Cornhole tournaments are hugely popular right now. If you are looking for a way to unite community members, support a great charity, or draw awareness to your business, it might be time to host a cornhole tournament.
Any time you gather a large group of people for a structured event, there will be headaches and drama. However, if you plan carefully, you can sidestep a lot of that nonsense. Here is how you do it.
Delegate
First of all, don’t try to tackle something like this on your own. Grab a couple of buddies or family members and give each one a task. Then, act as a manger and oversee everyone’s involvement. If you have enough willing “chairmen,” assign someone to each of the following areas:
- Venue
- Equipment
- Food and Beverage
- Marketing
- Registration
Venue
Choosing the venue should be the first thing on your to-do list. The venue will determine a lot of other factors.
Decide between an indoor event and an outdoor event; each has pros and cons. With an indoor event, you don’t have to worry about rain, wind or blazing sun. However, outdoor events tend to be more festive and bring a party atmosphere.
When scouting out venues, some suggestions include:
- School or community gymnasiums
- Parking lots
- The beach
- Parks
Once you have selected a venue, you can determine how many cornhole courts will fit. Remember, you’ll need to save space for the registration, food/beverage tent, and the spectator area.
Start thinking about how you will denote the designated space for each court. You’ll need a way to keep spectators away from the action. You’ll also want a way to mark the foot fault line (perhaps painter’s tape inside, spray paint outside).
Equipment
Will you have participants bring their own cornhole boards and bags? If so, you’ll need someone on hand to verify each regulation cornhole board and bag was constructed according to official standards.
If you will be providing the necessary equipment, you might want to think about rentals. This will help keep the costs down. If you are in the Clearwater, Florida area, Custom Corntoss has equipment available for rental.
Whether you purchase or rent, make sure the equipment is good quality and as uniform as possible. Also, have a few extra bags on hand in case some mysteriously go missing or bust after an energetic toss!
Food and Beverages
What is a cornhole tournament without booze and grub?! When it comes to the essentials, you basically have two options. You can provide the food and beverages yourself, or you can hire a local vendor. If you choose to sell alcohol, make sure the venue you chose has the necessary liquor license.
The person in charge of food and beverages should also round up all the extras – like plates, napkins, chairs, tables, etc.
Marketing
Marketing will be vital to your cornhole tournament’s success. Fortunately, the concept is quite popular, so you probably won’t have trouble finding people to join you.
Start with the most obvious tactic: social media. Social media can help spread the word about any event.
Then, look to traditional methods of marketing. Local newspapers and radio stations will usually advertise community happenings for a reasonable rate (sometimes even free).
Flyers might be old school, but they work. Try posting them where your target audience hangs out.
Registration
You can either have a pre-event registration (usually done online) or let participants register the day of the event.
If you do pre-registration, you might want to create a quick blog. Drive traffic to the blog and let them pay with their PayPal account.
If you have the registration the day of the event, you might want to have some extra security on hand. If you have a lot of interest in the event, you might have some angry wanna-be participants who don’t make the cutoff!
Cornhole tournaments are a lot of fun and can really help increase awareness for a cause or business. If you are interested in scoring some regulation cornhole boards or official cornhole bags, give us a call.