All-Star What Is Important To You At An Events?

[CAmom]

If you had to prioritize what's important to you how would you order these pieces, and if you had to choose just three which would they be; 1)Production - Lighting, sound, led screens, etc. 2)Gifts - Competitor gifts, coaches gifts, spectator gifts 3) Hospitality - coaches hospitality rooms, spectator hospitality rooms, designated team rooms 4)Staging/Seating - raised stage/raised seating 5)Interactive pieces - spectator games, on stage parent dance offs, etc.[/quote]

As a parent: #4 then #1 . Team rooms is nice but considered a luxury, and in my book#5 should count against you!!! I strongly dislike #5!!!

A small thing in the grand scheme of it all, but every year I hear athletes complain about a terrible tumbling warm-up strip (dead, hardly any spring ) and then walking on to the competition floor to find it completely the opposite! There should be consistency between the two! We go to one competition every year my CP cant stand for just this reason. Please put some money into a decent warm-up set up!

 

[AllHeartxo3]

Just an overall professional atmosphere at the competition. So that would include a nice back drop and lighting, making sure that the warm up area is up to par. Even down to the little things such as the gifts, I want you to have put some thought into it. My parents pay a lot of money to let me be competing with my team here and we have worked our butts off to try and get first place, at least give us an enjoyable experience.

 

[BlueCat]

Scoring

• Qualified judges
• Fair, consistent judging system
• Openness of judging system (coaches being allowed to know why they lost/won)

Logistics

• Unrushed warmup timed correctly with performance
• Event runs on time
• Allow coaches to video/photograph
• Allow crowd to video/photograph
• fun/games on stage between sessions/awards
• efficient awards ceremony

Swag

• elaborate awards ceremony (lots of prizes for stuff other than division rank)
• Individual competition awards (jackets, rings, etc)
• Participant gifts (bags, trinkets, etc)
• trophy/banner quality

Venue Driven

• Availability/quality of spectator seating
• Production value (lights, backdrop, etc)
• Food/Concessions
• Hospitality Room
• Safe, open warmup room with same type floor as performance

Cost

• Expense of entry fee
• Expense of spectator admission

Am I missing anything? Better way to organize?

 

[Eyes On The Prize]

I feel that your responses are gonna differ from who's perspective you are getting. Parents, coaches and cheerleaders all expect something different from a competition and to satisfy every single request is quite the challenge.

From a cheerleader's point-of-veiw:
-I like the big productions. Lighting, sound, everything. It makes it feel special. My favorite competition ever? U.S. Finals, strictly because of the stage effects. It just makes the competition memorable for me and my team. (And memorable keeps them coming back.) Epic music is really cool to walk out to, too. But don't play the same song over and over until it's perminantly stuck in my head forever and when I watch Pirates of the Caribbean, I know what song I walked out to. Anyone who's ever been to U.S. Finals will recognize this (0:26-0:52): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiHLMHHbemM
-I'm gonna be honest, I really do like getting well thought out competitor gifts. I think COA has done a spectacular job with this, they are, in my opinion, the best company for spectator gifts. Not once have I ever gotten a repeat gift two years in a row. I LOVED the COA flip-flops (I stole my brother's that year, I know, I'm a terrible sister... But I just couldn't get over how comfy and lightweight they were). I also STILL use the black drawstring participant bag I got like 7 years ago. (The one that has all the logos from the different competitions in a circle.) I have used it ever since I got it to carry my shoes and stuff to every single practice. I'm surprised that it has held up over the years. So, the point is, as far as spectator gifts go, make them useful and unique. I can't tell you how many duplicates of Jamfest disposable cameras or CD caeses I have, neither of them I need since no one carrys CD's around (except cheer coaches) and everyone has digital cameras and they have camera's on their phone. And to the Texan who didn't have the chance to ever use their COA winter gear, I'm sorry. But as a New Yorker, I enjoyed tem very, VERY much! (and still do!)
-Arena food if you can help it (sometimes you can't, I get that! All depends on the arena.) I'd love to see healthier AND cheaper options as far as food and drinks go. If it's possible bring in vendors who offer both those things (it's cool to bring in vendors with fruit, but I don't want to buy an apple for $3 thats bruised and looks disgusting, thanks.)
-I agree with the not restricting photgrphy thing but I also understand that the picture and video companies are there to make money, too.
-Because I am/was an avid cheerleader both on the mat and off, I like when competitions have judges that make those recordings. Score sheets are gonna say the same thing over and over and over but its different when I actually hear someone tell me them whose not my coach. It gives it a personal touch. I also like the play back of our performance. I can see how we did and what I can expect at awards. (Parents, unless very educated, don't know what the judges are looking for so you don't get a real sense of how you did.)
-My brother would tell you to add things for guys at the vendors. I never really got anything at the vendors anyways but I like patches, something cheap that I can collect. I don't need a thousand and one more event t-shirts. They always cost too much anyways.
-Medals or something for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. We work hard all season. It's nice to get a medal or ribbon to commemorate what we have achieved. Also, don't shower first place teams with banners, jackets, medals, trophies, and minature ponies and then give second place a stupid ribbon. Especially if you're putting on a big name nationals where people pay a lot of money to not only compete but travel to so they ca attend your event. coughcoughU.S.Finals2010.

