Our chess club runs $5 tournaments and has historically given trophies to first/second place. We’ve avoided cash prizes, for a couple reasons - primarily because the colleges that offer us space seem to frown on this, but also because there is the fear that having money on the line will amp up gamesmanship and TD dispute drama. Small clubs depend on people willing to run tournaments, and making that job more stressful and less rewarding than it normally is doesn’t bode well.
We’ve been cutting down on trophies, because they tend to consume all of the tournament fees - sometimes more. Used trophies (with new face plates) were tried for a bit, but people don’t want used things (even if in great condition) if they know they are used. The club is not looking to make a lot of money, but slowly building up over the course of a year allows us to do special events, like IM/GM simuls.
An idea was floated recently to offer gift certificates from online chess shops as prizes. It isn’t the same as cash (in my opinion), and it is more efficient (club spends X and the winner gets X to spend, instead of some money used for shipping costs). Others seem to consider certificates too much like cash, and would prefer to avoid it for the reasons mentioned above.
I am wondering if other clubs have considered/used gift certificates as prizes. Those who used them, did it work out? Those who considered and decided not to - why? Those who would never consider such a thing - what awful consequence have we overlooked?
When our club was at a Borders Books, we used to give out gift cards rather than trophies or cash. It was easy in the case of ties to have the store fill the gift cards with the exact amount of the prize. Need I say that Borders loved us having tournaments at their store? Too bad the company went out of business.
I have seen organizers give out gift cards to nice restaurants, fast food places like Subway or McDonald’s, and other local businesses as prizes. Prizes don’t always have to be for chess stuff. They just have to be for something that people like and want to use.
Yes, gift cards are a nice idea, and way back in the day when I had my own chess club, I used to run a Scholastic tournament on National Chess Day and some of you might remember Thom McAn Shoes and I used to be a Store Manager. I ran the idea by my boss at the time to arrange the top 3 finishers to get $50 gift certificates to Thom McAn Shoes and he absolutely loved the idea! It also was a big hit for the parents since it saved them money to take their kids shopping for shoes, so it was a win/win all the way around, along with increasing the revenues at those stores, so the Return on Investment was definitely worth that investment.
Have you tried plaques? They are a nice alternative to trophies, as a wood plaque that is engraved looks rather nice. Both plaques and chess trophies can be obtained via your local bowling alley pro shop. That will save you the cost of shipping, and may make things more profitable.
Yes, but we reserve that for the ‘premier’ events. With a $5 EF for a 4 round quick Swiss (or whatever), a plaque is little much (both in cost and presentation). For the big events we actually have trophies (for people to take home) and plaques (to stay with the club). So you get your name on the club championship plaque, and become part of the history of the club.
I should add that if the club had a lot of younger players, we would probably continue with trophies. But the club meets Monday nights (tournaments start at 7:30pm), not many kids…and most adults are past the point of caring about trophies (just takes up space).
Appreciate all the replies, looks like gift certificates are a reasonable alternative.