Sports Tournament Organizer
SCRAMBLE SPORTS TOURNAMENT SERIES

31 Stone School Dr.
Muncie, Indiana 47302

Our goal is to develop this company into a respected national tournament series encompassing both extreme and traditional sports, and to make this competition open to people of all ages and skill levels.

This business plan provides information relevant to the development of our national tournament series. It describes plans for our events, growth strategies, financial plans, the management team, and an analysis of the industry. It is meant to inform the reader about our company and its operations in years to come.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Objectives

The Scramble Sports Tournament Series is a limited liability company headquartered in Muncie, Indiana. Our goal is to develop this company into a respected national tournament series encompassing both extreme and traditional sports, and to make this competition open to people of all ages and skill levels. We feel that by offering separate divisions for people of various age and skill levels in: Hockey, Soccer, Basketball, Volleyball, Skateboarding, In-Line Skating, and Biking in our first year of operation, with new sports to be added every year, we can tap into a large portion of the massive sports tournament marketplace.

In addition, by offering a vendor tradeshow, live bands, comfortable viewing areas, concessions, merchandise, and a fun family environment, we also hope to encourage spectators to attend our events as well. By enticing both athletes and spectators to attend our events, we will greatly increase our earning potential. We plan not only to charge athletes to compete in our events, but also to charge spectators to view and park at the events, vendors to showcase their merchandise at the events, sponsors to market products at the events, as well as selling concessions, photographs, merchandise, and tournament programs.

We also plan to form strategic partnerships with entities outside of the sporting industry in order to offer other unique competitions and contests which will broaden our customer base. In addition, we will also be partnering with an internet as well as a magazine media outlet so that we may push our content in front of our target market.

In the past our management team was able to start and successfully operate a national hockey tournament series, as well as a regional paintball tournament series. While this is a much larger project, we feel that we have a strong background in the sports tournament industry as well as the contacts and resources at our disposal to help us achieve our goal.

Mission

To become the amateur athletes' hub for knowledge, advancement, and competition.

The mission of the Scramble Sports Tournament Series is to form a respected national tournament series which will allow amateur athletes of various age and skill levels to learn, participate, improve skills, and compete in a variety of both traditional and extreme sports. In addition, contracts with vendors in each sport will provide the amateur athletes with an opportunity to discuss, watch, and learn about different aspects of each sport.

COMPANY HISTORY

The idea behind Scramble spurred from an observation that many athletes are interested in and passionate about a variety of sports; however, the majority of sports tournament series only offer a single sport in one location at a time. The idea behind Scramble is to offer a variety of sports in one single location so that athletes may not only participate in the sport which they are passionate about, but may also have the chance to watch and participate in other sports so that they may develop an understanding and respect for those sports as well.

Our management team observed that in the sports tournament marketplace there are an abundance of tournaments which offer a single sport at a single location, such as a local soccer tournament. In addition, there are a great deal of tournaments which offer a single sport at multiple locations throughout the year, such as a soccer tournament series, and there are a number of tournaments which offer multiple sports at different locations throughout the year, such as a soccer tournament in Muncie and a hockey tournament in Indianapolis.

This leaves a large void in the sports tournament marketplace. It seems that there are relatively few sports tournaments which offer multiple sports at the same location, such as a soccer and hockey tournament at one park. In addition, to take this idea one step further, there are even fewer, if any, sports tournaments which offer both traditional and extreme sports at the same location. This is the void in the sports tournament marketplace which we have identified and intend to fill.

Our design is to offer a multi sport tournament series, encompassing elements of both extreme and traditional sports, during the summer months when children are not in school and families are more able to travel. In our first year of operation we plan to offer eight regional tournaments taking place in major cities spread across the Midwest, as well as one national championship tournament in Muncie, centrally located in our Midwest region. In addition, during the off season we also plan to offer clinics as well as Sports Highlight tournaments that highlight and showcase each of the sports which we offer: Hockey, Soccer, Basketball, Volleyball, Skateboarding, In-Line Skating, and Biking.

Another big draw for our series will be the extensive vendor showcase. Our goal is to contract with one large vendor in each sport to attend our events and showcase their products as well as answer any questions that athletes may have, provide equipment assistance for athletes, and possibly even bring sponsored athletes to put on demonstrations and explain the intricacies of the various sports to aspiring athletes.

In addition, we also intend to contract with companies outside of the sporting industry so that we may peak other areas of interest at our events as well. While athletes and spectators are at our events we will have a relatively captive audience. Instead of ignoring this audience and forcing them to entertain themselves, or even worse, leave the venue for entertainment, we plan to contract with companies outside of the sporting industry to provide fun family-centered entertainment so that consumers with extra time will desire to remain at the venue and enjoy the atmosphere.

ORGANIZATION

The management team of the Scramble Tournament Series has a strong proven background in the sports tournament industry. One member of the management team, Bobby Risheo, along with his father, Thomas Risheo, was previously involved in starting, owning, and operating a national roller hockey tournament series. In addition, Bobby Risheo was also involved in starting and operating a regional paintball tournament series.

In 1997, the management team of Bobby and Thomas Risheo saw a market opportunity to run hockey tournaments at arenas during the night when the buildings would be otherwise closed and therefore generating no revenue. Due to prior relationships which the management team had with many local hockey rink owners, they were able to convince many local area rink owners to allow them access to the buildings during non-operating nighttime hours on the weekends.

During this time the management team ran a successful "All Night Hockey Tournament Series" at many venues throughout the Muncie area including: Number One Sports Complex located in Hartford City; The Rink located in Indianapolis; Ice Babies located in Muncie; and Wilbur Arena located in Fishers.

As the popularity of the series grew, the demand became too great to simply run the tournaments in the overnight fashion. There was simply not enough time to accommodate all of the teams that wished to participate in the series. Knowing that they had a loyal customer base in the Muncie marketplace, the management team decided to expand their tournaments from nighttime events to weekend-long tournaments and to change the name of the series from "Evening Hockey Tournament Series" to "Weekend Hockey Series."

With the new name and business model the team continued to promote their tournaments and continued to fill them to capacity. While running weekend-long events was much more difficult and time consuming than simply running one night events, the management team found that having consumers at the event for a longer period of time allowed for additional offerings and they were able to expand their revenue streams by offering concessions, merchandise, and even having side competitions when venues had the appropriate space required. These additional revenue streams, along with the additional capacity created by expanding the events from one night to an entire weekend, showed positive results on the company's financials.

With their new business model showing signs of success in the Muncie marketplace, the management team decided that expansion into other areas could be profitable as well. They began by taking the series to a regional level and offering similar events in Lansing, Michigan; Toledo, Ohio; Madison, Wisconsin; and Chicago, Illinois.

Upon success in these areas the management team decided to dream big and expanded the series to a national level by offering sixteen regional qualifying tournaments throughout the United States and a series national championship tournament located at the Number One Sports Complex in Hartford City.

While expanding to a national level continued to make the series even more popular and even more profitable, the management team had never intended to make the series their full-time career. Both members of the team had prior business careers which they wished to return to; therefore, in 2000 the team decided to exit the series via a buyout agreement with another national hockey tournament series whereby the buying series simply dissolved "Weekend Hockey Series" and shifted its clientele into their series.

Late in the year 2000 however Bobby Risheo once again decided to start and operate another tournament series, this time in the paintball industry. While working at a local paintball shop located in Indianapolis, Total Paintball Madness, Bobby had developed a close relationship with the owner. When the owner, Josh Doctor, decided to open playing fields in addition to the store, Bobby approached him with the offer to start, operate, and market a regional paintball tournament series at the new fields.

With most of the owner's time being tied up trying to manage the daily business of his store and his new playing fields, he did not have time to worry about a tournament series himself; however, he did think that it was a good idea. Therefore, he allowed Bobby, who had been working at the store for over a year at that point, to run the series. The structure was set up so that the field took a portion of the profits from each tournament and Bobby retained the rest of the profit himself. This worked out well for both parties since Bobby was not required to put up any capital to get the series off the ground, and Mr. Doctor was able to retain ownership and full rights to the series itself.

The buzz generated by the opening of the new fields combined with the marketing efforts of Bobby Risheo created an atmosphere which drew top paintball teams from around the region almost instantaneously. In fact, the first tournament held at the field drew approximately 35 teams, almost 25% more teams than expected and included teams traveling from as far as Knoxville, Tennessee and Chicago, Illinois—cities in which marketing campaigns were not even launched. While Bobby stepped down as tournament director late in 2004, the tournament series is still in operation today and remains one of the top regional paintball tournament series in the area.

BUSINESS STRATEGY

Currently the Scramble Sports Tournament Series is in the start-up phase. The major milestones which we feel we have accomplished towards bringing our business into fruition include:

• Having designed the format which we wish to operate by
• Identifying the sports which we intend to offer in our first season
• Setting a tentative schedule for the 2007–2008 calendar year
• Creating event outlines detailing how each of our various events will operate
• Designing sponsor and vendor packages
• Identifying strategic partnership opportunities
• Performing an analysis of the competition
• Analyzing the industry in which we will be operating
• Identifying various market segments for our tournament series
• Developing a marketing strategy to reach our various market segments
• Outlining the development milestones which we intend to accomplish in the future

Management Summary

Bobby B. Risheo—Owner/CEO

Bobby is a senior majoring in entrepreneurship in the Kelley Business School at Indiana University. Bobby's background in the sports industry is very extensive both as a participant and as a tournament operator. In addition to operating hockey and paintball tournaments, Bobby has participated in a great deal of sports tournaments. Bobby traveled throughout North America playing roller hockey tournaments for four years in addition to traveling around the United States playing paintball tournaments for three years. This extensive tournament knowledge has helped Bobby to understand what features of tournaments help to make them successful, as well as what features tend to lead to failure.

In addition to tournament experience, Bobby has also worked in the life insurance industry at his father's brokerage firm, Family Insurance Solutions. This has provided Bobby with the skills to work with complex database systems, allowed Bobby the opportunity to create and launch various marketing campaigns, as well as allowing Bobby the experience of personal selling.

After having started and operating two separate tournament series in two completely unrelated sports, Bobby came to realize that no matter what the sport may be, the format for running a tournament series remains similar. With this in mind he decided that if he were to create a format for running a national tournament series for a single sport, he might as well expand the idea and apply that same format to a number of different sports in order to create something which has never been done before.

Chad Bloom—Founding Member

Chad is a senior entrepreneurship student at the University of Michigan. In the past Chad has acted as a substitute manager for the Sports Park in Redford, Michigan where daily patron numbers often exceeded 300 people. Also, while working at the Sports Park, Chad helped to organize an annual Goofy Olympics in which nearly 400 children were separated by age groups and competed against one another in an attempt to win their division and be honored at the awards ceremony. Through his past experiences working at Sports Park Chad has gained the managerial and organizational skills necessary to direct and organize large groups of people.

