Manchester City Tournament Problems

Surfref

PREMIER
The Manchester City tournament at the Polo Fields was a hot mess today. It sure seemed like someone other than Surf Cup Sports was running things. It was a disorganized mess. Entrance to the facility and parking was nothing short of an absolute disaster. By 10am it was taking approximately 45 minutes to get from the turnoff into the facility to a parking space. Absolutely no traffic control or anyone to direct you to parking. There were numerous players and parents that got out of their car because it was faster to walk. Porta potties were only in the parking lot so if you were on a field on the south side of the complex it was a hike just to go to the bathroom. Delayed game start after halftime waiting for players to return from the bathroom and the long lines. The new entry way onto the fields would be nice except for the prison like fence around it that blocked easy access to food vendors and made for a big detour to get from the west fields to the east fields. Several other problems including a lack of trash cans. Hopefully Surf Cup Sports fixes things for Sunday. I also hope the weatherman is wrong and it doesn’t rain. That dirt parking lot become a mud pit when it rains.
 
Agree 100%! 40 min to park. A guy in front of us opened the trunk to his car and pulled out two bikes, grabbed his son’s backpack and started heading to the field. Traffic was already bad enough today and then this!
 
Let’s add to the mix the hydration stations. My kid doesn’t use these but as we were leaving the complex after our first game this morning we saw this crew refilling the big orange Gatorade coolers from a hose and spigot in the dirt field near the pay booth entrance. Now she knows to NEVER drink from those. One can only hope this water line isn’t tied to the irrigation system and that it’s reclaimed water/non-potable.
And yes @Surfref you are right about everything you stated.
 

Attachments

  • A9CEF4E5-795D-4F5D-85E9-BCCBBB573E9E.jpeg
    A9CEF4E5-795D-4F5D-85E9-BCCBBB573E9E.jpeg
    87.4 KB · Views: 77
Let’s add to the mix the hydration stations. My kid doesn’t use these but as we were leaving the complex after our first game this morning we saw this crew refilling the big orange Gatorade coolers from a hose and spigot in the dirt field near the pay booth entrance. Now she knows to NEVER drink from those. One can only hope this water line isn’t tied to the irrigation system and that it’s reclaimed water/non-potable.
And yes @Surfref you are right about everything you stated.
And if it's not reclaimed water (most likely) it's the same water all the kids filled up their water bottles with at home.
 
The Manchester City tournament at the Polo Fields was a hot mess today. It sure seemed like someone other than Surf Cup Sports was running things. It was a disorganized mess. Entrance to the facility and parking was nothing short of an absolute disaster. By 10am it was taking approximately 45 minutes to get from the turnoff into the facility to a parking space. Absolutely no traffic control or anyone to direct you to parking. There were numerous players and parents that got out of their car because it was faster to walk. Porta potties were only in the parking lot so if you were on a field on the south side of the complex it was a hike just to go to the bathroom. Delayed game start after halftime waiting for players to return from the bathroom and the long lines. The new entry way onto the fields would be nice except for the prison like fence around it that blocked easy access to food vendors and made for a big detour to get from the west fields to the east fields. Several other problems including a lack of trash cans. Hopefully Surf Cup Sports fixes things for Sunday. I also hope the weatherman is wrong and it doesn’t rain. That dirt parking lot become a mud pit when it rains.
Yes Morty, about Fu$k/ng time!
Totally agree a complete disaster.
 
There’s always Cerritos. And there’s a 60% chance you will play a team with some form of Slammers in their name.
 
this morning we saw this crew refilling the big orange Gatorade coolers from a hose and spigot in the dirt field.... One can only hope this water line isn’t tied to the irrigation system and that it’s reclaimed water/non-potable.
And yes @Surfref you are right about everything you stated.

Yikes.
 
Going from 4 lanes for the parking ticket booths into 1 lane is the worse bottleneck ever. My DD has only 1 game on Saturday so when we were leaving before noon, the line was all the way out to the street. Just looking at the frustration on all the faces in line was just plain sad. Unbelievable. Her 1st game is at noon on Sunday so I’ll try to get into the line no later than 9:30 which is pretty sad, but I gotta do what I gotta do.
 
And if it's not reclaimed water (most likely) it's the same water all the kids filled up their water bottles with at home.
I don’t know about you but I normally don’t make it a habit of telling my kids to go outside and fill their water bottles with the hose. Much less a hose that’s laying out in a farm pasture.
And in this case it’s all about public perception. Maybe had we not known it wouldn’t matter. But we do know now. So unless you are absolutely dying of thirst would you be out taking a sip off that hose?
I know I wouldn’t.
 
