms are close to the courts 4. Pickleballers are pretty nice people (98.5% of them) 5. Pickleballers say medals aren't important to them (but they are) 6. Players with a 5.0 rating are TOTALLY different in many ways than all the other players (and they know it) 7. Vendors should sell more than paddles and shirts with logos on them 8. Women need cuter pickleball outfits (I'm sorry, I'm a guy. I thought about saying sexier but thought that was going over the line) ...AND THE MOST IMPORTANT THING? You have to fnd unique ways to make the tournament FUN for the players. That is the most important thing. Did you hear me? Now you're thinking "How the heck do I do that?" It's coming in a later blog because I didn't do any of them in this tournament. But I have lots of ideas, and I want yours too. You probably thought running a successful tournament was all about refs, rules, brackers, courts, etc. YOU'RE WRONG! Come back soon.