In addition to large group organization, Chad has also dealt first-hand with sales, marketing, and quality control at his internship with Physicstone in 2005. During his time at Physicstone, Chad created accounts for new customers using ACT, which is a Windows-based business organizational tool. Chad also made sales calls to new customers and created Excel databases to organize seasonal mailers for the marketing department. Finally, Chad also called existing customers to ensure customer satisfaction and retention.

Will Reed—Founding Member

Will is a senior at Saint Louis University and is majoring in entrepreneurship. Will's career in leadership and management roles includes acting as a fleet coordinator for the Osage River Barge Company for the last one and a half years. During this time he has organized and deployed tug and barge operations on Lake of the Ozarks. This position also consisted of one on one customer relations that gave him firsthand personal selling experience.

Will has also acted as a boat and watercraft rental manager for The Barge Floating Restaurant where he coordinated all employee activities and contributed to his customers' overall experience with the company, providing an exciting and fulfilling experience for them. Will has been the Internal Vice President for Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity for the past year. His duties as Vice President include the organization of community service and philanthropy events, as well as conducting chapter meetings.

Will is very enthusiastic about, and has a broad range of experience and knowledge in, a wide variety of sports. He acted as captain of both his football and basketball team at Osage High School. Will's experiences in management and athletics have given him the skills necessary to organize people, events, and operations that are necessary to help Scramble reach its goals in the coming years. Furthermore, his leadership roles have given him the knowledge, influence, and charisma to help Scramble become the athlete's hub for knowledge, advancement, and competition.

SERVICES

Tournament Overview

In order to separate ourselves from the competition we plan to offer all seven of our sports in one location at the same time. Not only do we intend to offer all of our sports in one park, but we intend to strategically position our various sports playing surfaces close together (while still leaving room for comfortable viewing areas, vendor booths, sponsor displays and any other such desired space) so that spectators will be able to view a number of different sports without having to travel entirely across the venue.

Our design is to have two divisions in each sport which we intend to offer. The first division will be the competitive division and will consist of top athletes from around the Midwest in each sport. Athletes will be divided by age; however, the only other restriction will be that no professional athletes will be allowed to compete.

In order to entice these top athletes from around the country to participate in our tournament series, we will be working with vendors and sponsors to provide a variety of prizes which will be given to the winners of each division. In addition, we will be creating an atmosphere which will help these top players not only showcase their skills, but also improve them along the way. We will have high quality vendors in each sport on hand to answer any of the athletes' questions and offer advice and tips to help them rise to the top of their game.

The second division will be the recreational division. This division will consist of athletes who simply wish to try out a given sport, or who simply wish to play for fun, not on a competitive level. This division will not have any prizes for the winners, but rather participation prizes and prizes for things such as the 20th point of the day. The goal of this division is to give athletes of all ages a chance to participate in a sport which they have limited knowledge about or limited skill in, but yet wish to get the experience of playing the sport in an exciting venue the same way it is designed to be played by top athletes at a competitive level.

Format

In order to make this series available to more participants and accommodate more teams we have decided not to offer full sports games but rather scaled down versions of the sports. We feel that by offering scaled down versions of the sports with the same basic rules and principals but smaller playing surfaces, shorter game lengths and less participants on the court at a time we can not only accommodate more teams, but will also open the series up to groups of people who do not currently play on an organized team but are interested in becoming involved in a given sport.

In addition to offering full team registration, we will also offer the option to register as an individual and be placed on a team according to age and skill level. We feel that by allowing individuals as well as full teams to register we will greatly increase our draw and will be able to gain access to a great deal of individuals who would have otherwise not participated in the sports tournament marketplace.

In addition to allowing us to cater to a larger market, using a scaled down format also allows us a great deal of additional venue options. Since we will be using scaled down versions of playing surfaces rather than the much larger regulation size surfaces we will be able to purchase and transport our own playing surfaces. Since we will be utilizing our own playing surfaces for each sport we can select venues based on location as opposed to venues which can accommodate all of our sports. By choosing venues located in central areas we will provide participants and spectators easier access and less transportation problems, which should increase attendance.

Finally, using the scaled down format will provide for more exciting competition. Since the playing surface will be smaller than regulation, games should be much faster pace and result in higher scores. Higher scoring games usually result in greater fan interest and involvement and should produce a great deal of excitement. Since many spectators will be viewing new sports for the first time, this more exciting format should help to pique the interest of many new fans and help to generate cross interest among the sports.

Tournament Sports

In order to ensure that each sport receives the attention and publicity that is required to attain the highest possible standards within each individual sport, we have decided to start by offering four traditional team sports and three individual extreme sports. Each year we plan to add an additional traditional sport, as well as one or two additional extreme sports. This idea of starting small and slowly building will allow us to develop personal relationships with the vendors, athletes, and spectators related to each sport, as well as allowing us to expand into sporting events which our patrons are interested in. Our goal is to develop a loyal following that comes to all of our tournaments and to help them expand their horizons by offering events which they are interested in.

Hockey

Due to our management team's previous experience in the hockey tournament industry, hockey was the first sport which we decided to offer. Based on the past success that our management team had in running national hockey tournaments, we feel that this is a logical sport to offer. Due to our previous involvement in the hockey industry we have been able to redevelop many relationships with hockey vendors much more rapidly and with less effort than will be required in other sports.

In addition to our prior experience in the sport of hockey, we also see an opportunity in the street hockey tournament market due to the large void that now exists since the collapse of the NHL's street hockey series. Prior to the recent hockey strike the NHL sponsored a program called NHL Breakout. The NHL Breakout series was a street hockey tournament series that traveled around the country. Due to problems with the NHL, the league decided to stop running outside programs such as the NHL Breakout series. Now that the NHL is back in business, the league has decided not to reopen its Breakout series, but rather to lend its name to NARCH, the largest full scale roller hockey tournament series in North America.

While the NHL has already decided to sponsor another roller hockey league, the style of play between NHL Breakout and NARCH are drastically different. This means that all of the customers of the NHL Breakout series are currently without a league to participate in. We have decided to model many of the features of our league around the NHL Breakout model; however, we have decided to change the format some.

We intend to hold our competition on three small scale hockey rinks as opposed to the street as NHL Breakout did. We feel that holding the competition in an actual rink as opposed to on the street will make the tournament series stand out as something special and out of the ordinary as opposed to something that athletes could simply do at home. We will be purchasing three small-scale hockey rinks which will be 60 ft. long x 30 ft. wide x 42 in. high with a full net around the top. We feel that having three small-scale rinks setup outdoors will entice athletes and spectators alike to come watch a new version of street hockey come to life.

Our hockey games will consist of two six-minute halves with a continuously running clock. Game play will consist of two three-man teams with one goalie and up to two subs. Normal hockey and soccer fields will be identical and interchangeable street hockey rules will apply (rulebook will be available online as well as provided at registration); the head referee on the rink will have the final ruling on any discrepancies.

Soccer

Soccer has always been a very popular sport with international appeal; however, recent years have seen the popularity of soccer skyrocketing in the United States, especially among children.

Since the glorification of soccer stars such as David Beckham through outlets such as movies and tabloids, the sport has gained amazing popularity. Today pictures of soccer athletes grace the tops of billboards, movies, and even television shows. The trend has gone so far that one cable network recently began airing a series titled, "Soccer Players' Wives." With the popularity of soccer once again on the rise here in America, we feel that offering this world class sport with international appeal is a smart decision.

In addition to the growing popularity of soccer among Americans, the Hispanic population has always had a large involvement in the sport. While the Hispanic population of the Midwest is only roughly 22%, many soccer leagues find that a large portion of their participants are of Hispanic descent. In fact, more than 75% of the players in the Northern Nevada Soccer League are Hispanic, and the Hispanic population in northern Nevada is only roughly 19%. We feel that adding soccer to our mix of sports may generate some cultural diversity in our customer base, and we would like to encourage people from all different backgrounds to participate in our events.

In addition to providing some diversity among our customer base, soccer will prove to be helpful when it comes to expansion on both the west and east coasts as well as in the south. While the Hispanic population in the Midwest may only be 22%, 49% of the Hispanic population of the United States lives in either California or Texas, and 23% of Florida's population is Hispanic as well. In addition, the total Hispanic population in the United States grew 58% between 1990 and 2000. This was an increase of 13 million Hispanics in a period of 10 years. While this high percentage of Hispanics does not guarantee a successful soccer market in these regions, it would seem absurd not to offer soccer and ignore this fast growing market.

Much like hockey, we feel that in order to make the soccer competition stand out and have appeal we must make the soccer field special. We will be purchasing three soccer fields that will have dimensions identical to those of our hockey rinks, 60 ft. long × 30 ft wide × 42 in. high with a net around the top. Also, just like hockey, soccer will consist of two six-minute continuously running clock halves, and game play will consist of two teams with three players, one goalie and two subs. Normal indoor soccer rules will apply (rulebook will be available online as well as provided at registration) and the head referee on the field will have the final say in the event of any discrepancies.

Basketball

Basketball is a sport which offers great diversity. Basketball is enjoyed by people from many different walks of life, from the Ivy League college basketball teams to people playing basketball in the projects; it seems that people from all different backgrounds can find some common ground when it comes to the sport of basketball. Therefore, we feel that basketball is a great sport for us to offer in our first year of operation.

As it is easy to see from our unique mix of extreme and traditional sports, we are not simply trying to cater to one specific social group's taste in our tournament series, but rather trying to diversify our offerings and provide something that everyone can enjoy. By offering basketball as one of our sports in our first year of operation we hope to attract a diverse crowd which will add to the popularity of our tournament series.

Unlike soccer and hockey, we feel that basketball fans would not be attracted to a fancy court. We feel that basketball patrons enjoy the fact that basketball can be played anywhere, anytime, and by anybody. In designing our basketball tournament series we have decided to take an approach similar to that of Hoop It Up and to simply use high quality portable basketball goals placed on pavement. We feel that using street basketball courts will set a certain tone to our basketball tournament series and will help to draw a diverse crowd of players as opposed to intimidating those players not used to playing in big gymnasiums.

Once again modeling ourselves after the Hoop It Up competition, our basketball games will be played in a half court format and will consist of a 30 minute run clock game which ends when either the time expires or one team reaches 20 points. Game play will consist of two teams of three players with two subs. Normal half court basketball rules will apply (rulebook will be available online as well as provided at registration) and the head referee on the court will have the final say in the event of a discrepancy.

