College How Much Does Business Play Into Scoring?

[Sterling von Shimmer]

Waaaaay overcrowded. Parents fighting because they cant get in the buildings to see their kids, rude staff, ran out of medals, wrong placements/wrong winners announced......

Oh my gosh that sounds terrible! How do you RUN OUT OF MEDALS??? Unless maybe they had more tied scores than they were expecting...

 

[Lisa Seye]

Oh my gosh that sounds terrible! How do you RUN OUT OF MEDALS??? Unless maybe they had more tied scores than they were expecting...

Nope

 

[catlady]

lol 'figurative monopoly' =/= a monopoly that the courts could pass judgement/penalties onto. That is why I said it like that. The Summit was an abomination last year, yet people are still going en masse this year. Why? The only other end of year options for lower level teams are few and far between.


that's how Varsity's business model has worked for years:
competitions were marketing for uniforms and camp. that's why only now are we seeing all other costs go up, Varsity is owned by two new companies in the past 7 years that don't want to take a dive on these massive competitions. it will only get worse. Varsity didn't create their competitions and fund all star events to grow the sport, they just want to grow their bottom line (which for most of their history is based around apparel).

Which is why Flocheer/VarsityTV is now a thing (they finally wanna profit off the media side). For years all the video and promotion work came as a marketing cost. For years we lost thousands of dollars doing video and live streaming so that the sport would get exposure and more teams would get involved, boosting up the company.

I guess I missed the "figurative" monopoly chapter. Law and business are truly black and white on monopoly's, they either exist or the don't. As far as the Summit, that situation isn't black and white. Parents and gym owners, while not thrilled with last year, realize most of the issues last year dealt with the new facility and will expect to see improvement. Many people still haven't experienced the Summit, but for those that have gone every year (us minus one year), it has otherwise been a well run event.

As far as your business model comment.... Varsity's and youth field sports biggest challenge with the EP or league side of the business is dealing with facilities they don't own and their customers balking at the rising prices of entry and STP to attend events. You can't control what you don't own, and some great reading is "Convention Center Follies" LINK, as well as, looking over the website of Grand Park LINK , their STP LINK, their economic transparency LINK. Field sport parents, as well as, someone recently said even band comps are dealing with the FloSport issue, but that partnership helps reduce expenses. This isn't just a Varsity issue, you can talk to parents in other sports, read other sport blogs, and read business/political info and the discussions are happening everywhere.

ETA: Grand Park Annual Financial Report LINK

 

[Lisa Seye]

Yep STP is not exclusive to cheer for sure. I agree that I would hope they work out all the kinks from last years Summit which was a hot mess. I think they learned that even the new arena is not enough if they take more and more teams in. They will need the tents again if they dont slow down on bids to too many teams. As for running out of medals, did they not know exactly how many athletes were coming? I can't really excuse that without a super valid reason lol. The one thing my kiddo STILL wants is her medal. Shes 15 and still wants that dang thing.

I guess I missed the "figurative" monopoly chapter. Law and business are truly black and white on monopoly's, they either exist or the don't. As far as the Summit, that situation isn't black and white. Parents and gym owners, while not thrilled with last year, realize most of the issues last year dealt with the new facility and will expect to see improvement. Many people still haven't experienced the Summit, but for those that have gone every year (us minus one year), it has otherwise been a well run event.

As far as your business model comment.... Varsity's and youth field sports biggest challenge with the EP or league side of the business is dealing with facilities they don't own and their customers balking at the rising prices of entry and STP to attend events. You can't control what you don't own, and some great reading is "Convention Center Follies" LINK, as well as, looking over the website of Grand Park LINK , their STP LINK, their economic transparency LINK. Field sport parents, as well as, someone recently said even band comps are dealing with the FloSport issue, but that partnership helps reduce expenses. This isn't just a Varsity issue, you can talk to parents in other sports, read other sport blogs, and read business/political info and the discussions are happening everywhere.

ETA: Grand Park Annual Financial Report LINK

 

[CheerItFullOut]

Yep STP is not exclusive to cheer for sure. I agree that I would hope they work out all the kinks from last years Summit which was a hot mess. I think they learned that even the new arena is not enough if they take more and more teams in. They will need the tents again if they dont slow down on bids to too many teams. As for running out of medals, did they not know exactly how many athletes were coming? I can't really excuse that without a super valid reason lol. The one thing my kiddo STILL wants is her medal. Shes 15 and still wants that dang thing.

