The recently completed National Elementary Championship in Nashville seemed to be a very well run event. There were a few “rough spots”, but overall it was a pleasant experience.
I’m probably going to concentrate on those few negative items – because they are the areas where we can show some improvement – but it really was a very nice event.
The hotel was beautiful (same place as the last supernationals, but they’ve added an indoor pool since then). It was easy to get to and was convenient to shopping. It had plenty of space. THERE WERE SEATS FOR THE PARENTS!!! Negatives:
It was WAY too expensive. I expected the room rate to be too high, but the OTHER charges were excessive as well – $10 “resort fee”, $12 parking fee, etc. etc. Sunday brunch (as I already mentioned in another post) was $39 per person + tax! (and this was all you could get at the hotel restaurants after around 10:00 Sunday Morning). The room rates were higher than the ones I’ve seen people complain about for this year’s US Open, but THIS tournament was held in an inexpensive midwestern city, not NJ. Area hotels typically are much less than HALF the rate from the Gaylord Opryland.
The playing hall was VERY noisy – thanks mostly (IMO) to the bare concrete floor.
The construction inside the hotel was only a very minor inconvenience.
The tournament directors seemed understaffed. I know some people were kind enough to volunteer to help out (at no pay, of course). It might be better to try to get a bigger paid staff together or get some volunteers set up locally ahead of time. Adding volunteers seemed a last-minute adjustment. BTW ALL the TDs and volunteers did a great job and they all deserve a BIG thank-you.
The Parents and Friends tournament was a nice event, but there were a few rough spots:
The results posted on-line have numerous errors that haven’t been corrected yet. I’m not sure if that’s why the event hasn’t been rated yet (while the 2100-player main event that finished the next day has already been rated).
The prize fund was typically nice, 80% returned as prizes, but was only in the form of a merchandise credit. This might seem like no big deal, but the first place prize was $480. That’s a lot of chess merchandise! If you’re good enough to win the tournament, is there likely to be that much “stuff” you want but don’t already have? Please don’t do things that way at SuperNationals or you’ll have a winner trying to decide how to spend $1000 on even more chess “stuff” he really doesn’t want. BTW, the “unrated” section’s prizes were free USCF memberships. I think that’s a fine idea for the unrated portion (and anybody that wanted to, could “play-up” for the rated prizes instead). I don’t know what formula was used (so many memberships awarded per so many entries), but I think this was a good idea – we need more scholastic parents to join as members.
I think those tied for first in the various categories should have been recognized as “co-winners”, even if they lost out on the trophy on tie-breaks.
The wrong ratings supplement was used for the Parents and Friends. I didn’t notice this until the last round (no wall chart had been posted) but my rating was from the February supplement. None of these comments are meant to diminish what was really a very nice event (and at least this time I didn’t have to play Dave Gilchrist!). I’m assuming that the TD staff was very over-worked and that caused some of the minor problems, but it really didn’t have too big an impact and I don’t want this to be exaggerated. The rounds started (more or less) on time, there were no problems, and there was lots of good, friendly competition.
For the first round or two the parents were allowed into the roped off seating area after a short wait (half an hour?). But later in the tournament, they were kept out for an hour or so. This was because of the excessive noise they brought with them. IMO it wasn’t really that they were being so noisy – it was just the bare walls and floor seemed to magnify the noise. Keeping them out for the first hour was probably the best compromise. The PA system in the room seemed a little underpowered – I never REALLY understood all the announcements – but we all seemed to manage OK.
We were at the Supernationals two years ago at the Gaylord Opryland. Yeah, the rates are high relative to other hotels, but we felt we got excellent bang for the buck.
There’s plenty of pleasant open space. No need to go back and forth between tournament site and lodging.
We have yet to go to another tournament where we felt as safe having our kids go around the site on their own. I can’t tell you how many 10-year-olds we saw going around the Gaylord with their own keycards. You could quite literally walk your family in the front door and not leave for three days. No one felt cooped up or felt any desire to go AWOL.
Skip the Sunday Brunch. Most people can’t stay awake, let alone play chess, after eating that much. Our solution to the food problem was a cooler that we shared among two or three families. People took turns making grocery store runs. Breakfast was bagels and fruit. Snacks and drinks came from the cooler. Lunch came from the food court in one of the Atriums (or at the nearby mall food court, that you can walk to along a private hotel path), and dinner was at one of the restaurants. So, we got by on one expensive meal a day.