From a spectator's point-of-view:
-Fair admission. Especially since I am a college kid, my money is limited. I don't want to pay $25 to go to a competition thats in an arena, there's nothing special done to the stage and I'm only gonna be there for 4 hours because only 4 organizations brought teams. The most I am willing to pay is $50 for a two day, spectacular competition that has high calibur teams. e.g. something like SpiritFest in CT where they have it in a really nice casino.
-ON TIME. ON TME. ON TIME. Seriously, it's my biggest pet peeve. Especially if its on a Sunday, I have school the next day and I still have to travel 4-5 hours to get home.
-Don't make performance orders like $7. Unless they have coupons to the $3 fruit vendor for me.
-Entertaining MC's. Get someone who knows what they are doing. Someone who knows how to pronounce the teams name, where they are from, and knows how to read the sheet at awards so Craptastic All Stars isn't announced in 1st when they actually got 5th. Also, I like someone who knows how to use a microphone, otherwise all I hear is mumble, mumble, mumlbe all competiton.
-Move the teams along. I'm not saying I want something equivilant to rapid-fire performances but we don't need 5 minutes in between teams. Take time for the judges to finish what they are doing and get ready for the next team but i don't need to hear "Party in the USA" TWICE between teams. (When you are actually competeing, even a 30 second wait is AGONIZING!)

That' pretty much it for now, my hand is tired. I must say, COA is one of my all time favorite competition companies. You guys do a great job every year! Good luck this year! I'm glad you made this thread! It shows you're really there for your customers And sorry for the novel.

 

[ultimatepowerevo]

When I am competing I do not want to be rushed during warmups. I hate when we only get 5 minutes per floor. I feel so rushed and my team mates and I can't be focused on what we need to do. I like lots of lighting but sometimes it's overwhelming and really hot on the floor. I don't like it when judges score higher on teams that are well known compared to teams that are not so well known. I have seen a really popular team drop 4 stunts in a routine with touch downs left and right and they went up against a team that was not so popular that hit perfect and the popular team won. This is not fair. We want fair judges at competitions. I have been to a few COA competitions and one year my team got grand champions and we go a jacket and for just being in the competition we got gloves, ear warmers, and a scarf and I thought that was pretty cool. A good gift for anyone is a t-shirt, everyone wants a t-shirt when they are at a competitions.
I am sure that everything is quite expensive too but I wish that competitions would keep entrance fees in the average persons budget. $10 a day is the perfect amount. $20 a day is too much. Worlds cost $25 and that is the biggest competition of the year. You have to think that most people are bringing the whole family and if you have to bring 2 kids that don't cheer and your spouse thats $80 a day. Most people can't afford that.
Thanks for asking us! I hope that other companies read this!

 

[aquarider]

This is really great feedback. One of the things we have to do as event producers is prioritize how we spend money on competitions. I know that between registration fees and admission fees the costs add up, and it can be overwhelming for parents and coaches. We really don't just take as much money as we can get away with. The costs for running these large events add up quickly........venues can run way up past $25,000 for one day events, lighting and sound can be anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 depending on the type of lighting, bleacher seating adds thousand of dollars, screens, chairs, staging, competitor gifts, coaches gifts, paying staff, paying judges, flights, hotels, trucking to bring equipment, union labor fees for set up and break down, venue fees on ticket sales.....and so much more. I am not in any way complaining. It is our pleasure to have the opportunity to provide these events for all the athletes coaches and parents. It is just a balancing act of providing strong innovative experiences while trying to keep costs down. If you had to prioritize what's important to you how would you order these pieces, and if you had to choose just three which would they be; 1)Production - Lighting, sound, led screens, etc. 2)Gifts - Competitor gifts, coaches gifts, spectator gifts 3) Hospitality - coaches hospitality rooms, spectator hospitality rooms, designated team rooms 4)Staging/Seating - raised stage/raised seating 5)Interactive pieces - spectator games, on stage parent dance offs, etc.