Volleyball

Volleyball is a sport which can be enjoyed by people of all ages and skill levels. One of the main reasons that we decided to offer volleyball in our first year of operation is to illustrate that just because we are not offering separate men's and women's divisions does not mean that men and women cannot compete together. We intend for all of our sports to be coed; however, volleyball is one sport which we feel could easily be dominated by women.

While there are a great deal of talented women hockey, soccer, and basketball players, we feel that the number of skilled female volleyball players is more than likely higher than the number of skilled male players (at an amateur level in the age groups we intend to offer). We feel that the volleyball competition could provide an opportunity for an all women's team to defeat any coed and all male teams. While the idea of a female team winning the competition is not extraordinary, we feel that by offering female dominated sports such as volleyball we may be able to peak the interest of many women who would otherwise not be interested in sports tournaments. Once these women are at our events, perhaps another sport will peak their interest and we can once again generate some cross interest among the sports in a consumer who would have otherwise never put herself in a position to experience such an atmosphere.

In addition, volleyball is also a sport played by many couples. We feel that if parents are going to be taking their children to our tournament series and staying there all weekend with the child anyway, many parents may decide to enter the volleyball competition to provide themselves with something to do while their child is not competing. Since parents will be at the event already, it makes since to offer a sport which will cater to their taste.

Finally, volleyball also allows us a lot of creative venue opportunities. Volleyball can be played on practically any type of surface, and each different surface changes the game slightly Volleyball can be played on grass, sand, pavement, or in a gymnasium. Our goal is to continually switch the format of our volleyball tournaments to keep each one exciting. Some tournaments may involve beach volleyball while some may be played inside of a gymnasium. One of the great things about offering a sport such as volleyball is the diverse venue selections which will allow us to keep the competition interesting.

Our volleyball courts will consist of six high-quality portable volleyball nets. The volleyball game will be played by two teams of four players with up to two subs. Game play will consist of one 30-minute run clock time limit and games will end when either time expires, or one team reaches 11 points. Normal volleyball rules will apply based upon the type of playing surface being utilized at each given venue (rulebook will be available online as well as provided at registration), and the head referee on the court will have the final say regarding any discrepancies.

Skateboarding/In-line/Biking

We choose to offer this mixture of extreme sports in our first year of operation for a number of reasons. To begin, this mix provides a fairly diverse look at some of the different aspects and movements required by extreme sports. These three events were pioneers in the extreme sports category and although they may not receive quite as much press in recent times as some of the other extreme sports which have sprung onto the scene, they still remain staples of the extreme sports industry and should prove to form a great foundation for the extreme sports side of the tournament series.

In addition to the appeal of these sports, all of these sports also allow for the same structures to be used throughout the competition which will help to cut down on costs as well as space requirements. All of these sports utilize the same ramps and rails, meaning one course can be designed for all three sports. Also, all of these sports operate according to the same format so we will have less scheduling issues by running three sports with one format on the same course as opposed to running three separate formats on one course.

We will have three separate competitions in each sport for a total of nine overall extreme sports competitions. The format for the competitions is as follows:

Vert

• An extreme sports vert competition consists of every athlete making two 45-second runs in the qualifying round. In addition, the top ten athletes then qualify for the finals where each athlete makes three 45-second runs.
• An extreme sports vert best trick competition consists of one 45-minute jam session in which every rider performs as many tricks as possible in an attempt to impress the judges.

Street

• An extreme sports street competition consists of every athlete making three 75-second runs.
• An extreme sports street best trick competition consists of one 15-minute jam session in which every rider performs as many tricks as possible in an attempt to impress the judges.

Park

• An extreme sports park competition consists of every athlete making two 3-minute runs.

Each athlete registering to participate in one of the extreme sports will automatically be registered for all three competitions in that sport. Normal rules will apply for each sport (rulebook will be available online as well as provided at registration) and judges scores will be final determinants for all competitions.

Event Schedules and Outlines

Tournament Series Schedule

When developing a schedule for our tournament series we encountered a number of constraints which we had to consider. The following is a list of the constraints which we took into account along with the reasons why we felt it was important to consider these issues.

Desire to operate series tournaments during summer months

• Children are out of school
• Families are more able to travel
• Warm weather allows all sports to be played outside Seasonal weather

Seasonal weather

• Need to hold certain sports outside in warm weather
• Ability to hold certain sports indoors
• Varying climates in selected cities

Travel logistics (map detailing travel routes included in appendix)

• Desire to draw maximum amount of patrons to events
• Minimize travel for both tournament staff and patrons

Sports appeal

• Venue availability for showcased sports
• Offer showcased sports in cities with a strong market

Clinic Event Outline

The first events which we intend to offer to kick off our national tournament series are two clinics. These clinics will serve multiple functions including:

• Providing individuals the opportunity to meet other people of their same age and skill level so that they can form teams to enter into our tournaments
• Helping athletes improve their abilities before the start of the series
• Building excitement and generating a buzz about the series
• Qualifying participants for the Officiate & Participate program of the tournament series

Since the clinics will be taking place in April, May and August, when children are still likely to be in school, we will operate the clinics according to the following schedule:

The clinics will offer professional guidance from top athletes in each sport which will be offered in the tournament series. These clinics will be three-day-long events whereby on the first day athletes are evaluated as to their skill level and broken down into groups to practice various skills. On the second day athletes will continue training with professional athletes in their chosen sport. In addition, those athletes wishing to participate in the Officiate & Participate program of the tournament series will be given special refereeing classes. Finally, on the third day a small competition will be held whereby athletes are grouped into teams, based upon age and skill level so that teams are fair, and a mini tournament will be held. Athletes participating in the Officiate & Participate program will be observed while they referee games which they are not participating in so that they may be qualified to ref during the national tournament series.

In addition to the two clinics which will be held before the start of the national tournament series, we also intend to offer one clinic immediately following the conclusion of the national tournament series. This clinic also serves multiple functions including:

• Allowing teams that did not place as desired to improve their skills before the start of the next season
• Allowing participants to qualify for the Officiate & Participate program while they are still excited about the tournament series and before something else piques their interest
• Allowing us to kick off any new sports which we intend to offer by demonstrating and teaching them to participants thereby generating interest in the sports and allowing children eight months to practice before competition starts

Based on the amount of playing surfaces which we intend to purchase and the amount of time during which we plan to hold the clinics, we estimate that we will be able to accommodate roughly 100 athletes in each sport. We intend to charge $115 dollars, which is slightly less than the average clinic fees of $120-$150. In addition to charging less for our clinics, we are also providing three days of training from a professional in each sport, as well as allowing our athletes to qualify for the Officiate & Participate program of our national tournament series.

Series Tournament Event Outline

The series tournaments will consist of a full scale tournament being held in each of the sports which we offer. There will be seven individual sports tournaments taking place at one venue for the entire weekend.

Time constraints will be a big issue for our tournaments due to the volume of athletes that we will be trying to accommodate and the limited availability of the playing surfaces. In order to utilize as many hours of game time as possible, we will run our regional events based on the following schedule:

This gives us a total of 42 usable hours, or 2,520 minutes, at any given playing surface assuming that the surface is lighted and continuously available for use. Based on this schedule we have developed the following constraints for each of the sports which we intend to offer in our first year of operation.

Based on the above constraints and the number of playing surfaces which we intend to setup for each sport we will be able to accommodate games according to the following schedule:

Based on the above schedule we are hoping to attract teams according to the following table:

If each division with 12 teams plays two six-team round robin competitions with the winner of each round robin competition competing in one championship game to determine the winner of the division, each division will require thirty-one games. In addition, if each division with 6 teams plays one round robin competition with the top two teams competing in one championship game to determine the winner of the division, each division will require 16 games. Based on these constraints, the following number of games will be necessary.

Based on the above information we have comprised the following table to illustrate how much extra court time we will have available in each sport.

This extra time will be used for the skills competitions and awards ceremonies in each sport as well as providing a buffer should we fall behind schedule for any unforeseen reason.

The schedule for our extreme sports in our first year of operation will work a bit differently. Each of our extreme sports has a set amount of fixed time required as well as a certain amount of time that must be allocated to each athlete. The extreme sports will operate according to the following schedule:

Based upon this schedule, the extreme sports will require the following amount of fixed and variable time:

While the park competition requires the use of the entire skate park, the street and vert competitions may take place within the skate park at the same time. Based on this information the following table illustrates how many athletes can be accommodated in each of our extreme sports.

National Championship Event Outline

Teams that qualify by placing in the top two at either a series tournament or a Sport Showcase tournament qualify to compete in the national championship. Due to the volume of athletes which we are estimating will be participating in our national championship event, we will need the ability to accommodate more teams in each sport; therefore, our national championship will be a four day event instead of a three day event as the regional tournaments are. The schedule for the national championship is as follows:

This gives us a total of 57 usable hours, or 3,420 minutes, at any given playing surface assuming that the surface is lighted and continuously available for use. We will no longer be limiting each division to a set number of teams but rather we will accommodate any qualifying teams that wish to participate and adjust the schedule accordingly. The following illustrates the maximum number of teams/individuals which could qualify to attend our national championship event:

The following is a list of constraints on the number of games which we will be able to offer during our national championship.

We will have to adjust the schedule for our national championship event based upon the number of qualifying teams that decide to participate. While we would like to see all of the qualifying teams compete in our national championship, this scenario is not likely. Some teams are likely to miss the event, thereby throwing off any type of schedule which we could develop. For this reason, we do not intend to create a detailed event outline for the national championship event until we have completed the registration process for this event.

Sports Highlight Tournament Outline

Sports Highlight tournaments will provide us with a way to highlight each sport offered in our tournament series. From September thru March we will offer one tournament per month, visiting each city on our series schedule, and showcasing a different sport in each city.

The Sports Highlight tournaments will be centered around a single showcased sport but will still offer a multi sport format. While all of the sports which we offer in our series may not be offered at every Sports Highlight tournament, every tournament will have a multi sport format. We will be selecting venues that accentuate the sport being showcased for that event, but will still accommodate other sports as well.

We will offer a combination of either one extreme sport and two traditional sports, or one traditional sport and three extreme sports. This format will allow us to accommodate the maximum number of participants in the sports which we will be showcasing. For example, when we offer soccer we will not offer hockey so that we may use all six of our rinks for the soccer competition. In addition, when we offer basketball and volleyball we will select venues which have extra courts in these sports so that we may accommodate more athletes.

The Sports Highlight tournaments will provide a fast track to the national competition. The tournaments will count as a national qualifier for the showcased sport, but not for any of the additional sports. This means that the top two teams competing in the showcased sport will automatically receive invitations to attend the national championship event.

