Follow the soccer ball: Local tournament brings the business

This weekend Steve Brown's girls' soccer team will spend about $5,350 in Carson City.

It breaks down like this: $3,900 for 15 rooms at the Holiday Inn Express for a two-night stay; $350 for breakfasts and lunches; $100 to take the 15 girls and 20 parents to the swim center; $250 for dinner at B'Sghetti's Restaurant; $200 for tournament souvenirs; $150 for emergency Wal-Mart purchases and $400 for tournament fees.

"We booked our hotel in December and the word is starting to get out that you have to book earlier and earlier," he said. "Even in December our first choice wasn't available."

This is the third year Coach Brown has brought the Rush, his under-12 girls soccer team, from Davis, Calif., to the 12th annual Comstock Shootout Tournament. And he'd do nothing different. Except, this year instead of trekking around Carson City today before their big game he's going to have all the girls relax in their motel room and watch DVD movies. He thinks that'll be much less stressful.

"Last year our team went to the championship game of our division but we lost," he said. "This year we're hoping to make it to the championships and win our bracket."

This is also the third year in a row that he'll bring the team to B'Sghetti's, 318 N. Carson St. Brown said he loves the restaurant because it's accommodating to a large group of children.

Cover every blade

of grass

All's calm on the restaurant floor. That is, until about 5:30 p.m. when a girls soccer team joins the normal weekend dinner crowd. The orders from 10 soccer moms, 10 soccer dads and 15 girls flood the kitchen simultaneously.

This has been a common scene at Red's Old 395 Grill for the past two weekends. The girls and boys soccer tournaments brought 174 teams into Carson City. With those teams come haggard parents seeking nice accommodations and family-orientated restaurants for their soccer flankers, attackers or midfield dynamos.

"Last weekend we got reservations for 40," said Red's director of operations Mark Schloss. "They take their whole team here. Last weekend we had five or six teams and this weekend we already have just about the same amount."

This is the kind of service that needs a strategy. In soccer terms, you'd call it "setting your stall out early."

Schloss said it all starts with getting the teams in the restaurant. Since the tournament has been around for the last decade, most families remember Red's and return. He also markets special dinners for the referees and appetizers for teams.

When they come, servers are trained to seat the big groups in the same area, and about an hour apart from each other.

"The big parties require extra staff, extra hands," Schloss said. "And they take up a lot of space. The patios help, but when the weather doesn't cooperate it's a little trickier."

Ralph Johnson's three girls play or have played in the Comstock Shootout Girls Tournament. Now the director of the girls tournament, he said the support from local volunteers and businesses enables the tournament to continue operating. All the money raised in the tournament goes to support the soccer clubs and scholarships.

"A lot of people put time and effort into making this happen," Johnson said. "It's a premier soccer event. People plan their spring vacations around this."

Jockey for position

Book it early. Carson City hotels fill up months in advance during the last two weekends of April.

Joe Briggs, boys tournament director, said about half of the teams come from out of town, or out of state, and the majority choose to stay in Carson City.

Jodi James, operations manager for the Plaza Hotel in Carson City, said the 168-room hotel, normally full of legislators, is alive with the dribbling of young soccer players.

"Holy smokes!" she said. "Our hotel was booked solid last weekend with soccer teams and we got more coming in this weekend. We love those kids. They are so wonderful and well behaved."

The Plaza's readerboard displayed: "Let the games begin!" during the boys tournament. For this weekend's girls tournament the sign reads "Welcome to the Comstock Shootout. Go soccer teams!"

It may be a game to 1,500 children, but these two weekends mean a healthy boost in Carson City's room-tax revenue. Room taxes are funneled into the Carson City Convention & Visitors Bureau for marketing, special events and the Virginia & Truckee Railway fund.

Candace Duncan, executive director for the bureau, said it's too early to tell how the tournament affected this year's tax revenue, but in the last two years there has been a significant increase in April.

"It's typically high for those two weekends," she said. "We always sell out and it's very beneficial to us for room tax."

In April 2003, 58 percent of Carson City's rooms were full. That brought in $47,307 in room tax revenue. That was up from 55 percent total occupancy the month before and $41,047 in revenue.

In April 2004, 65 percent of Carson City's rooms were full. That brought in $56,501 in room tax revenue. That was also up from 58 percent total occupancy in March 2004 and $44,927 in revenue.

Fred Schmidt, one of the tournament's organizers, said the Comstock Shootout has been full for the last six years.

"We're at capacity of what we can handle with all the courts," he said. "We believe we are the largest youth tournament in Northern Nevada. And unless we build other fields we really can't handle bringing in anyone else for the tournaments."

n Contact reporter Becky Bosshart at bbosshart@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.