I’m sure there may be other good sites for large national scholastic events, but the Gaylord Opryland would have to be high on the list.
I agree that the hotel was very nice. But $308 (what I paid after adding the resort fee, parking fee, & tax – just the mandatory charges) for two nights was simply too much.
You can stay in a NICE Nashville hotel for less than half that amount.
The charges just seem excessive for middle class, midwestern families.
You need to weigh the advantages for those that can afford it, with the disadvantages for those that can’t. Yes, it’s convenient to stay at the playing site and let the kids roam around the hotel (not something I would do, no matter how “safe” you feel), but how convenient is it for the parents that have been driven out of staying at the playing site because it’s just so expensive?
And how “convenient” is the hotel if you have to leave the hotel to find affordable meals? My family of three ate at Rainforest Cafe for only a couple dollars more than what ONE person would have been charged at that Sunday brunch!
OTOH, I have to praise the organizers for the Saturday lunches. The fast food was pretty good and quite reasonable (around $7 each for a complete meal, as I recall).
The trick to the parking is to park at the Opry Mills Mall. It’s free over there, and a short walk from one of the hotel entrances. At super nationals some of the parents from our group parked over there.
I didn’t object to the resort fee since it included excellent high speed internet access. Many of the big hotels like Hyatt, Sheraton, and Hilton charge $9.95 a day for internet access. I can understand that it’s annoying to pay that fee if you don’t use the internet.
I could be wrong, but I’m not sure there’s another Nashville hotel that could accomodate that many players and family in their ballroom/meeting room spaces. I did notice that there is a convention center in downtown, but I don’t know if there are hotels connected to it or close by as was the case in Denver last year.
That’s a problem at any big hotel that these tournaments are held at. If one eats in the hotel it’s going to be expensive. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a large hotel where the food was the same price as going outside for the meal. It seemed as though they had done a pretty good job of having reasonably priced alternatives. I guess if this tournament is going to be on Mother’s Day weekend they need to negotiate to have a non Mother’s Day alternative meal. We had opted for Tony Roma’s at the mall.
Vote with your VISA Card if you don’t like it. Take the kid to some other tournament.
Or, stay at the Motel Six up the road. You can be at the Opryland and enjoy the venue all day, then go to your $50 room at night. So who said there’s no such thing as a free lunch?
We looked at it as a chess meet, plus a big group family vacation for our family of four plus several other families.
And chess competition is never cheap. As a middle-class, midwestern family, we were able to justify the trip by driving 10 hours to get there. If we had been a middle-class east- or west-coast family, we’d have had to fly, and that adds $800-plus for a family of four.
Sure I’d be interested to hear what other venues could be huge, family-friendly, willing to take on a crowd of 2000+ kids and families, have lots of public space, full of interesting stuff for the non-chess-players, and cheap.
Maybe there is something cheaper out there, but not likely better and cheaper.
I did “vote with my VISA” – that’s why I chose convenience and stayed at the Gaylord. That doesn’t mean I believe it was the best POSSIBLE choice of hotels for this tournament. This was simply meant to be constructive criticism. I know that quite a few people DID stay at other hotels, and I just think it would be better to try to keep the prices lower so that parents wouldn’t have so much pressure to do just that.
There have been loud complaints on here about the price of the hotel rooms at the US Open this year. But THAT hotel is in NJ, not the midwest where hotels are normally less expensive.
Compare the Gaylord Opryland price with the one for the World Open – I’d expect Philadelphia to be more expensive – the hotel is $32 (more than 25%) LESS expensive than the Gaylord. Look at the other major chess tournaments and the hotel rates: Chicago Open – $89, National Open – $79. Why are these organizers able to get hotel rates so much lower than the USCF does for it’s big events?
It's unbelievable that no wallcharts would be posted. I don't think there were any wallcharts at the National High School either, and others have told me that there were no wallcharts posted at previous years' nationals as well. I think the wallcharts should be posted [i]each[/i] round, and updated by hand between the rounds (this obviously requires individuals tasked specifically for this, and an appropriate space to display it).