Due to the fact that children will still be in school during the months when these events will be taking place, we will be forced to once again modify our schedule. For this reason the Sports Highlight tournaments will operate according to the following schedule:

This gives us a total of 33 usable hours, or 1,980 minutes, at any given playing surface assuming that the surface is lighted and continuously available for use. Based on this information, the following is a list of constraints on the number of games which we will be able to offer during our Sports Highlight tournaments.

Based on this information we will be registering teams based on the following schedule:

If each division with 20 teams plays four 5-team round robin competitions with the winner of each round robin competition competing in one championship round robin to determine the winner of the division, each division will require forty six games. In addition, if each division with 12 teams plays two 6-team round robin competitions with the top two teams competing in one championship game to determine the winner of the division, each division will require thirty-one games. Based on these constraints, the following number of games will be necessary.

Based on the above information we have comprised the following table to illustrate how much extra court time we will have available in each sport.

As in the series tournaments, extra hours will be used for skills competitions, awards ceremonies, and will provide a buffer should we fall behind schedule for any unforeseen reason.

The following table shows how many athletes we will be able to accommodate in each sport of our extreme sports competition at our Sports Highlight tournaments.

FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

Revenue Streams

Entry Fees

Our first and most logical revenue stream will come in the form of entry fees paid by the athletes. We plan to collect entry fees based on the following schedule:

In return for the entry fee, paid athletes will receive a t-shirt/jersey to be worn during the competition as well as prizes provided throughout the competition. In the recreational division, where entry fees are less and the competition is second to the fun of playing the sports, prizes will be awarded on a participation basis as well as creative competitions such as the 20th goal of the day, goalies receiving a shutout, and other such creative competitions.

In the competitive division, where entry fees are higher and the competition is more intense, we will be working with our vendors and sponsors to provide high quality prizes to teams that place in the top three in their division. We intend to offer the winning teams a combination of prizes that will total more than double the original cost of their entry fee.

By offering creative prizes in the recreational division, which allows teams the ability to win a prize even if they have no chance of winning the overall competition, we feel that we can really emphasize the importance of simply playing the sport and having fun. While we would like to see athletes improve and grow as a team, in the recreational division, where people simply sign up to play for fun, we want to keep players from becoming discouraged even if they do not do well in the competition. We want them to understand that just because they did not win the tournament does not mean that they cannot still have fun, win prizes, and come back and do it all over again at the next tournament.

In the competitive division however, we intend to stimulate the competition by offering desirable prizes for the top three teams in each division. In addition, we intend to offer the winning team in each division prizes worth double their entry fee. By doing this we hope to show teams that if they feel they have a chance to win the competitive division of one of our tournaments, not only could they have the fun of participating in the tournament and winning, but they could also benefit financially from the competition. Teams that place in the top three in the competitive division will receive prizes to help compensate them for their entry fees and will therefore essentially be competing in our tournaments for free.

Sponsors

After evaluating the format of our tournaments and clinics, the schedule by which we intend to operate, and our market segment, we have decided to offer the following sponsorship packages:

Based on the above table we plan to break our sponsors into two categories, national and local sponsors. National sponsors will sponsor our tournament series for an entire year and will travel with our series to each of our stops. Local sponsors will be sponsors that we pick up in each of the cities our series visits. The cost shown in the local category is the cost of sponsoring one of our events. Since our series will stop in each city multiple times however, sponsors will be encouraged to sponsor our events every time they visit the sponsor's city. In order to encourage this repeat sponsorship, sponsors willing to contract to sponsor each event we offer in their city will be entitled to a 10% discount off of the single tournament sponsor prices. (National sponsorship prices reflect a 20% discount off of the single tournament sponsor prices.)

Based on our evaluation of our tournament series format, the level of contact which we intend to have with our consumers, and numerous other factors, we have identified the following ways in which we can help our sponsors reach our consumers:

• Advertisements on t-shirt/jersey worn during game play
• Advertisements on playing surfaces
• Advertisements on scoreboards
• Advertisements on website
• Distribute sponsor's marketing materials with registration packets
• Provide sponsor's products as prizes
• Allocate space at events for sponsors to setup their own marketing materials

Customers

In order to identify companies which would provide a good fit as sponsors for our tournament series we must first describe the market segment which we intend to target. To begin, we will be offering age brackets in our competition that range from 9 years of age through adult; however, we will have twice as many athletes ranging in age from 9-17 as we will in the 18-adult age range. While this seems to suggest that our market segment will be composed of younger consumers, this is not necessarily true.

We will have twice as many 9-17 year old athletes; however, athletes in the 9-15 year old age range will still need to be accompanied by an adult since they will not be able to drive themselves to the events. In addition, it is our hope that we will entice a substantial amount of the athlete's friends and families to attend our events as well. This means that while it is likely that our mean market age is lower, we also intend to draw adults to our events as well, both in the form of athletes and spectators watching younger athletes compete.

Enticing both younger athletes and their parents to attend our events could have very positive results when it comes to attracting sponsors. As noted later in the market segment section of the business plan, teenagers today have higher disposable incomes than previous generations, bringing in an average of $125 of disposable income per week. While this figure may seem high, we must keep in mind that teenagers do not have the numerous bills incurred by adults, as well as the fact that children today are starting work sooner than previous generations.

While the average teenager in America may have a disposable income of $125 a week, this still does not mean that the teen will be the party responsible for making the purchasing decisions regarding this money, which provides the perfect opportunity for our tournament series. While families are at our tournaments we will have a relatively captive audience. We plan to schedule games far enough apart so that both athletes and spectators have time to enjoy all of our various offerings in between games, yet close enough together that they will not have time to leave the venue to partake in other forms of entertainment.

This provides us with a somewhat unique opportunity. We will have both teenagers, with this relatively high disposable income, as well as their parents, who are most likely in charge of the purchasing allocations of the disposable income, together at a single location with excess time on their hands. This means that a correctly engineered marketing campaign could reach both the end user of the product and the purchaser at the same time, while the two have time to discuss the situation and take action. From a marketing standpoint, this is a powerful statement.

In addition, athletes in the 18-adult age range are also great candidates for marketing campaigns as well. Considering that each of the athletes at one of our events has just spent somewhere around $50 simply to compete in the event, we can assume that these athletes have an above average disposable income. While these athletes may not be extremely wealthy, we can assume from the fact that they can afford to participate in leisurely activities such as sports tournaments that they have some disposable income to spend.

Sponsorship Opportunities

After defining our target market we considered companies which advertise in the sports marketplace. We have identified the following product categories as possible sponsors for our tournament series.

• Car manufacturer: (Scion, Chevrolet, Nissan) With twice as many athletes in the 9-17 year old age brackets, who will be accompanied by their parents and families, we feel that we offer the perfect demographic for a car manufacturer. We have a captive audience in a perfect automobile purchasing age range accompanied by their parents and family members, who have a large say in the decision of what car a teenager purchases.

• Cell phone company: (Cingular, Sprint, Nextel) While almost everyone uses a cell phone in today's marketplace, the prime market for cell phone companies is teenagers. In addition, cell phone companies are currently pushing the option of family plans. With a captive market of teenagers and their families, our tournament series offers a great demographic to potential cellular company sponsors.
• Beverages (Red Bull, Coca-Cola, Gatorade) With the unique mix of sports which we will be offering in our tournament series we offer the ability for a beverage company to transcend the boundaries and reach both traditional and extreme sports athletes at one venue. In addition to reaching the athletes, reaching the purchaser of the groceries for the household, usually a parent, is also key for obtaining results. With the target market and the purchasers in one venue, beverage companies are presented with a unique opportunity.
• Gaming (IBM, Microsoft, Sony) With a target market which closely mirrors the market for sports tournaments, gaming companies could easily market to our consumers. A gaming company could set up a booth to allow athletes to try out their system and games during the time between sports games. In addition, the company could also get parents of gamers involved and provide information to them regarding some of the benefits of gaming.
• Hotels (Holiday Inn, Days Inn, Marriot) We will be offering our tournament series in eight different cities in our first year of operation before expanding to an even larger area and offering tournaments throughout the entire United States. While traveling from city to city participating in our tournaments our consumers will need to stay at hotels. We can offer the ability to secure a continuous customer base for a national hotel chain, or simply increase bookings for a weekend for a local hotel.
• Restaurants (Applebee's, Cracker Barrel, Subway) Once again, our series will operate in eight different cities in our first year before expanding throughout the United States. Athletes as well as spectators will need nourishment while in these cities and sponsoring our events offers a national restaurant chain the ability to secure a continuous customer base, or a local restaurant the ability to boost its sales for the weekend.
• Travel (Southwest Airlines, Enterprise Rental Car, Travelocity) From airfare to rental cars to ticketing agencies, our consumers will be traveling throughout the Midwest to participate in our tournaments in our first year of operation and throughout the entire United Stated soon thereafter. Sponsoring our tournament series offers travel companies the ability to exclusively market to this group of consumers who is sure to be traveling a great deal.
• Credit Card Companies (MasterCard, Visa, American Express) Credit card companies are constantly trying to sign up new members; however, many people simply throw away applications that arrive in the mail without ever opening them. Our events will provide credit card companies the ability to reach a diverse age group with extra time on their hands to fill out an application. In addition, many families will be attending our events together so the head of the household is likely to be in attendance to make any decisions on the matter.
• Music (Apple, Dell, Sony) Athletes love to listen to music to put them in the mood for competition. Since mp3 players have come to the marketplace, many athletes even listen to music while they are competing. Our events offer a mp3 manufacturer the ability to not only market their products, but also to bring in stations where athletes could pay a fee to download songs.
• Clothes (Nike, Adidas, Reebok) Fashion is important to people of all ages; however, athletes demand fashion with a certain level of functionality. Our tournament series offers the ability for a clothing manufacturer to market its goods to a very diverse crowd spread across seven different sports.

• Hygiene (Oxy, Proactive, Stridex) With a target market of young athletes, our tournament series offers companies in the hygiene industry the ability to reach their key demographic. Young athletes face many challenges when it comes to skin care and a hygiene company could help to educate both athletes and parents about skin care while also providing samples of their products to athletes right when they need them.

Vendors

In addition to our tournament sponsors, we would like to attract one major vendor in each sport to come to our events for a vendor tradeshow. Each vendor will have exclusive rights in their designated sport which could include features such as vendor logos on the playing surface, exclusive sale and use of the vendor's products at the events, as well as many other creative options. We will be looking for a total of seven vendors to accommodate each of our sports and will be charging a fee of $200,000 per vendor, as well as 5% of all vendor sales at the events.

Possible revenue streams which we have identified for vendors at our events include the sale of goods at the events as well as a charge for equipment tech support. In addition to these revenue streams however, vendors will also gain a tremendous amount of exposure and will have the ability to work with us to launch a variety of unique marketing campaigns.

