Most first tournaments fail in one of three places: the format does not fit the courts, registration opens without a refund policy, or the day runs late because nobody was watching the queue. This guide is in the order you will meet those problems.
Eight weeks out: decide what you are running
Pick the events first, then the format. A one-day tournament on eight courts comfortably holds three doubles events with pool play and a crossover playoff. Add singles and you need a second day or more courts. Decide the events before you decide anything else, because everything downstream, from the entry fee to the schedule, depends on how many matches you have to play.
Match the format to the courts and the hours. Rough rules that hold up:
| Format | Matches per team | Fits when |
|---|---|---|
| Pool play (4 per pool) + crossover playoff | 3 pool matches + 1 or 2 playoff | Most club tournaments. Everyone gets three guaranteed matches. |
| Round robin | One per opponent | Small brackets of 5 to 7 teams. Fair, but long. |
| Double elimination | At least 2 | Larger brackets on a tight clock. Fewer guaranteed matches per team. |
| Single elimination | At least 1 | Only when you are out of hours. Half the field goes home after one match. |
Split by skill, then by age. A 3.0 event and a 4.0 event on the same court produce two very different afternoons. Use DUPR or self-rating for the split and expect to move a few teams between brackets after registration closes.
Six weeks out: set the money up properly
Set the entry fee per event, not per tournament. Players entering two or three events expect to pay more, and you need the revenue to match the extra court time.
Write the refund policy before registration opens. “Full refund until two weeks out, none after” is the norm. Say it on the tournament page and it stops being an argument.
Know what the platform adds. On Serious Pickleball, players pay a $5 technology fee per event, capped at $10 for the tournament; the club pays $25 to list and nothing off the payout. Other platforms take a percentage of the checkout or charge per player per event; check yours, and put the total a player will actually see on the registration page.
Get paid to your own bank. Entry fees should be charged on your club’s own payment account and paid out to you on the processor’s schedule, not held by the platform. Ask where the money sits between registration and payout, and for how long.
Four weeks out: open registration
- Post a photo. Listings with photos draw more players.
- Set registration open and close dates. Close at least four days before the tournament so you have time to build the draw and chase partners.
- Turn on the waitlist and cap each event. A full event with a waitlist looks better than an open event with three teams, and the waitlist fills the no-shows.
- Send the link everywhere your players already are: the club’s group chat, the facility’s board, the regional Facebook groups.
One week out: build the draw
- Pool assignment should keep clubmates apart where it can. Serpentine seeding by rating gives even pools; splitting players from the same club across pools stops them meeting in round one.
- Generate the schedule and look at it as a player would. Nobody should play back to back without the ten-minute rest USA Pickleball asks for, and nobody should sit for two hours in the middle of a pool.
- Assign courts by bracket: keep a pool on adjacent courts so players can hear the call.
- Recruit a desk volunteer per eight courts and a referee for medal matches.
The day
Check-in is where the day is won. Open it an hour before first ball. Chase every unchecked team ten minutes before their bracket starts; a no-show found early is a substitute, a no-show found late is a bye that wrecks the pool.
Run the queue, not the clock. The schedule is a plan. Once matches start, the only thing that matters is that a free court gets the next ready match. A queue that enforces rest, shows players their ETA, and reports whether you are ahead or behind lets one person run twelve courts.
Say everything once. Court changes and rain delays go out as a single announcement to every phone, not as a shout across the venue.
Enter scores on court. If players enter the score when the match ends, the bracket updates itself, the next match goes into the queue, and the desk never becomes a bottleneck.
After
- Report results to DUPR the same day, with defaults marked as defaults.
- Issue refunds for the withdrawals you approved, and note who is still owed.
- Ask the players one question by email: “What would make you come back?” Read every answer.
- List the next one while they still remember this one.
If you are listing your first tournament, the Director’s Guide walks through every screen, and the three-step wizard does most of this for you.