Pickleball tournament benefits local veteran non-profit.

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In March, The Best Times held a pickleball tournament to benefit Forever Young Veterans, a local non-profit, that is sending WWII veterans to Normandy for the 80^th anniversary of D-Day.

We partnered with a new indoor pickleball facility, an experienced pickleball player/coach/tournament director, and approximately 149 players.

We have recognized pickleball as a growing sport for years and had a few articles over the past few years about it. I have seen pickleball on other NAMPA publication covers recently if not articles.

So together with our partners we worked to expand our brand awareness in the pickleball community.

How we made it happen

Firstly, the new facility was under construction, in fact our tournament was the first event it held. We are talking fresh paint the day before new. They transformed an old movie theater, leveled the floors, fresh paint, and floors etc. and it made an ideal pickleball club. As we would be widely publicizing the tournament the facility was receiving a lot of free promotions ahead of their own grand opening and they gave us a reduced rental fee.

Second, most of the tournament costs were covered by player registrations fees. We had men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles at various age and skill level brackets. Because there were only 8 full size courts, we went with doubles so that we could make the most of people’s time and registration fees.

I was surprised at how enthusiastic some players were. Most people played either women’s or men’s doubles and mixed doubles with spouses or friends. Players came from 5 or more surrounding states and most players knew each other from previous tournaments. These players have competitors’ hearts and have no trouble traveling to play in well run events.

Finally, The Best Times sold sponsorships to businesses to cover tournament costs if we did not get enough players, and to raise the actual money donated to the non-profit. We had three levels of support that we offered print and digital ads, logos on promotional materials, t-shirts, banners, etc.

I look forward to seeing our tournament t-shirts around the city and region to continue to promote our publication, Forever Young Veterans, and our sponsors.

View the full story featured story from our April issue as well as many photos and tournament results on our website.

If you would like to learn more about how we made this event happen, reach out to us, if you are not engaged in the pickleball mania in your area, you could be missing out on a way to attract youthful mature adults as new readers for years to come.

Originally posted by The Best Times (TN) via Locable