SSUSA Cuts Entry Fee Cost

Feb. 1, 2009

February 10, 2009 -

Senior Softball-USA announced today that it will be lowering entry fees in many of the Regional Championship tournaments for 2009.

"We have decided to reduce many of the entry fees because of the continuing decline of the US and Canadian economies, and the resulting hardship on our players," said Terry Hennessy, Chief Executive Officer of SSUSA.

In the beginning of 2009, SSUSA adopted a discounted entry fee for teams staying in Host Hotels in many of its tournaments this year. Teams using 5 rooms over the three nights of the tournaments received a $150 discount. Entry fees for teams not using the Host Hotels were set at $525 and those using the Host Hotels were to pay only $375.

"This fee structure reflected the actual cost of the tournament to the teams," said Hennessy. "The commission from the Host Hotels in effect provides that much of a sponsorship of the team's entry fee."

"In addition, many of the cities base their city bid fees on host hotel rooms used by teams, so teams using host hotels not only saved themselves money, but ensured that we could continue to bring the tournament back to cities, especially in these hard economic times for cities," said Hennessy.

"However, these are exceedingly hard times for many of our players and teams, so we will be rolling back the top end of the entry fees from $525 to $495 for those teams not using Host Hotels. Those teams using Host Hotels will still receive the full discount and pay only $375," he said.

Fees will be lowered for these regional tournaments: Spring Nationals in Polk County, Winter Worlds in Las Vegas, Midwest Championships in Chicago, the California Cup in Yolo County, the Pelican Women's Championships in Panama City Beach, and the Rock 'n Reno Qualifier in Nevada. The remaining Regional Championships are not using the new Housing Connection system and will cost the same as last year: $450.

Hennessy said entry fees for the World Championships in Phoenix and the Eastern and Western Nationals will remain the same because they are close to most of the other national organization entry fees at the top end, and those tournaments are more expensive to run.