Tournament Ideas

[SidCaeser 0]

Our rink is looking at beefing up our adult hockey programs. It has been thin for quite some time. The thought of a midnight madness tournament came up. We are a two pad rink and they own a single pad within five miles. I was thinking about the set-up for this, and my thought is something like this.

Play begins around 11pm. Play three 12 minute running clock periods. Two games can be played at a time, and we play three games throughout the night with the championship games played in the morning followed by breakfast. Since it is oddball ice time, we could cut the costs and run it in a interesting way. You could also turn it into a 4v4 or something else.

What are your thoughts, and is there anything else you have played in or saw that was fun event outside of the usual round robin event. We are not trying to be campy. We just are trying to change the perception/reputation of the old league. It tended to turn a lot of people away.

Thanks for your thoughts and help.

Jason

[Slapshot9123 0]

Ironman 3on3 tourny. Play a 20 min running clock games against everyone in the division. Ended up being 10 teams split into 2 divisions, top 4 advance and playoff games were 30 min running clock. Very fun, it was run on a 3 pad rink i dont know how it would translate into a 2 pad rink.

[SidCaeser 0]

Once your game was over how much time was there until your next game? I like the idea. It could be a lot of fun.

[15yearsofhistory 0]

Eh.. I played in a charity tournament where the teams were 1v1 plus a goalie, and then every minute somebody else would pop out on the ice until it was 4v4 or 5v5 (depending on how many players were aside). After both teams were at full strength it went backwards and players would hop off until it was 1v1 again. There were no penalties and each game consisted of three, 10 minute periods.

[Chadd 916]

If you don't have much of an adult program where are the teams going to come from? Most of the gimmick-y tournaments I've seen tend to end up with a bunch of 17 and 18 year olds playing and very few actual "adults".

What is the perception of the old league and how accurate was/is it?

[SidCaeser 0]

There are players. They have defected to other leagues at other rinks. The "old" league was pretty chippy, and the players were a higher level. We are wanting to produce a better league, and at the same time offer different tournaments throughout the year that are fun to play. Not just the average round-robin tourney.

There is also a a two pad rink that will be shutting down probably within the next year, and we are trying draw the men's leagues and their tournaments to our rink.

The players are there, it's just how do we get them and keep them at this rink. I have a personal interest, because it is the closest rink to my house, and it is the best ice, as well. But for a variety of reasons, people would rather play elsewhere.

[sabby47 2]

If the old league was pretty chippy try talking to your officials and ask them to call the games tighter. I know in the past when stick penalties were getting out of control we made stick infractions a double minor instead of a 2-min penalty. Instead of 5 minor penalties receiving a game misconduct our rules state 4 minor penalties. We've also skipped giving the misconduct penalty and just giving game ejections when players continue to be out of control. It doesn't exactly fall under USAHockey rules but at the same time you have to do what's best for the players and keep everyone safe. Obviously make sure your players know of the rule changes and explain why they are occuring.

Is it a draft league or do they sign up as a team? What we do with one of our leagues here is rank players 1, 2, 3 based on skill level and sort them out. It doesn't always come out entirely even but it's pretty close. If you're hanging out in the locker room after a gm just ask them how they think the league could be better or send out a survey.