I’m posting this since I’ve done my little miniseries on running a tournament (part 1 and 2 so far), and it’s relevant.
Basically, I was originally going to go with one sponsor (Black Cultist) and now have switched because I got a better deal from another store (Mind Games). Here’s the post I put up on the ANU Wargaming Society forums:
It has come to my attention that Black Cultist has placed in their newsletter a comment regarding the fact that we have chosen to go elsewhere for prize support for ANUCON2011 this coming September:
From the Black Cultist newsletter:
“ANUCON has been confirmed for the 24th & 25th of September, the players pack can be found HERE. We won’t be there this year as they have elected to go elsewhere for their prize support, possibly because I objected to them using a good chunk of the entry fees to fund their club rather then provide prize support to the players, or maybe just because they got a better deal.”
Although we don’t normally talk about all the work behind the scenes for ANUWGS tournaments including ANUCON, I (tournament organiser for ANUCON2011) feels that it is necessary to respond to Black Cultist’s comments so that members and attendees of ANUCON have a clear picture of why I have made the decision to go with an alternative sponsor this year.
We run ANUCON as a friendly and fun tournament to benefit players that attend the tournament. As we are based in Canberra, we naturally get a lot of local attendees as well as a few devoted souls who drive in from further away.
Therefore, when a sponsor for ANUCON is selected, we look for the following things:
1) Local presence – we’d like them to be locally available for Canberran gamers
2) Past patronage – members have previously had good experiences with the store
3) Best sponsorship deal at the time – they provide the best deal for prize support
This year, as usual, we approached two stores for sponsorship: Black Cultist and Mind Games Canberra. Although they’re both local stores with great service, the club must select the one which provides the best deal. If we could go with both, we would, but obviously that’s not possible.
I have been in contact with Brad (the new owner of Black Cultist as of early this year) regarding both prize support and some issues he had with the way we run the tournament, and there have been some heated discussions between club executive and ex-executive members about his comments. However, when selecting the sponsor for ANUCON2011, the deciding factor for prize support was the value the club got out of the sponsor.
In the past for ANUWGS tournaments, the club purchases prizes from the sponsor at an additional discount.
Black Cultist has traditionally provided a better deal ever since the business was established. Each year, we also ask Mind Games Canberra. Although they have always responded, they have never been able to provide a better deal than Black Cultist.
This year, however, Mind Games Canberra has unexpectedly offered a large discount for prizes for ANUCON2011. Therefore, based on this, I have chosen Mind Games Canberra to sponsor ANUCON2011, as this has the greatest benefits for the tournament attendees. The ANU Wargaming Society is a non-profit student club (in addition, none of the members or executive are paid) which is run purely for the benefit of Canberra wargamers. The income from ANUWGS tournaments, including ANUCON2011, funds the club for a whole year, and all of it goes to providing free gaming nights, terrain, and open wargaming social events.
TL;DR:
We resent the implication that there are any vindictive reasons for not choosing Black Cultist as the sponsor for ANUCON2011. We were simply offered a better deal by Mind Games Canberra.
If anyone would like more details, please contact me:
mrmoowithnounderscore@gmail.com
0422265826
On the plus side, the value of the prizes we’re giving out are amazing this year. Also, we know the winners will enjoy them 🙂