The standings are important, or course, but there is some information that is only available from the tournament wallchart. In fact, if the wallcharts (team and individual) are updated as the results come in, this is the first place that the players and participants could learn the results of that round (and the tournament), well before all the results of the section are processed and a new set of standings can be printed and posted.
I don’t know if there were wallcharts for the main tournament. I frequently got the pairings and information on-line (great feature). My daughter wasn’t really in contention, so I didn’t look for a wallchart.
All I was saying was that there were no wallcharts for the Parents & Friends tournament.
I wish I knew when I’d see the Parents & Friends tournament rated.
Fair enough. And are these $79 and $89 hotels huge, family-friendly, willing to take on a crowd of 2000+ kids and families, have lots of public space, and full of interesting stuff for the non-chess-players?
Anything else big enough? With 2000 kids, that’s at least 4,000 people. So where in the midwest is big enough to house the competition and the participants/families? Otherwise, you’re back to having it in some convention center, and everyone at different hotels, and the logistics that entails – haul entire family of five back and forth between hotel and tournament site a few times a day. Is parking free in Philadelphia? What if you leave the parking lot?
The Chicago Open and National Open are different beasts from the K-6. Yeah, you can hold a large scholastic at a regular hotel, but that’s a drag. Been there, done that.
Constructive criticism is good. I’m interested in hearing about all these other suitable–and cheaper–tournament venues you’re thinking of. If Gaylord isn’t the best, what’s better? And can we make it closer than 10 hours’ drive from where we live while we’re at it?
Why not try calling around to see how many facilities in the Chicago area can handle an event for 2000 players (figure 50 square feet per player plus space for team rooms) with on-property hotels, or at least within walking distance?
That rules out most mega-convention centers like McCormick Place in Chicago, the Orlando Convention Center, the Moscone in San Francisco, The Javits in NYC, etc. I’ve been at computer conventions at all of those facilities, BTW, the shuttle bus scheduling from the hotels is a major hassle.
Based on a quick web search, there appear to be a number of hotels with 50,000 square feet of meeting space in the Chicago area, but not many with 100,000 square feet or more. (The Hyatt O’Hare has that much now, but the ‘rack’ rate there is $219/night.)
Pat Knight is taking over the event planning duties, I’m sure she’d appreciate some bird-dogging.
I’m willing to concede that the Gaylord Opryland may have very limited competition for the SuperNationals with 5000+ kids showing up. I thought that it was a very nice site for the last one, and I think it will be a nice site for the next one as well.
But the Elementary Championship is only about 40% as large – I think there are significantly more hotels to choose from. True, it’s nice to be able to walk from the playing site to your hotel room and never have to walk outside. But I can probably find several convention centers and separate hotels where the hotel rooms are actually closer to the playing hall than some of the rooms at the Gaylord Opryland were.
Maybe a room price of over $150 per night (total after adding in the required charges) is the best we can do. If we’re really doing the best we can, then that’s all anybody can expect. I just want to be sure we really are doing that.
The National Elementary may be only about 40% of the size of a SuperNationals based on the number of players, but I’ll bet it requires more like 60-75% of the total space of a SuperNationals (including sleeping rooms), because you’ve got a lot more parents there than you will see at the JHS or HS.
BTW, I’ll second that comment regarding Opryland. When I was there in 2005 it was over a mile walk from the TD room to my sleeping room. However, I’ve been in at least one facility where the on-property walking distances were further–a convention I attended in Las Vegas.
The problem with convention centers that are separately managed from the hotels adjoining them is that it complicates the finances because the facility space is billed separately from the hotel space. IMHO, that complication tends to increase the room rate.
I need to know how the tournament store was at the Elementary. As most of you could have figured out, it was not run by the Rochester Chess Center. I want to hear of the positives and negatives. Any feedback here well help me run a better store in the future.
I want to know how was the selection, location, was the sales staff knowledgeable, did they have what you want, was the sales staff friendly?
Please list both positives and negatives here. If they went out of their way for you or did or said something you did not like this is where you should air it out.
thanks all!
Shelby Lohrman
Rochester Chess Center
see you soon at the National Open, The World Open, and the US Open. Get your registrations in for these tournaments. They are all extremely well run and everyone has a great time at them!