For instance, we would like to work closely with each vendor to provide a number of creative sideshows at the events such as athletic demonstrations. Vendors will be encouraged to have any athletes which they have a relationship with come to the events and simply hang out, talk to aspiring athletes, watch games, provide tips, put on demonstrations, and so on. In addition, we would also encourage vendors to provide prizes at the events thereby further increasing their exposure and also putting their products in the consumers hands themselves.

Additional Revenue Streams

In addition to the revenue which we will generate from entry fees, sponsors and vendors, the following is a list of the additional revenue streams which we have identified for our business.

Tournament Program

We will be developing a tournament program that will be available before each event. This program will provide space for sponsors and vendors to advertise, showcase certain teams/individuals, explain different aspects of our various sports, show pictures of the winning teams from the last event, and so on. One program will be provided to each team in the registration packet and additional programs will be $3 each at the event as well as on our website.

Concessions

We will be subcontracting out concessions at the events to a non-profit group. We will be contacting groups such as the Boy Scouts to organize and manage all concession activity. We plan to collect 5% of the group's sales as another revenue stream. In an attempt to create a wholesome family environment however, no alcoholic beverages will be allowed on the premise. Food such as hamburgers, hotdogs, popcorn, pretzels, chips, soda, water, and sports drinks will be sold at various locations throughout the venue. Our goal for concessions is to keep the menu simple enough that our concessions sub contractors do not require any amenities such as running water or a stove. We plan for them to serve our customers with a barbeque grill and cooler. Our goal is not to serve our customers gourmet meals; we would simply like to provide them with food on the premises so that, should they choose, they will be able to remain at the event for a longer period of time without having to leave to obtain food.

Parking

Parking will be provided free of charge to athletes and coaches. Each athlete and coach will be given a special event parking tag which will allow them to park their vehicle in the lot for the duration of the tournament. Additional spectators without parking passes will however have to pay a small fee of $3 to park their vehicles for the entire event weekend. We feel that people are willing to pay a small amount for parking that is close to the tournament location. The extreme sports tournament Gravity Games currently charges $5 per day for parking. Our event-long parking is much cheaper than the gravity games, and offers a safe, close, and convenient location to the tournament.

Admission

Athletes and coaches will be provided with free entry into the venue. In addition, each team will be given five free passes and each individual athlete will be given two free passes. Outside of these, spectators will be charged a fee of $4 to enter the venue for the entire weekend.

Product Sales

T-shirts will be on sale in a number of different sizes, colors, and styles and will be available in preprinted designs as well as available for personalization on the spot. Consumers will simply be able to choose from the preset templates which we will have loaded into our system, pick the color and size shirt they desire, and within minutes our technician will have their shirt ready for pickup. Some templates will even allow the consumer the ability to put their sport, team, name, and number on the shirt.

In addition, we will also be able to print any of the pictures taken at the event onto a T-shirt within minutes as well. If the athlete has not found a picture he or she likes, we will have a photographer on hand to take a picture which can then be printed onto a shirt within minutes. In addition to T-shirts, our website will offer options such as traditional pictures, coffee mugs, plaques and similar products with pictures printed on them. We will also have player cards available at the end of the series which will be similar to a professional sports card with the athlete's picture on the front and a full list of statistics on back.

Strategic Partnerships

In addition to paying sponsors and vendors, we also hope to form a number of strategic partnerships that will help our tournament series grow while providing a benefit to our partner company as well. The following is a list of the partnerships which we would like to have in place by the start of our first season.

• Media Partners: We will be partnering with one or more large media sources in order to get our content broadcast to the public. We would like to partner with one internet company such as America Online or Yahoo as well as one magazine company such as Sports Illustrated, which also has a children's sports magazine. We feel that by having a web presence as well as a hard copy media outlet we can better reach our diverse target market. Media partners such as these could vastly increase the exposure that our tournament series receives and prove to be incredibly helpful, especially during our transition to a national level. These outlets could help us to push our content to the public and could boost not only our athlete registration, but also our spectator turnout, thereby increasing the exposure of our sponsors and vendors and effectively helping us to recruit more companies in these areas. In return for the benefit which we receive we can offer these companies exclusive access to a demographic which closely resembles their target market so that they may market their services. We would effectively be inviting the media companies to all of our events and working with them to generate interest in both our tournament series and their media outlet. By increasing interest in our tournament series and convincing our customers to view our content provided by the media outlets we would effectively be increasing business for the media companies, as well as ourselves.
• Local Specialty Store Owners: We will be partnering with local specialty stores in each city we travel to. We will be approaching these local stores with a proposition to recruit teams for our tournament series. We will give each store a supply of registration flyers which will be color coded to allow us to identify which store an athlete was recruited by. Stores will be compensated 5% of the registration dollars generated by their colored registration flyers. Considering that local specialty store owners have: relationships with customers, mailing lists, relationships with sporting facilities, and most likely even have relationships with a number of sports teams, recruiting athletes to compete at our events should not pose a difficult task. We feel that this relationship will be very beneficial to both parties. We gain the local expertise and connections that the store has developed over time, and the store receives a 5% commission on any teams which sign up for our event based on the stores efforts.
• Photography/Magazine: Photography poses an interesting opportunity for us to get others involved in our tournament series. Rather than simply hiring photographers to take pictures at our events we plan to hold a competition. We plan on forming a strategic partnership with universities in each city where we are holding an event. We will be talking to these universities' photography and journalism departments. Our plan is to have students from each university come to the event held in their city to be event photographers for us. The photographers will photograph each team/ individual before the first round of competition, as well as taking "action" pictures during the games. These pictures will then be for sale at the events themselves as well as on our website. In addition to taking pictures at the event we will also commission each university to create an event magazine. We will give all of the universities a guideline as to what materials are required to be in the magazine; however, we will be giving each university creative control over most aspects of the magazine design. At the end of the series we will have a competition to see which university created the best event magazine, and the winning university will receive a cash prize. We feel that using student photographers is beneficial because not only will it help to reduce our costs, as we will be paying student photographers much less than professional photography companies, but it will also get another group of people interested and hopefully excited about our tournament series. We plan to promote the photography/magazine contest much like another event being held as part of the series. In addition, we hope that it will help to illustrate that we are interested in giving back to the community. We want to give these students valuable experience in working with real life projects under time constraints. Since each magazine will be released at our next event, each university will only have one week to create and ship the magazine.

Officiate & Participate

Seeing as how we are not merely trying to provide a characteristic sports tournament atmosphere, but rather to help broaden athletes' horizons and help educate them on all the different aspects about any given sport, we will be offering a unique option to athletes of the competitive division. Assuming that many of these athletes will be very dedicated and knowledgeable about their sport of choice already, we would like to give them the opportunity to show this knowledge and save some money at the same time.

We will be offering a Officiate & Participate option to athletes of the competitive division. Should any of these athletes be interested in refereeing the recreational division, they may attend one of our three scheduled clinics in order to obtain the certification required to referee in the tournament series. During these clinics each athlete will receive instruction about refereeing, will be observed while refereeing actual games, and will be required to pass a test that will qualify them to referee in the tournament series.

In return for their services, which will include refereeing a set number of games at the tournament, these athletes will receive a $60 discount on their entry fee; however, in order to qualify for this discount, the referee must attend one of the three scheduled clinics and indicate their intent to participate in the program on their teams entry form so that we may clear up any scheduling conflicts which may result.

We feel that this is a very good program because it allows children to broaden their knowledge about sports, helps them feel a connection with the tournament series, and also allows them an opportunity to help with some of the cost, an area that is primarily dominated by parents.

Battle of the Bands

In order to promote the high-energy feel that we envision for our sports tournaments, we plan to host a regional "battle of the bands" contest. Currently, venues such as the X Games and Gravity Games feature bands to keep spectators and athletes pumped up for the tournament. In 2004, the Gravity Games brought in two high-energy bands, The Donnas, and Sum 41. We do not wish to spend a large amount of money on paying performers; however, we developed an idea for a battle of the bands competition.

We plan to bring in local and regional high-energy groups which will compete, based on audience applause, for a cash prize. The battle of the bands will take place in peak tournament hours, ensuring the most possible athletes and spectators.

Smaller bands are constantly trying to find new venues and outlets for their music to be heard, and our summer tournament events provide the perfect venue. We don't plan to drown out all conversation and team communication with music, but rather strategically place the band so that athletes and audience members will have the perfect soundtrack for the weekend. In the downtime between bands we plan to have a DJ play high-energy music over the stage's PA system.

COMPETITION

Amateur Athletic Union of the United States (AAU)

Many other sports tournaments and sports tournament series already exist, targeting many of the same athletes as we plan to. One competitor offering multiple sports competition is the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States (AAU). The AAU offers numerous tournaments and competitions throughout the year, acting as venues where amateur athletes can compete for fun in hopes of qualifying for the final event, the AAU Junior Olympics. The Junior Olympics started in Washington D.C. in 1967, offering two events: swimming and track & field. The Junior Olympics is currently the host of many amateur events including: baseball, baton twirling, beach volleyball, boys' basketball, cheerleading, dance, diving, field hockey, 7 on 7 football, girls' basketball, golf, gymnastics, indoor soccer, jump rope, lacrosse, karate, multi-events, power lifting, softball, swimming, table tennis, teakwood, track & field, trampoline & tumbling, weightlifting, and wrestling.

Hoop it Up

Hoop it Up is a 3 on 3 basketball tournament that runs during the summer months in the United States and Canada. Hoop it Up directly competes with our tournament series as the format for game play is very similar. In addition, the games are played outdoors with portable basketball goals, making for endless venue possibilities. There are 36 divisions consisting of competitive, recreational, adult male, youth male, and youth female. Hoop it Up also hosts camps throughout the year, which will be in direct competition with our sports clinics.

Street Soccer Cup USA

Street Soccer Cup is a 4 on 4 street soccer tournament series currently operating in Wichita, Philadelphia, Muncie, Detroit, Chicago, Springfield (IL), and Des Moines. The game is played on a street surface with specially designed walls to make game play more exciting. Street Soccer Cup USA is in direct competition with our tournament series, as we plan to offer 4 on 4 soccer games outdoors in small enclosed soccer fields, the same as Street Soccer Cup.

X Games

The X Games is the ESPN owned sports tournament for extreme sports, becoming the first large-scale extreme sports tournament in the world. The X Games started in 1994, and has been hosting a venue for extreme sports in the summer and winter seasons ever since. The X Games is a direct competitor to us because we will be offering three extreme sports in our tournament, with similar rules and judging standards as those used by the X Games. In the past, the X Games has proved a huge success, with the summer games drawing 235,000 people in 2005, and the winter games quickly growing to 160,000 in attendance. The attendance at the Winter X Games has grown 91% since 2002, showing that the extreme sports are drawing more and more people. As the market continues to grow, we feel that we can get into this market and expand on it through our tournament series and clinics.

