Tournament participation presents a valuable opportunity to connect and engage with families when the spirit and excitement of Little League® is at its highest. By implementing effective pre-registration strategies during the tournament experience, leagues can build early momentum and set the stage for a successful next season.
To help share some best practices straight from the grassroots level, Little League sat down with volunteers from a trio of leagues across the nation for a Local League Spotlight – a series of content created each month to help other leagues learn straight from each other’s success stories – to showcase ways they make the preregistration process a positive one while also capitalizing on their tournament participation.
West Side LL (Hamilton, Ohio)
Keeping Fees Affordable: “What a lot of people don’t know is that a player in our league is not paying the full registration cost, and if they register early, they are paying even less. As a league, we are able to eat the difference through donations, fundraisers, and our incredible sponsors. One of our biggest mottos is that everyone deserves the right to play Little League, and we know how hard the families are working in our community to be able to be a part of our program. If we can help just a little bit and make our fees less daunting, it makes all the difference.”
Piggybacking on Success: “When we made it to the Little League Baseball® World Series in 2021, that was the first opportunity for our families to see our program compete at the national level and showcase the type of experience they can receive if they were to join our program. When you have that type of success, regardless of winning or losing, you need to capitalize on it. Over the last few years, whenever we were advertising, we always talked about our previous successes. We have our social media team posting about us winning states or regions, just to get awareness and excitement out there. I think it’s a good tactic to capitalize on, and I encourage every league to always promote and be proud of what they accomplish, even if it is not on the biggest stage in youth sports.”
El Segundo (Calif.) LL
Deadlines Aren’t Optional: “We treat our pre-registration like a deadline, not a suggestion. We hold the same window every year, so families know it’s coming and are able to plan around it. When we are advertising, we hit parents and guardians from every angle — from emails, to social media, to flyers at the fields. Honestly, the most effective strategy is our coaches and board members talking it up in person during the current season. Additionally, to build excitement around the season, we offer an early window for returning families as a reward for coming back.”
All-Stars is an Advantage: “All-Star season does more marketing for us than anything we could pay for. Kids that are making All-Star teams get talked about in the neighborhood, at school, at the fields, everywhere. Those types of conversations are free visibility that we don’t get any other time of year. We also make it a priority for these individuals to be publicly recognized when the season ends because we’ve learned that people want to be part of something that positively impacts the community.”
Braintree American (Mass.) LL
Making the Process Simple: “When it comes to pre-registration, we let our families know when they can sign up as soon as possible. We send a school flyer, promote on social media, and really use word of mouth to get our messaging across. However, we also use SportsConnect and limit the number of custom questions we have on it. No family wants to be sitting at a computer for a long time struggling to sign up, especially if they are a bigger family. My biggest piece of advice is to keep it simple and keep your messaging precise.”
Invest in Everyone: “I think our approach is a little different than most leagues when it comes to growing our league after tournament season. The first thing we do is spotlight all of our teams on social media during that time of year. It doesn’t matter if a player is on one of our A-teams, B-teams, or Tee-Ball teams; our players will be spotlighted so we can keep every member of the community engaged. Additionally, it is not just what we are doing during tournament season that helps us as a league, but it is what we are doing in the off-season. Every year, our league hosts Sandlot days, so it keeps the exciting momentum we’ve built all the way until the spring season.”