I have zero issue with bringing back the tents-lol
Kinda missed them

 

[CLynn]

I have zero issue with bringing back the tents-lol
Kinda missed them

Well the fields, food trucks and open space felt really underutilized this past year. Everything was crammed in such a small area right near the entrance ....poor, poor planning.

 

[catlady]

Yep STP is not exclusive to cheer for sure. I agree that I would hope they work out all the kinks from last years Summit which was a hot mess. I think they learned that even the new arena is not enough if they take more and more teams in. They will need the tents again if they dont slow down on bids to too many teams. As for running out of medals, did they not know exactly how many athletes were coming? I can't really excuse that without a super valid reason lol. The one thing my kiddo STILL wants is her medal. Shes 15 and still wants that dang thing.

I wholeheartedly agree medals are a basic item, but I'll give the most super valid reason as a once corp Customer Service exec that I know, and that's just simply human error happens. As a person from retail, there's so many places that could have gone wrong from the person that counted, ordered, produced, packed, shipped to Varsity, unloaded, shipped to ESPN, distributed, people requesting extras for the lost/broken/or injured athletes that weren't counted, etc, and unfortunately it happens. Did you try contacting Varsity? I can't speak for Varsity, but at May we would have similar situations happen with gifts with purchase not being received at a certain store, or very few, if a customer called upset we could often dig one up somewhere and send it to them. It's worth a call or email if you haven't tried.

 

[Lisa Seye]

I wholeheartedly agree medals are a basic item, but I'll give the most super valid reason as a once corp Customer Service exec that I know, and that's just simply human error happens. As a person from retail, there's so many places that could have gone wrong from the person that counted, ordered, produced, packed, shipped to Varsity, unloaded, shipped to ESPN, distributed, people requesting extras for the lost/broken/or injured athletes that weren't counted, etc, and unfortunately it happens. Did you try contacting Varsity? I can't speak for Varsity, but at May we would have similar situations happen with gifts with purchase not being received at a certain store, or very few, if a customer called upset we could often dig one up somewhere and send it to them. It's worth a call or email if you haven't tried.

I didn't personally call the gym or coach did. I may do it lol.

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

Waaaaay overcrowded. Parents fighting because they cant get in the buildings to see their kids, rude staff, ran out of medals, wrong placements/wrong winners announced......

Ohhhh you mean it was a cheer competition?

 

[Zinger_bebe]

I didn't personally call the gym or coach did. I may do it lol.

They ran out in 2016 also. I had to buy one for CP off Poshmark.

 

[Sterling von Shimmer]

.

 

[Sterling von Shimmer]

i don't necessarily agree that last year's UDA result was due to any conspiracy. mostly because UMN still is a major camp, apparel, and competition customer, with their 5 teams (all girl, coed, mascot, dance(s), and hockey cheer).

that said, the question of having the EP have all the control with scoring and placing for a national championship is questionable when they are in business in other areas. i've been in the room when top teams' data was checked regarding their last orders, when they went to camp last, and other business related info. Varsity didn't become a 2 billion dollar company by being dumb..

Bringing back this comment since were discussing Varsity’s monopoly and scoring practices.

 

[Hoosea]

Actually no - and

Disclaimer: My dance knowledge is limited so I'm going to relate this to cheer.

Short answer: No.

By this logic, UCA should have politically colluded with some other University to have Kentucky come in 2nd like 15 titles ago.

They've only taken second 3 times in 20 years but when it does happen, I think the other team does have the better technique and execution (ex: the year UCF beat them.) It's not a political ploy.

Actually I disagree and full disclosure my area in cheer not dance or Pom. Varsity’s gone on record admitting that using their items (apparels, poms, etc) leads to better scoring. If that’s true - and their honest about - what happens behind closed doors? Varsity owns these comps and when it comes down to it control the venue, the rules, the judging, the scoring etc etc etc. I don’t think it’s stretch to hypothesize that if Varsity believed there was a financial interest to shake things up in this division they wouldn't do it.

 

[Hoosea]

Bringing back this comment since were discussing Varsity’s monopoly and scoring practices.

Anyone know if he implying that scores were based on that information? Interesting.