Gravity Games

The gravity games are described as being "the ultimate action sports, lifestyle, and music festival" which tends to cater to the location of the games. In 2005, the gravity games were held in Swan River, in Perth, Australia. Due to the location, young sports such as kiteboarding and tow-in-surfing were part of the competition. Along with the new sports, the games also include skate, BMX, and in-line. The Gravity Games are a direct competitor to us, because currently, the Gravity Games are among the biggest amateur extreme sports tournaments in the nation. We are planning to offer the same three core extreme sports as the Gravity Games: skate, BMX, and inline. Again, the extreme sports market is young, growing, and popular, leaving many athletes without a large-scale venue to compete at. Our tournament will provide a larger scale event than any local tournament could do, and give athletes an opportunity to compete with others in their region at a competitive or recreational level.

Additional Competition

Since we are offering a variety of sporting events at our tournaments, our primary competition will come from multiple event tournaments, such as the AAU sponsored tournaments, X Games, and the Gravity Games. Although our primary focus of competition is on multiple event tournaments, we cannot ignore the threat of numerous other sports tournaments taking place almost non-stop throughout the year. Tournaments such as Hoop it Up and Street Soccer Cup USA provide a venue for an exciting, fast-paced version of basketball and soccer, respectively. This type of tournament is a large operation, and they are becoming more and more popular. Athletes are continually looking for a new venue at which they can compete, and new tournaments such as the Gravity Games are offering a little twist to the tournament feel, drawing in new crowds all the time.

Some sports tournaments are organized loosely, such as intramural basketball tournaments, drawing in local amateurs to compete for fun. Other tournaments are strictly structured with multiple sponsors and promotional campaigns, examples being any of the tournaments listed above. Despite the heavy competition in the sports tournament market, we feel that our unique mix of traditional and extreme sports offers a venue unlike any of those offered by the competition, allowing our tournament series to cater to more athletes and become a top sports tournament series in the United States.

Although much of our direct competition comes from sports tournaments, many sporting leagues exist which draw in athletes from all over. Local league competition can be extremely competitive, drawing in loyal athletes who have a strong desire to be the best in the league. These leagues, which exist primarily in the traditional sports, pose a large threat to us, as teams and individual athletes may choose to participate in league play rather than paying even more money to compete in a tournament.

In addition to other sports related events however, we must also consider any form of entertainment that piques the interest of young minds as indirect competition to our tournament series. American children in previous years have become increasingly lethargic and less willing to get outside and partake in any form of physical activity. With the creation of new video game formats that allow children to communicate with their friends through an internet connection as opposed to actually traveling to their homes, previous years have brought many problems with childhood obesity and a sense of complacency among youths in our country.

Recent years however have seen a decrease in this trend as many Americans seem to be on a lasting health craze. Due to national advertising campaigns produced by the government, various news stories, and many shocking health reports, Americans have once again begun to encourage their children to get outside for some activity. While the trend of children staying indoors all day is on a downward spiral, we must still consider any form of entertainment such as video games and movies a form of indirect competition.

Family vacations also act as a competitor to our business. Summer weekends are limited, and many families take advantage of the nice weather to travel. As a result, the Scramble Sports Tournament Series needs to consider the possibility that athletes and spectators may be lost due to vacations, and plan accordingly. Trends in traveling could be changing slightly as gas prices are at an all-time high, and people are traveling less as a result. In addition to gasoline prices rising, plane ticket prices are also rising. This is a threat to us as well, as we encourage athletes to compete in multiple tournaments and clinics in different cities. But, we feel that most people would be willing to drive a shorter distance to our tournaments, whether or not gas prices are higher.

Competitive Advantages

Sports provide an obvious market opportunity because many people like to play sports, and there are many sports that cannot be played alone. Therefore, people need someone to organize and provide them with an opportunity to play these sports. The question is, "Why would people pay the money to play in a sports tournament as opposed to organizing themselves, or paying less money to play in a local sports league?" The idea behind any sports tournament is that tournaments provide a much more exciting venue for people than merely playing locally. There is a certain thrill associated with playing in a sports tournament.

It is true that people could gather themselves to play soccer or basketball, or they could go to a local park to skateboard or bike, but for people who are really passionate about their sport, this is not enough. Some people are so engrossed in their sport of choice that merely playing it with their friends or even playing with others in a local league is not enough. These people want the opportunity to show off their skills and play against other top competitors across the nation. Sports tournaments give these athletes the opportunity to meet and compete against others who share their same love and desire to excel in their chosen sport.

We feel that Scramble is unlike any other sports tournament in the world, offering a unique mix of sports and attracting athletes and sponsors alike in order to successfully run and grow a new sports tournament in the United States. In addition to the unique structure of our tournament, we also have a great source of industry knowledge at our disposal, as well as many close sponsor connections that we will use to grow and promote the Scramble tournament series. The specific competitive advantages which we have identified are explained in detail below.

Unique mix of traditional and extreme sports

As we have stated many times earlier, our tournament offers both traditional and extreme sports for recreational and competitive athletes alike. The Junior Olympics is among our top competition, offering multiple sports, but not including any extreme sports in the mix of events offered. We feel that we are at an advantage by offering extreme sports because they will provide many new opportunities for both athletes and sponsors to pursue new interests. By combining both traditional and extreme sports, interest in each individual sport will increase and potentially inspire and influence many people to broaden their horizons.

The Olympics are starting to add some extreme sports such as snowboarding to their mix of sports and this is broadening their viewing spectrum by drawing in viewers and fans of these sports. However, at an amateur level the Junior Olympics has not caught on by adding any extreme sports into the mix. The Gravity Games offer many sports, some which may not be considered extreme, but they still don't offer a complete traditional and extreme mix. As a result, we feel that there is a huge opportunity that needs to be seized by combining traditional and extreme sports at both a recreational and competitive level, attracting athletes from all walks and avenues to one major sporting event.

Industry knowledge at our disposal

In addition to our passion and drive for the Scramble tournament series, we have an abundance of information and industry knowledge available to us. One advisor and potential investor that we have been meeting extensively with is Thomas Risheo. Thomas, along with the help of his son Bobby Risheo (the Owner/CEO of Scramble) has the experience of starting a successful and profitable national hockey tournament series which brought in sponsors and athletes from all over the United States. He is a great asset to our company, providing us with information for starting a sports tournament, and also acting as a mentor, insuring that we will not commit an obvious mistake or take the Scramble tournament series in a wrong direction.

Close Sponsor Connections

In order to make Scramble a reality we will require contributions from major sponsors and vendors. In order to build the Scramble tournament series to the successful level that we desire, we will not only need local sponsors, but also support from national sponsors and sporting goods vendors across the sports spectrum. Bauer/Nike, a major developer and producer of hockey equipment, has already expressed interest in becoming a vendor and contributing to our tournament series. Thomas Risheo has been in close contact with Bauer/Nike throughout the years and as a result was able to put us in contact with the hockey equipment giant. Bauer/Nike was excited to hear from us and has already sent us high quality equipment and gear as an example of equipment contributions they would be willing to donate for prizes at the Scramble tournament series. We feel that getting a connection with an industry leader such as Bauer/Nike will only help us to secure and land other contracts and deals with industry leaders in other sports. Bauer/Nike is the first potential vendor that we have been in contact with, but a full list of potential sponsors and vendors can be found in the primary revenue streams section of the business plan.

Market Opportunity

Our tournament series hopes not only to attract athletes who are looking for the excitement of competing at the top level in their sport, but also those athletes who simply love the sport in which they compete, even if they are not highly skilled. We intend to provide an atmosphere in which these athletes can learn what separates them from athletes at the top of their sport, and also to provide tips to help close this gap.

Many young athletes are simply interested in watching top athletes compete, and then trying to emulate them. We feel that by offering both a competitive and a recreational division we will give less talented athletes the ability to watch some of their more skilled counterparts and possibly learn a few things before they are scheduled to play.

MARKET ANALYSIS

The sports tournament industry is consistently profitable and always growing over time, as people continue to love sports. The average annual sales (based on over 18 million companies) for a company operating in the amateur sports tournament industry is $2,538,445 (Bizminer.com). As new sports continue to emerge, both children and adults become involved and excited about these new sports. There are constantly new tournaments and venues that host these emerging new sports. Sports such as biking and aggressive inline skating are relatively new and have become popular in the last couple decades. Venues such as The X Games and Gravity Games cater to these new sports and provide a successful large-scale tournament.

The Scramble tournament series is combining two separate industries: traditional sports and extreme sports, enabling us to generate a profit in our beginning years of operations, in an industry that already proves to be good for startups. According to Bizmer.com, the average annual sales for a startup company in the amateur sports tournament industry are $242,000, based off of data from seven companies in the first three years of operation.

We plan to grow the Scramble tournament series every year by adding sports to ensure new and larger audiences for future years of operation. Our growth strategy will enable us to attract many different athletes and fans from all sports, traditional or extreme. As our growth continues, we will have to explore new venue opportunities to host so many additional sports. Our growth strategy can be found below in the business plan. As Scramble proves to be a safe, clean, unique and exciting tournament for amateur athletes, we will continue to grow a satisfied customer base that will return for years to come.

The market for the Scramble tournament series is large, and it is somewhat hard to define each and every possible consumer or participant. There are age categories for each amateur sport that we offer, providing a narrowed down group of people. On the other hand, it is much harder to define each and every group of people that may come as spectators to the Scramble tournaments. The diversity of the audience increases even more by combining the traditional and extreme sports into one tournament. The only thing that the overwhelming majority of people attending the tournaments have in common is the fact that they love sports. The various market segments are explained below.

Athletes competing in the tournament

The market for athletes competing in the Scramble tournament series is rather specific, as we provide age groups and requirements to compete. The athletes' age groups range from age 9 to adult, with the 9-17 age range having double the amount of athletes, with a recreational and competitive division offered in most age groups. We picked these age groups strategically, knowing that we can find amateur athletes in each of these age groups to fill up all possible time slots, thereby receiving the highest profit possible. In a recent article explaining teen spending in America, it is said that teens spend $159 billion each year. The article also explains that teens have a high disposable income, bringing in an average of $125 a week. Another article from the Sunday Tribune explains that teens today have a higher disposable income than generations before, buying mobile phones, iPods, clothes, stereos, and CDs. We feel with this recent trend towards more disposable income will only help our tournament series, bringing in athletes that are willing to pay higher amounts for entry fees, and more willing to compete in multiple tournaments or clinics throughout the year. Hoop it Up basketball tournaments offer age divisions ranging from age 8 to adult. Street Soccer Cup USA offers age divisions from under 6 all the way up to adult. The AAU offers age groups ranging from 8 years old to 18 years old at their events. With the amount of time we have allotted for our tournament series, we feel that the age divisions ranging from age 9 and up are appropriate. In addition, we feel that our target age of 9 to 17 is right on track to bring in the athletes with high disposable income.

