Discussion about entry: One Lowell World Cup

While the ONE Lowell World Cup seeks to bring our diverse immigrant communities together with the host community, I think the event can work in any situation where you have two groups who should be working more closely together. Also, the idea of soccer resonates really well with a population that has an international flavor to it, but it is quite possible that baseball, basketball or another team sport might work just as well.

For ONE Lowell, it helps that we are in a fairly decent sized city (over 100K) and in a greater metro region (Boston) that has a lot of really good soccer players at the amateur level. We even have a professional soccer team near by (The New England Revolution). I don't think you have to have these things, but it does make the event a lot more exciting.

The main costs for our event are the rental of the fields and payment of referees. Some communities may not have these costs, which would allow them to become financially viable quicker. For us, we set the team entrance fees at a level that they would pay for the fields, the referrees, and 1/2 of our tournament director. That way, even if we got not sponsors and had limited ticket sales we'd have an event. We haven't had a problem raising the additional funds to cover the tournament director and make a profit for the org.

I do think that it is absolutely critical that either a tournament director or a very committed planning group have experience with soccer tournaments and understand the logistics involved. I would say by the third year we have worked out all of the kinks and have a pretty smooth running event. However, folks should be prepared for the first time to be a bit rocky and stressful.