I don’t know about you but I normally don’t make it a habit of telling my kids to go outside and fill their water bottles with the hose. Much less a hose that’s laying out in a farm pasture.
And in this case it’s all about public perception. Maybe had we not known it wouldn’t matter. But we do know now. So unless you are absolutely dying of thirst would you be out taking a sip off that hose?
I know I wouldn’t.

I will leave to your imagination the way that the stuff in a farm pasture outside the hose gets inside it.
 
Just two weeks before the tournament the organizers shifted the boys youngers (7v7 and 9v9) from Oceanside to Del Mar. Aside from creating last minute logistical problems with hotel plans and drive times, squeezing more small 9v9 and 7v7 fields onto the Polo Fields strained that facility’s capacity as can be seen with the parking shit show. I’ve been to enough events at Del Mar to know it can be done right. But this time terrible planning and obviously all they care about is maximizing teams and profit vs. making a quality tournament experience. And don’t even get me started on the long hikes to the portapotties and then the long lines! I’m hoping our club won’t be back.
 
This is Surf Cup Sports who also does Surf Cup. So how can you bag on Manchester but not Surf Cup? I bet they will see these posts and it will not happen again but not sure why they just could not follow last year’s Plan? Seems like the easiest thing they could have done.

Was Oceanside for the boys better?
 
This is Surf Cup Sports who also does Surf Cup. So how can you bag on Manchester but not Surf Cup? I bet they will see these posts and it will not happen again but not sure why they just could not follow last year’s Plan? Seems like the easiest thing they could have done.

Was Oceanside for the boys better?

I have been to many surf cups and man city tournaments at both Oceanside and Del Mar and they usually stand out for being very well run events. Last year our boys were at Del Mar for man city and Oceanside for surf cup and both were fine. Don’t know what happened this time. They can only follow last year’s plan if they have the same number of teams/games/fields so maybe they grew the tournament too much?
 
This is Surf Cup Sports who also does Surf Cup. So how can you bag on Manchester but not Surf Cup? I bet they will see these posts and it will not happen again but not sure why they just could not follow last year’s Plan? Seems like the easiest thing they could have done.

Was Oceanside for the boys better?

Oceanside was a breeze according to my wife ( son is playing in that B05 Super Group ).
 
Damn! That’s the problem with Silverlakes this weekend! They were routing us through the Polo Fields!

I recall last year (maybe the same tourney) where we were dropping our kids off at 6th street and Hamner to walk the last mile to the fields because it was backed up so bad.
Wasn’t quite that bad this year, only 20-25 minutes to get down the “choke point of death” to pay $10 to park. Exiting on the other hand was a joke. 40 minutes to get out of the complex.
 
I don’t know about you but I normally don’t make it a habit of telling my kids to go outside and fill their water bottles with the hose. Much less a hose that’s laying out in a farm pasture.
And in this case it’s all about public perception. Maybe had we not known it wouldn’t matter. But we do know now. So unless you are absolutely dying of thirst would you be out taking a sip off that hose?
I know I wouldn’t.
I see valid points on both sides of this debate (though I'd rather not have my daughter drinking hose water...which BTW is the name of a certain craft lager beer. BUT, I think since families are paying an exorbitant fee to be included in this tournament their players should be drinking filtered water at least. It doesn't have to be Evian or Smart Water, but it probably shouldn't be hose water either
 
Getting in here was a breeze today. Left the house extra early in anticipation of long lines to get in. Ended up getting here 90mins earlier than the standard “1hr early”. Parking lot was in good condition too which is always a plus.
 
WATER UPDATE:
One of the local parents I was talking to said that the "Gatorade Hydration-Device" is actually well-water and that it probably tastes better than tap water. I guess I'll cancel that call to Erin Brockovich. ;)
 
I see valid points on both sides of this debate (though I'd rather not have my daughter drinking hose water...which BTW is the name of a certain craft lager beer. BUT, I think since families are paying an exorbitant fee to be included in this tournament their players should be drinking filtered water at least. It doesn't have to be Evian or Smart Water, but it probably shouldn't be hose water either

They use hose water at Oceanside, but it is not in plain sight from a hose coming out of the dirt.
 
Back
Top