Friends and Families of Athletes

We expect to see many spectators from the same age groups as outlined for the sports, as people will attend the tournament to watch their friends compete. At younger ages, children tend to be friends with each other, regardless of whether or not they play a sport together, and as a result, we plan to see many friends of athletes attending. In addition to the friends of athletes attending the Scramble tournaments, we also expect to see a great number of families, or family members, attending the tournaments as spectators and coaches. The vast majority of athletes will have family members, which are at the tournament as spectators, to watch their children participate. Families attending sporting events tend to spend money on many different things including: concessions, parking, photographs, magazines, clothing, and equipment. We expect to see much of our revenue coming from the families of the athletes, especially from the younger age divisions where a larger percentage of families will attend the events.

Families and other individuals

Finally, we expect to see many families and individuals that are not associated with athletes or vendors at the Scramble tournaments. We will be advertising in and around the cities where the Scramble tournament will be visiting, ensuring a market of spectators from all different ages. We plan to see a lot of families simply wanting to have something to do on a summer weekend. Also, we expect to see groups of children attending the tournament, again, looking for something to do. The Scramble tournament provides a safe and clean environment for children and adults alike, and we plan to advertise this aspect to parents who are letting their children attend the event as spectators.

Sponsors

Another market segment for our series includes national and local sponsors at each clinic and tournament. A complete sponsor section is described above, which details specific industries and companies within those industries that we would like to contract with. For example, Cingular is third on the list for the top sports advertisers, and they share a similar target market as us. The Scramble series would be a perfect place for Cingular to reach new potential cell phone users, while sticking to their sports advertising trend. Local sponsors may include a wide variety of businesses, ranging anywhere from a restaurant to a funeral home. We feel that we can provide local sponsors with a great marketing and advertising opportunity, encouraging the sponsors to pay for sponsorship of multiple events in their city.

Vendors

The Scramble series will generate revenue through vendors operating at the tournaments and clinics, creating another market segment. A significant amount of our income is scheduled to come from vendors, making this a very important segment. We plan to approach big-name, high quality vendors to participate in the Scramble series, as this will draw in more revenue and attract more athletes. The equipment used for game play in each sport will be provided by the vendors, and we hope to associate the Scramble series with quality names in each industry. For example, when a person thinks of quality products in the hockey industry, names such as Bauer/Nike, Easton, and CCM come to mind.

Although some of the market for the Scramble tournaments is unpredictable and variable, we feel that the most important target market is the athletes. If we can fill up all of the individual and team time slots, the Scramble tournament series will be profitable simply from athletes, and the athletes' friends and families. Word of mouth is a powerful form of marketing for sports tournaments in general, and we feel that a satisfied group of athletes will be a better marketing device than any advertising or promotional campaign. Satisfied athletes return to tournaments that they enjoy, and therefore, we will try everything within our power to make the Scramble tournament series an exciting, safe, and clean environment for everyone attending, ensuring customer retention for years to come.

MARKETING & SALES

Marketing Strategy

Since we are a startup company, our marketing strategy is set to be a little more intense in the first couple of years of operating as a major sports tournament series. In order to make Scramble a successful tournament series, we will first need to find enough teams to fill all of our competitive and recreational divisions for each sport. This will ensure maximum income and exposure in the first few years of operation. Since the tournament will be running in a variety of different locations and cities, we will need to construct an intensive marketing campaign at each location well in advance of the first tournament date.

Store Owners

We have observed that when children get involved in sports, they tend to surround their entire lives with that sport, constantly hanging out at sporting goods stores or specialty sports stores. As a result, storeowners have knowledge of many teams in their area, as well as a listing of teams in a particular sport. The store may even organize a sports tournament, whether it is on a local or regional level. This information is potentially a great asset to our company, as we plan to utilize a guerilla marketing campaign in each city prior to the start of the tournament series.

Color Coded Forms for Commission

Before the first year of operation, 7 or 8 employees of our tournament series will travel to each city on the tournament schedule, spending 14 days talking with major sports shops in each city that are associated with the sports we intend to offer. Our employees will talk to as many sports shops as the travel time will allow. We will provide each shop with tournament signup forms, which will be color-coded based on the specific store. When a team or individual sings up on a specific form, the store associated with that signup form will be paid a commission. In addition, the employee that gave the forms to the sport shop will be paid a commission. Bobby Risheo and possibly one other founding member will travel around to each city, building strong relationships with shop owners to promote our tournament series. The shop owners will then help us to secure teams for the first annual Scramble tournament series.

Guerilla Marketing

In addition to talking to shop owners, we plan to spend any additional time in each city talking with teams and coaches first hand. We plan to check out local practice areas so that we can establish a personal relationship with teams in an attempt to secure teams for the first year of the series. Most of all, we want to get people in key areas excited about our tournament, and we feel that the best way to do that is to talk with the coaches and teams first hand. If a kid hears one of our employees talk about how much the Scramble tournament series wants their team to compete, that kid is going to be a lot more excited than simply seeing a poster of the tournament hanging up. We feel that by directly speaking and interacting with potential teams and vendors, Scramble can hit the ground running and have a successful inaugural year.

Posters and Flyers

Although we would prefer to reach all potential teams and vendors personally, there is only so much time allocated for each city, resulting in missed opportunities. To counteract this situation, we will hang posters and give out flyers the entire time that we are in a certain city or region. If we can convince sports stores and shops to hang our posters and give out flyers promoting the tournament series, we feel that we can potentially find additional athletes to compete. Also, if we have previously developed a relationship with a shop where the poster is located, the storeowner will potentially be excited about the series and further promote our series to athletes and coaches alike.

Website

Each poster and flyer will also contain a URL address for the Scramble website. Our website will contain information about each event including: times, locations, and requirements for competing in each event. After the first event of our tournament series, the website will also include pictures and highlights from the previous events.

The website will also contain a section that will allow you to register for your events, and pay using a credit or debit card. We will offer a small variety of apparel featuring our tournament logo, which can also be paid for using a credit or debit card. Finally, we will also have any leftover tournament shirts just in case an athlete or spectator didn't get a chance to purchase one at the venue.

In addition, the website will also contain a section about the rules of every sport that we are offering at our tournament. Each rulebook will be in a downloadable PDF file. In addition, the website will have a video section, featuring highlights of current and past tournaments. We will also have a Webcam in the video section, which will feature live footage of the entire summer sports tournament series.

A full sponsor section will be on the website, giving potential sponsors for the national and local level a chance to check out pricing and sponsor benefits. Forms will be linked on the website, letting sponsors register online if desired.

Next, a section on the website will allow anyone to be put on our bi-monthly email list. The people on the email list will receive the latest tournament news and promotions and discounts on various things, such as entry fees and merchandise.

Finally we will have a section on the site about how to get involved with the tournament itself. You can fill out an application online to volunteer or apply for a position with the tournament series. Part time and full time positions will be listed on the website, and allow for us to draw employees and volunteers from all different cities throughout the region.

Word of Mouth

Finally, after the first few years of successful tournaments, we plan for a large amount of athletes and coaches contacting us through word-of-mouth marketing. The best advertising for our series will be from happy and satisfied athletes and coaches that competed in the tournament in previous years. Along with limited space for each sport, our tournament has limited time for teams to compete, which restricts the amount of teams that the Scramble tournament series can accommodate. We feel that word-of-mouth advertising, along with strong relationships developed early on, will provide the Scramble tournament series with plenty of potential teams and athletes in future years.

GROWTH STRATEGY

The Scramble tournament series will require a lot of work during the months that we are not in operation, especially in the months preceding the first year of operation. We have devised a series of phases that we will follow in order to prepare for, and to run the company in the first year of operation. Each phase is outlined in detail below.

Phase 1: Prior to First Year of Operation

1. Secure Venues: First, we will secure all of the venues that will be needed to operate the clinics, Sports Highlight tournaments, summer series tournaments, and finally the national championship tournament in Muncie, Indiana. We are currently researching venue opportunities around the country, attempting to find places that will offer accommodations for all of our traditional sports, as well as an area to build courses for the extreme sports.
2. Secure Vendors: In addition to securing sponsors, we must also find one major sports vendor in each sport which we intend to offer. Vendors will provide our series with revenue in the form of the initial vendor fee, as well as a 5% commission on all goods sold at the events. All seven vendors must be identified and contracted before the start of our first season as our extensive vendor showcase is one of the main spectator draws for our tournament series.

1. Secure Sponsors: In order to make our first year of operation a success, we will need sponsors to fill up our requirements for the platinum, gold, silver and bronze sponsor categories. The anticipated number of sponsors which we intend to attract in our first season can be found in the financial section of the business plan. Finding sponsors is a top priority, as they will bring in a great deal of revenue and prizes for the tournament.

Phase 2: Prior to First Year of Operation

1. Purchase/Build Equipment: The next stage of our development cycle will involve purchasing and/or renting all of the equipment for the first year of operation. The biggest pieces of equipment that we will need to provide will be the ramps, rails, and half pipe for the three extreme sports offered in the first year. Also, we will need to purchase materials to build a small wall around the hockey and soccer rinks, to keep flying pucks and balls in play. We plan to buy the raw materials to construct each and every piece of the course, reconstructing the entire course with the help of our volunteers and employees at each location. In addition to the extreme sports course, we will need flood lights for night events. Also, we will need to purchase a large amount of banquet tables and tents for athlete registration, concessions, and parking attendants. In order to travel between events, we plan to purchase trucks to transport our lights, tables, hockey and soccer equipment, and extreme sports course from venue to venue. The purchase of any additional supplies and raw materials, such as extension cords, portable toilets (if necessary) will be made during this stage in the development cycle.
2. Obtain Event/Liability Insurance for Venues: We are currently researching insurance costs for operating at different venues, as some venues have the ability to provide insurance to renters and some do not. Also, we have been in contact with an insurance company that has informed us of the possibility of obtaining outdoor tournament insurance in case of weather delays or cancellations.