#1 and #4 for me, and thanks for asking, by the way!

To me hearing the music way loud all day does get hard on the ears after awhile; also the grandparents and most of my relatives refuse to come because it hurts their ears which is kinda disappointing to my cheerleader.

Reasonable admission - I paid $25 this year to watch my child for 2-1/2 mins, that kinda hurt since I was too sick to go in to watch anyone else BUT her. And I don't mind a reasonable fee for myself but to have to pay anything more than $5 for my under 10-year-old kinda hurts too. If they don't cheer they're not watching anyway, LOL!

T-shirts are fine as most kids want one from the comp anyway, but really I'd forego ANY gifts if that helped lower my admission to the event.

HEALTHY food choices! My child is a health fanatic and won't eat pizza, burgers or nearly anything usually offered at comps. And since the venue searches your bag and won't let you bring anything in this leaves us with a huge problem of how to feed her at comps, especially if we are there for most of the day. I don't want her going out and fainting on the floor due to lack of food and she WILL do that if there's no sandwiches, fruit or salads to be had at the comp. If the venue doesn't offer more choices at a comp that runs all day, at least maybe they could compromise on allowing us to bring a sub sandwich in to eat... This would probably make me the happiest )))))

 

[xoxbeastbackspotxox]

- Competitions that run on time
- ( on behalf of my dad) Music that isn't extremely loud
- Warm up areas that aren't rushed
- Fairness of judging
- Not dragging out awards ceremonies. ( I'm sure the little kids like doing dance parties and stuff but I'm sure most other people don't)

 

[notimeforthat]

I attended COA Ultimate Nationals in 2010 and thought you guys did a bang up job and the swag and prizes were great!!
I think location and time of year have a lot to do with attendance. location location location!
I agree with the addmission price and cutting out the chucky cheese show are priorities. Fair and consistant judging panel.
Although the swag is great, We really can do without if it will help cut down cost.
I love the feeling of arena style venues with lighting and backdrop... You don't mind sitting for hours if you have a good seat.
Please have some decent food available... Nothing is worse than petrified mystery meat that costs more than a steak... Lol....
Thanks for asking!!

 

[dawgshow]

One thing that I like to see as a parent is a FREE line-up listing. I hate it when I pay the fees, pay to park, pay to get in (or not) then have to pay $7-10 for a program that is not much more than a color copied piece of paper because I didn't remember to bring my print out.
I'll second the healthy food options, but that may be more in the hands of the venue. I don't know

 

[drewpate]

I agree with one thing i left out on my list, warmups! They can make or break a competition. I wasn't at one single competition last year where I thought warmups were handled perfectly. They were either rushed followed by near an hour wait for competiting, or slower but leaving you only 3-4 minutes before going on. You need to have a good balance, and more importantly to me, it would greatly increase your quality if you had a person at each comp whos job was to see if you are getting too crowded after warm ups and need to make them not let anyone into warmups for a cycle or two.

 

[cheerkd]

as a cheerleader i really like when we can watch our routine right after we competed. Letting us know how we did and it helps the coaches catch something they might have missed and fit it for the next day. Also at least 6 minutes on each mat. While the 4 might be okay for a small team with 36 kids its a little difficult to warm up tumbling. And finally like everyone else said quick award ceremonies.

 

[ellie]

not in any order these are my top 10:
1. the event runs on shedule
2. awards are kept short but still memorable
3. warm up areas with a full sized spring floor
4. accesable parking thats free
5. production value good lighting background etc.
6. enough and quality seating so you can see and priority seating to cheer on ur teams
7. affordable addmission
8. good quality prizes and/or gifts for winners and participants ex. nationals nice jackets
9. video to watch routine after we compete
10. a big enough venue for the ppl at the competion not 2 overcrowded

 

[newcheerdad]

As a spectator, I want to feel like I'm at a sporting event, and that I have a decent idea of what's going on.

One of the things that has always exasperated me about cheer events is that you attend them, and other than knowing when your team performs there's nothing about the sport itself. No explanation of the rules, levels, scoring. Most events don't even announce scores. I remember when our area got a minor league hockey team - the first couple of years of the team's existence they would hand out "cheat sheets" that explained rules, penalties, etc. I'd love to see that kind of information handed out in a program, just once, rather than expecting me to dig it up on the internet.

 

[King]

Announcing scores soon after a team competes would be great. And make people think there is less shenanigans going on. And awards would be just that, handing out awards. This was done in college cheer forever. Not sure why it wasn't adopted anywhere else.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

 

[garretttt]

errr i wish each competition had a 'standard' warm up. i went to a competition this past season where the warm ups were 3 mats.....in the parking lot.