Whether you’re starting an AAU travel basketball team or running a seasoned organization, fundraising to help your parents and players offset expenses for the upcoming season is a need to address. Luckily, you’re in the right place: we’re covering more than 100 fundraising ideas to help your AAU travel team achieve its monetary goals!

This article will address how to use a basketball tournament to help your organization raise funds. A tournament can help your organization raise between $500 – $5,000 while giving your team a local event to participate in. Read on to see how to get started, what to expect, and how you can use a basketball tournament to benefit your AAU travel team.

How to Set Up Your Basketball Tournament

The first thing you and your organization should cover is when and where you can put on a basketball-themed yard sale. These tournaments usually occur on weekends, allowing teams from outside of your immediate area an opportunity to participate without affecting students’ school schedules or parents’ work responsibilities.

Before deciding on where you should set up your basketball-themed yard sale, you’ll need to vet potential gymnasiums. Many of the same principles we’ve discussed to help teams secure practice gyms will apply. Most locations will require a facility usage fee, and those can range between $150 – 1,000 depending on the location and length of usage.

Dream big! Many travel basketball tournaments will have multiple locations secure in hopes of adding more teams to their tournament. Nearly all AAU basketball tournaments will offer teams at least three games, making the first and/or second day of your tournament an action-packed day for tournament directors.

How To Price Your Basketball Tournament

Once you’ve set your date and location, you’ll need to decide how much the entry fee will be for each team and attendee. To do so, a rule of thumb is to estimate how much you’ll spend to host the tournament. Gather the expenses associated with the gym fee and include how much you’ll pay each official for the games that day.

Other expenses travel basketball tournaments incur include providing a game-clock operator or janitorial services. Additionally, you may opt to purchase bracelets that attendees can wear to easily identify which guests have paid admission for the day or event. Finally, you’ll need to purchase awards for teams that win or finish runners-up in your tournament.

Now that you’ve determined the cost, you’ll see how much you have to cover per team. Here’s a quick example: an eight-team tournament at one gymnasium has an expected price tag of $1,000. To cover your expenses, the travel basketball tournament director requires each team to pay a $125 entry fee to participate in the event.

It’s not out of the question to price the entry fee above expected costs, too. First, unexpected costs could keep you from making any profit. And second, all travel basketball tournaments are geared toward making a profit. Setting a modest margin above those expenses will help you achieve that fundraising goal.

Setting admission for fans is the final step. Basketball tournament directors should decide on single-entry pricing or a set weekend price. Travel basketball parents often pay $5-20 for entry into tournaments, but $75-100 fees for large events are not out of the question. If team entry fees cover the cost of the event, admission fees into these tournaments are strictly profit.

Finally, soliciting sponsors for the tournament is a great way to offset costs. Businesses or individuals can be recognized leading up to your event online as well as during your event with signage. Sponsorships can range from $50-1,000, helping your AAU basketball team meet their fundraising goals.

How to Prepare for the Basketball Tournament

Once you’ve set your date, location, and price for entry, start soliciting teams to participate in the event. Most AAU tournaments will break their divisions into ages or grade levels. Each director should decide how many levels and even what gender of athletes to invite to the tournament.

Travel basketball tournament directors should solicit local teams they know personally. Having a director reach out will help to attract potential teams. After exhausting those options, directors should use AAU sites or social media to spread the word. Other travel coaches frequently are looking for tournaments and potential back-up events.

Directors should begin advertising their tournament 6-8 weeks before the big day(s). Many travel teams will advertise their schedule from the beginning of the season, making it critical others can find your event before the season begins. Additionally, websites like Exposure Basketball are great places to advertise your tournament.

Once you’ve solicited the desired number of teams, you’ll need to generate a bracket for the event. There are several free options online to help directors do this as well as paid options. A word of advice: if teams are playing multiple games in a single day, provide at least one hour in between contests for the safety of the players.

To find officials for your game, ask a referee to help you. Often, referees can quickly gather members from their profession for free or for a small fee. If you do not know any basketball officials, each state has multiple referee boards. Search online for those boards and contact one of the individuals to guide you.

Finally, you’ll need to decide what type of items you’ll sell at the basketball tournament. Some events will solicit sponsors, and they’ll feature those businesses on T-shirts for sale at the event. Food and drinks are also popular for your captivated audience; depending on your location, having an outside vendor to sell refreshments to attendees is a viable solution.

Hot to Promote the Basketball Tournament

Just like soliciting teams, basketball tournament directors will also want to promote the event in advance. Savvy marketers will have an easy-to-share graphic created that lists the event’s name, location, dates, times, and admission price. These graphics can be shared both on social media and directly with participating AAU teams.

Some larger tournaments now offer pre-event admission. Like a concert, individuals can purchase their tickets electronically ahead of the event. It’s a great way to get a count for your event. Also, if your organization has a cashless option such as CashApp to accept payments, tournament directors should create QR codes to help patrons quickly use this feature.

What to Expect the Day of Your Tournament

Travel basketball tournaments need volunteers throughout the day to be successful. From the admission table to the concession stand, the tournament could require anywhere from 2-10 volunteers throughout the day. Other needs could be at the officials’ table or simple items such as cleanup duties.

Ask teams to arrive at least 30 minutes before their first scheduled game. Depending on the games, some contests may end before their scheduled time. This provides those teams with ample warmup opportunities as well as helps your tournament to continue to move along the schedule without downtime.

Finally, directors should provide their tournament rules – length of game, how many timeouts, etc. – in advance to participating teams. Additionally, those same rules should be made available to the scorer’s table to help individuals running the scoreboard or keeping the official book for the game.

Wrapping Up Your Basketball Tournament

When your event finishes, you’ll need to clean up any messes that tournament attendees created unless you have a dedicated janitorial service. You’ll also need to award any prizes to the winning teams after their final game, allowing them to take home medals, trophies, or plaques from your event.

You may also choose to express gratitude by sending thank-you notes to businesses and individuals who contributed to the success of your event. Adding a personal touch by having all of your players sign these notes and include a photograph of the team will illustrate how those contributions benefitted the team.

Lastly, coun any funds secured at the event’s conclusion with at least one of your team’s administrators present. Incorporated organizations report the proceeds (subtracting any incurred expenses) for tax purposes. Once this count is completed, deposit the funds into your travel organization’s bank account.

Do you have any photographs, videos, or success stories you can share with our audience? Leave them in the comment section below, and we’ll reach out to you perhaps to feature you in a future news article. Make sure you join our email list below to stay informed about future articles in our fundraising series.

This is one article in our “Fundraising 101” series. Click here to see 100 more ideas on how you can raise money to fund your AAU travel basketball team.