How to actually choose a youth baseball tournament

Picking a tournament shouldn't take long once you know what to look for. Here's a good checklist to consider:

The short version

Before you commit, you should know:

• How far is it (real drive time)
• What's the entry fee, and what's included
• What format the tournament is running
• How many games are guaranteed
• What level of competition
• What's the playing surface (grass & dirt baseball field, turf, softball style field)

Distance and travel time

For a one-day tournament in your home metro, distance is mostly an inconvenience. For a two- or three-day tournament, it's a real cost.

A DFW-to-Houston weekend adds up fast: gas, two nights of hotel, three or four meals out per family. You're looking at $600-$1000 per family just for travel costs.

A note for parents: you shouldn't have to drive 45 minutes to an hour as the default. Unless you're truly rural, there's almost certainly something closer to home. That way you aren't leaving at 6am if you get one of those dreaded 8am games!

Entry fees and what they actually cover

Select tournament entry fees can vary quite a bit. You can find tournaments as low as a few hundred dollars a team, all the way up to over $1000 a team.

Read the listing carefully. The fee usually covers:

• Tournament registration
• Umpires
• Awards

It usually does NOT cover:

• Gate fees for spectators (can be $5-$15 per parent, per day; possibly cost for siblings too)
• Insurance (if you don't have it already)

A $550 entry fee with $10-per-parent-per-day gate fees can add hundreds across the team for a 2-day tournament. Worth checking before you commit.

Format: Pool play & single elim

Here's what it means:

Pool play + bracket means Saturday you play 2 games against 2 different teams and Sunday is a single-elimination bracket seeded by Saturday's results. You're guaranteed your pool games, and most formats put every team into some kind of bracket on Sunday — but check the listing, because some tournaments only advance the top teams.

Single elimination only means you play until you lose. Win and you get more games. Lose your first game and your weekend is over.

Double-elimination means you stay in until you lose twice — a losers' bracket runs alongside the winners' bracket, and the losers' bracket winner plays the winners' bracket winner in the final.

Silver / consolation bracket is sometimes confused with double-elim, but it's different: two single-elimination brackets running in parallel. Lose once in the main bracket, drop into the silver bracket, and you're playing single-elim from there.

Guaranteed games

"3-game guarantee" (3GG) is the standard in the DFW/North Texas area. That said, the 3GG usually doesn't survive weather — if you play two games and rain wipes out the third, you generally don't get a refund.

Competition level

Some sanctions tend to attract lower-level teams while others attract higher level teams. Playing in a AA tournament with one sanction can be very different from AA in another sanction. Also be aware of teams who jump sanctions to avoid getting bumped (forced to play at a higher division). They may be AAA in most sanctions but they play in a new one and register as a AA team.

Fields, weather, and the backup plan

Texas baseball battles with freezing cold temps in early spring & late fall, 95 degrees in May & June, and storms pretty much anytime.

Things to check:

• Is there a published rain-out policy? (Refunds, makeup dates, partial credit toward another event.)
• Are the fields turf or grass? Turf plays after rain. Grass usually doesn't.

A tournament at a 12-field turf complex with a clear rain policy is going to handle a Saturday morning storm a lot better than a 4-field grass complex without one.

The intangibles

Some things are hard to put on a checklist but matter:

• Umpires. Some tournaments have their own umpires, some hire using one of the local umpire associations, and some hire whoever's available. Ask other coaches who've played there. Answers may vary but it's worth checking if it's a sanction you haven't played before.
• Organizer responsiveness. If you've emailed and gotten a reply in 24 hours, they probably run a tight tournament. If you've waited 5 days, expect just as bad communication throughout the tournament.
• Amenities on site. A complex with a real concession stand and shade trees is going to be a better weekend for your families than one without concessions and little shade.
• Past reviews. Coach forums & parent Facebook groups will tell you more than the tournament's own listing.

How to weigh it all

When picking a tournament, consider:

1. Right age and class?
2. Reasonable distance? If not, is there a specific reason to travel?
3. Fees and gate fees within what we want to spend (and is reasonable!)?
4. Decent fields and/or turf if potential for bad weather?

If a tournament checks all the boxes, I'll register. If it's missing 1 or 2, it may be worth it to keep looking. Travel ball is too expensive to spend a weekend at a badly-run tournament.

Make the comparison easier

The reason I built OnDeck is that doing this comparison across NCS, PG, Five Tool, PAC, etc. used to mean a bunch of open tabs and a spreadsheet. Now it's in one place, so you can scan tournaments by age, sanction, date, and distance without bouncing around.

Browse current youth baseball tournaments in one place →

If a tournament you've played in isn't on the site, send me a note and I'll add it. I'm running this for the same reason you're reading this: to spend more time practicing & playing and less time searching for tournaments.