Phase 3: First Season of Operation

1. Team Sign Up: The first step before running any clinics or tournaments must be to secure all of our athletes. We cannot expect to fill our age divisions and groups to 100% capacity in the first year; rather, our financial projections for year 1 assume a 70% capacity. Year 2 assumes an 85% capacity, and we predict to be at 100% capacity in year 3. Our primary method for teams to signup for the tournament is through our website, which features a section allowing teams to register and input all of their information online, including their payment. Teams will be asked on the website to input, if any, the color of the flyer or card from which they heard about the clinic or tournament. This will enable us to pay commission to the employee or volunteer responsible for distributing the flyer or card. Teams may also use the actual flyer, which will have a registration section, and mail the form and payment to our office in Muncie, Indiana.
2. Marketing/Advertising: While actively pursuing teams to participate in our first year of tournaments, we will also be advertising in tournament cities and surrounding areas. In phase 1, we are planning to secure a media partner, which can provide us with advertising and marketing through different mediums, such as internet, magazine or radio. In addition to the advertising and marketing through the media sponsor, we also plan to invest $40,000 in advertising before the first season of operation.
3. Transportation to Cities: In order to accommodate all of the equipment necessary to run such a large-scale operation, we will purchase 5 trucks with a closed cargo compartments, and 4 flat bed trailers which will be pulled by pickups. Based on weather charts and travel distances, we have devised a yearlong route that we will follow for our first year of operation. The weather charts and a map detailing the travel route which we plan to follow can be found in the appendix of this business plan.
4. Clinic/Tournament Set-Up: The set-up for each clinic and tournament will be rather extensive, as we have 7 sports to prepare for during the summer tournament series. We plan to have 25 employees setting up all necessary equipment for the summer tournaments, under the supervision of 3 high level managers, making sure the set-up runs smoothly. Set-up time will take 500 human hours for the summer series events, bringing the total set-up time to 20 hours.
5. Marketing in Cities of Operation: Although we do not plan to aggressively market our off-season tournaments and clinics during the operation of these events, we do plan to market our summer series in the city of operation, during the weekend of operation. This marketing campaign will require 10 employees who will aggressively travel around the city of operation putting up flyers, and promoting events such as a dunk contest, battle of the bands, and professional athletic demonstrations. We want to try and get the public in each city excited about our event, in hopes of starting a tradition where people look forward to our event each year.
6. Running Clinics/Tournaments: Running the clinics, off-season tournaments, summer series, and championship will all vary from each other in terms of employee numbers. The management and employee duties for each of these events will be basically the same, with the exception of the clinics. Labor costs for the summer series are roughly $50,000, and the off season tournaments demanding $25,000.
7. Equipment Tear Down: The takedown of all equipment used at the clinics or tournaments will require precise coordination between many employees. As with the set-up, we will require 25 employees to help with the tear down, being supervised by 3 managers. The total time for tear down of the summer series events is estimated to take a total of 25 hours. After the completion of phase one and two in the development cycle, the Scramble tournament series will be ready for the first season of operation. Our first event will be a clinic in Bloomington (April), followed by a clinic in Muncie (May) before the summer tournament series kicks off. The actual time allotted for this development cycle is yet to be determined, as we are not sure what the first year of operation will be. If we plan to start the tournament in the summer of 2007, we will have the time available from this current day until the first tournament of the series in the summer of 2007 for phases one and two. We feel that the summer of 2007 is the earliest that we could start the series, ensuring the tournament that we have envisioned. If we were forced to push back the start date to 2008, we will simply have more time for each one of the stages in phase one and two of the development cycle. The three phases described above outline what it takes for us to get through the first year of operation. We plan to have a phase four, which will include growing the tournament to a national level, and adding more sports in the process. As described earlier, the Hispanic population in places such as Florida, Texas, and California provide for much opportunity for the sport of soccer. Depending on the success of our series in the first year, we plan to expand nationally into different regions, slowly taking advantage of new markets. We also plan to add at least one traditional and extreme sport every year, further tapping into new markets, and expanding the size of our tournament series to a new level. We realize that a full-scale national tournament involves many risks, and for this reason, we are starting regionally and expanding based on the successes of our first year of operation.

RISK FACTORS

There are many risks associated with starting a major sporting tournament. The idea of competition and sporting events is not a new concept, and as a result, there are many existing competitors and tournaments already in place for every sport, including those we are offering in our mix. A list of potential risks to the Scramble tournament series, as well as our answers to those risks, follows:

• Not being able to secure enough teams for our first year of the tournament series. If we do not succeed in filling all time slots for every sport, we are losing out on registration money, and losing out on athletes who could potentially visit vendor booths and purchase concessions, photos, and other merchandise. We could also lose money if our city-to-city campaign fails, and we are spending traveling money, while not making the money back on new teams or sponsors. We are however not relying exclusively on our marketing efforts to provide all of the teams. In addition to the marketing campaigns which we are launching on our own, we will also be working with our strategic partners to locate teams. Strategic partnerships with local sporting good and specialty store owners should provide us with a large number of contacts which we can transition into clients.
• Other sporting events taking precedence over the Scramble tournament series. There are constantly sports tournaments occurring, ensuring that the Scramble tournament series will conflict with the schedules of athletes. If we fail to recognize another major tournament going on at the same time, we will lose out on athletes and sponsors for our tournament. In an effort to avoid two tournaments occurring at the same time and preventing athletes from being able to attend one of them, we must conduct extensive market research into the tournament schedules of our competitors and try to avoid scheduling our events opposite our competitors in our first year of operation. We are trying to build a strong tournament that will keep people coming back year after year, and minimizing the overlap of our tournament to others is a key strategy for our future success.
• Offering a mix of traditional and extreme sports. To our knowledge, a major tournament series offering traditional and extreme sports has never been attempted, and this poses a risk as we are attempting a completely new business venture. We feel that our tournament has created a niche market, attracting a mix of athletes which have never previously been brought together, but this mix may not be appealing to the coaches and/or athletes, resulting in a loss of participants. While we are prepared to make every effort to get this mix of sports to work well together and create cross interest between traditional and extreme sports, should this mix not work, we could easily modify our tournament structure and remain in operation. We could simply separate the extreme and traditional sports either at the same venue, or at entirely separate venues. While this would require a small amount of additional work on our part, we do not feel that separating the two sporting types would be out of the question should they fail to work well together.
• Offering seven sports in the first year of the tournament series. Many tournaments provide a venue for only one sport, and still prove to be a challenging event to manage. Starting with seven sports is a big step, one with big potential and also a large amount of risk. We may underestimate the volume of people attending, and the employees and volunteers necessary to make for a successful tournament. While operating a tournament of this magnitude will be a challenge, this is a risk which we have considered in every aspect of the design of our series. We decided to follow a growth strategy similar to that of the AAU Junior Olympics in that we are offering only a limited number of sports in our first year of operation, and we are planning to add between two and three additional sports every year. While this still leaves us offering seven sports in our first year of operation, we have an experienced management team, as well as an experienced mentor, and we feel that if we properly plan, we will be able to handle this difficult task.

FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

The Scramble Sports Tournament Series is tentatively scheduled to be operational in April of 2007, with our first event starting on April 27th in Bloomington, Indiana. One financial goal of the company is to turn a profit after our first season. This is planned and reflected in our financial statements as we plan to have a net income of $800,000 at the end of season one. In order to achieve this goal our most valuable assets will be our relationships with our sponsors/vendors and with our customers. Bringing these two groups of people together in an environment of learning and competition will not only help Scramble accomplish its financial goals, but will also bring athletic knowledge, advancement, and competition to all who participate in our events.

Request for Capital

Scramble is projecting to achieve a positive Net Income at the end of Season 1 while operating at only 70% revenue capacity and we intend to fund the operation with $1.4M in incremental stages. Though the financial statements show that all of Scramble's funding is in the preseason, in reality funding comes in 3 rounds. The current management team will contribute $140,000 in a bootstrap round lasting four months. The second round of funding will be a request for capital of $500,000 in the month of October. The final round of funding will be a request for capital of $1,000,000 in the month of March in order to purchase all fixed assets required for the first season of events.

Scramble offers these funding requests to investors with a passion for increasing the youth of America's athletic knowledge and ability. Potential investors also include vendors and sponsors as they will benefit directly from the success of the Scramble Sports Tournament Series.

General Financial Plan Assumptions

• Scramble will have a fiscal season starting at the beginning of April as this is the month of the first event. Upon the month before April, Scramble will have purchased all assets necessary to successfully implement all of the events, whether clinic or tournament, for the first full year's schedule.
• Preseason is established as being from the beginning of June of 2006 to March of 2007. No revenues will be earned in this point and time. The costs and expenditures associated with preseason are not reflected in the financial statements of year one.
• It is assumed, and displayed in the financial statements that during the first season's schedule, Scramble will be able to fill its team/individual slots per event to 70% of their capacity. The second season's events are assumed to be filled to 85% capacity. Events of season three, four, and five are assumed to be filled to their full capacities.
• Fixed assets purchased by Scramble will be transported from event to event with the company's own mode of transportation. Prices for travel/transportation of Scramble's equipment is heavily dependent on prices of fuel and the petroleum industry.

Revenue Assumptions

• There are ten sources of revenue for Scramble that are displayed in the financial statements: Entry Fee, Clinic Signup, Sponsor Revenue, Vendor Revenue, Program Sales, Event General Admission, Concessions, Parking, Magazine Sales and Photograph Sales.
• Entry fees, sponsorships, and vendor revenue comprise close to ninety percent of Scramble's Revenue, therefore, the company's success is heavily dependant on these three revenue streams.
• Concerning the smaller revenue streams, Scramble prescribes that a certain percentage of the population will purchase any one average item from the revenue streams. These percentages and cost of the average items are outlined in the financial statements under Secondary Revenue Streams.

• In projecting the attendance of the different events, several assumptions were made on the number of spectators a participant would draw to the event. It is thought by the management team, conservatively, that on average a participant would draw from 1.5-2.5 spectators per event depending on how close the event is filled to full capacity (whether we have filled all team slots).
• Since the various athletes will likely be present at the event during only the hours of and surrounding his/her own competitions, the management team can safely assume that the full attendance of an event will not be present all at one time, although the company does have the ability to accommodate the full attendance.

Sponsorship and Vendor Assumptions

• The management team concludes and displays in the financial statements that Scramble will have attracted one national Platinum Sponsor, one local and one national Gold Sponsor, one local and one national silver sponsor, and one local Bronze Sponsor to take part in the first season's schedule of events. Over the next four seasons the management team plans to fill all available unit packages for sponsorships.
• The management team assumes that in the first season it is possible to fill all available spaces for vendors. We feel that unlike sponsors, vendors will be readily willing to put their products up for prizes and display as they will have exclusive rights to their designated sport. Other benefits include vendor logos on the playing surface, exclusive sale and use of the vendor's products at the events, as well as many other creative options.