Host a junior tournament or festival

Outdoor: weather matters

The club hosts a one- or two-day tournament for visiting teams, earning from team entry fees, the canteen and BBQ, a gate or programme charge, merchandise and sponsors.

Typically raises

$5,000

$1,500–12,000 per eventest.

About $48 per organiser hour

Based on about 30 teams at $250

Is it right for us?

Money: $2,000–10,000
Work: Months
Helpers: 16–40 people
Lead time: 4+ months
Red tape: A fair bit

Common: clubs host tournaments as a regular earner

People: 20-50 across draw, field marshals, canteen, BBQ, gate, first aid and pack-down (estimate)
Organiser time: 60-150 hours over 3-4 months for a committee of 3-5 (estimate)
Lead time: 4-6 months: book grounds, get it on the regional calendar and sanctioned by the regional sports body (estimate)
Up-front cost: $1,500. Ground or court hire (often free on your own grounds), referee payments, first-aid cover, trophies and medals, canteen stock, portable toilets if needed (estimate). Entry fees usually arrive before most costs fall due.
Risk: Medium: weather cancellation after costs are committed; set a refund policy before taking entries.

Suits: Sports club or team

Less usual for: High school

When: Autumn (Mar–May), Winter (Jun–Aug), Spring (Sep–Nov), End of the sports season, Labour Weekend, School holidays

How big a job: A project team over months, 16–40 people

How it works

The money, as an example sum

Sell at $250 a team, keep $250, so 26 teams = $6,500, or about $5,000 after about $1,500 of costs. That’s about the typical result.

Using the figures on this page. Your prices and costs will differ.

Where the money figure comes from

NZ team entry fees range widely: $60 per team (Old Boys AFC Dunedin junior festival 2025), $250-300 per team (Otumoetai FC Junior World Cup Festival 2025), $325 (Papamoa FC club tournament 2025), $960 (AIMS Games football) (club and event pages via search). Example: 30 teams at $250 is $7,500 in entries before costs (estimate). Net after referees, grounds, first aid and trophies plus canteen profit is an estimate.

Last checked October 2026. Ran this? Tell us what you raised and we’ll use real results to improve the figures.

Step by step

Pick a date that does not clash with regional fixtures; long weekends (Labour Weekend) and school holidays draw travelling teams.
Get the tournament sanctioned by your regional body and confirm insurance cover.
Book grounds, courts and toilets; confirm referee supply and rates with the referees' association.
Set entry fees from a simple budget: (ground + referees + first aid + trophies + 20% buffer) divided by expected teams, plus your profit target.
Open entries online with payment, a closing date and a clear weather and refund policy.
Draw up the competition draw with breaks for field changeovers and a finals schedule.
Roster volunteers for gate, canteen, BBQ, field marshals, results table and clean-up; brief everyone the night before.
Book first aid (St John or a qualified club member) and set up a first-aid station and incident log.
Run the canteen, BBQ and merchandise table with tap-to-pay and a cash float.
Publish results quickly, send thanks to teams and sponsors, and reconcile accounts within a week.

Getting the word out

Even a well-run plan fails if nobody hears about it. There are two asks, and the first one goes out first.

Ask for help: Helpers for the day or night, and local businesses for prizes.
Ask people to buy: People to book tickets or tables, and turn up.
When to start: Ask for helpers first, as soon as the date is set. Start the public ask about 6–8 weeks out, and book newsletter and paper notices before that: small newsletters close early.

Where to put it

School, club and church newslettersYour own newsletter is free and read by the families most likely to say yes. Check when it closes.
Local Facebook pages and community groupsPost in your town’s community page and local groups (check their rules), and share from your group’s own page.
Facebook events and what’s-on listingsMake a Facebook event people can say they’re going to, and list it on your council’s or town’s what’s-on page.
Community newsletters and magazinesResidents’ newsletters, village magazines and other churches’ bulletins often run community notices free. Small ones close early.
Other groups sharing itAsk the school, kindy, church, sports club or marae down the road to share it in their newsletter or page. Offer to share theirs back.

The full guide to getting the word out: every channel from flyers to the evening news, with lead times and costs.

What you’ll need

Place: NeededYour own grounds or hall
Landowner’s permission: NeededYes, in writing
Council permit: CheckCheck with your council
Food rules: CheckNo registration if you sell food to fundraise for a good cause up to 20 times a calendar year. It must still be safe and suitable, and your council may need a stall permit
Alcohol: Not neededNo alcohol sold
Gambling rules: Not neededNot gambling
Health and safety: NeededA written health and safety plan (councils often ask for one)
First aid: NeededA first aider and kit on site (recommended)
Insurance: NeededPublic liability cover (councils often require it)

Council parks need a booking and sometimes an event permit for marquees, food trucks or roadside parking. Tournaments are usually sanctioned by the code's regional body.

Make more from it

Canteen, BBQ and coffee all day
often as much as entry fees (estimate)
visiting teams and parents are on site for hours
Tournament T-shirts and hoodies
$5-15 margin per item (estimate)
players want a keepsake of an away tournament
Field and trophy naming sponsors
$100-300 per field or award (estimate)
local businesses reach visiting families
Used boots and gear table
a few hundred dollars (estimate)
hundreds of parents of growing kids in one place

Stack it: on its own, about $5,000. With the add-on above, roughly

$5,200est.

What you can get donated

Ask a local business to sponsor the tournament name, trophies, medals or player-of-the-day prizes; ask a butcher and bakery for BBQ stock.

Tips

Visiting teams spend all day on site; the canteen and coffee cart often earn as much as entries (estimate).
Make it annual: a named, reliable tournament books out faster each year and sponsors like the continuity (estimate).
Sell 'player of the day' or field-naming sponsorships to local businesses at $100-300 each (estimate).

Watch out for

Underestimating referee cost and supply; AIMS Games charges an extra $1,000 to teams that do not bring a referee, which shows the real cost of officials.
No wet-weather plan, leaving the club with costs and angry teams asking for refunds.
Volunteer burnout: the same few people run the canteen for 10 hours.

Free tools for this

Event budget and break-evenCheck entry and gate money against ground hire, prizes and first aid.
Volunteer roster plannerPrefilled with the usual roles (gate / entry fees, canteen, bbq cook, field marshal, results / draw table and first aider) in 3-hour shifts.
Cash float and takings counterDoor and food-stall cash, counted in pairs and banked the next day.
Event run sheetOne timed plan for set-up, the event and pack-down.
Checklist for any ideaBefore, on the day and after, built from this idea’s own steps and rules.

Typical rules

Sanctioning: most codes require tournaments to be sanctioned by the regional or national body and played under its rules and insurance (estimate; check your code).
Food Act 2014: tournament food stalls run as fundraising are exempt from registration if you sell fewer than 20 times a year; a weekly canteen can exceed that (MPI; see ‘Game-day BBQ or club canteen’).
Health and Safety at Work Act 2015: if the club has employees it is a PCBU and needs a documented event safety plan; provide first aid suited to contact sport and a concussion process (WorkSafe; estimate on first-aid level).
Council: using council parks may need a park booking or event permit, especially with marquees, food trucks or road parking; large events may need a traffic management plan under the NZGTTM.
Child safety: officials and helpers working with junior teams should be police vetted under your code's policy; many codes require it (NZ Rugby; Tennis NZ).
A raffle or prize draw on the day is a lottery under the Gambling Act 2003 (DIA).

Check the details

Sources

Researched October 2026. All fundraising ideas

* General fundraising information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Money figures are examples and estimates, not promises. Check current official requirements before you commit. About this guide