Continuation....

[bhamusfa]

I want to continue Chris' thread from the other day.... What positives/negatives does everyone have with the way softball tournaments are hosted and run in Alabama?

I ask, because it seems that Alabama is just such a different state when it comes to softball than just about all others, in that people seem to prefer having several, small tournaments all around town, than playing in larger more centralized tournaments.

I can't see any positives in having 6 tournaments within a 45 mile radius like we are having this fall, but maybe I'm not seeing the benefits to all sides. As a coach, I look for the largest, most competitive tournaments possible to play in, with people who know how to run tournaments. As a tournament director, I try to mix up the parks at which I have tournaments, and cater all I can to the most possible teams.

Can anyone help me on this subject? I am just in amazement to watch how Alabama fastpitch softball has evolved over the past few years, and how differently Alabama has moved in contrast to other neighboring states....

[timewise]

We would love to play in a huge tournament. I don't know why it has ended up this way. I guess there are just too many sanctions and some sanctions have too many tournaments in the same weekend! I don't think it's actually what people prefer. I think that's just how it is right now because that's how all these sanctions are doing it.

[hoosiercoach]

There is a thread on Heybucket about VTD ( Virtual Tournament Director) , and how they are splitting from ASA to do their own thing. VTD is talking about being a clearinghouse for ALL sanctions, listing all tournaments and being able to see who / how many teams are signed up for each, and then the results afterwards.
IMHO, this would be wonderful. Right now you can reliably log on to USFA site and see these things (except for our last minute signer-uppers....), NSA & USSSA are getting better, and ASA is anybody's guess who has signed up, or the results. If a coach could go to ONE website to decide where to play, things would be much simpler and make cooperation between the sanctions easier.
To answer your question, the bigger the tournament, the better!