Beer Pong Tournament League, Research Paper Example

Executive Summary

The recent financial pitfalls and structural limitations of the club have led to a decline in membership and ultimately a decline in membership dues. If a creative an innovative approach to this problem is not taken, it could result in closing the club. Recently, there has been a high demand for the establishment of a beer pong event in response the success of the last one. The core incentive offered by a member’s only club is the ability to network among fellow power players. In addition to being competitive, members of these clubs tend also to be highly effective at garnering the necessary resources and ideal people together who have common goals to accomplish dynamic feats. This would not be possible without the social structure provided by the club itself. Ironically though, the exclusivity, and often invite only policy, of these clubs limits them from reaching their true potential. This proposal will demonstrate how utilizing beer pong as a competitive sport offers a diverse set of opportunities to tap into the competitive nature of members, increase comradery among members and non-members of competitor clubs, and expand the reach of the club into the community to access a wider candidate pool for new membership.

Research Overview

Beer Pong, also known as Beirut is a social drinking game, in which players attempt to toss ping pong balls across a table to try and land one in a cup full of beer. The game consists of two to four players, and while there are no official rules, there are many small business startups, as well as big named brands looking to cash in on the growing practice of this sport. In his book on business, “Group genius: the creative power of collaboration,” Keith Sawyer addresses all of the companies getting involved in the beer pong industry, he say, “Anheuser-Busch isn’t the only company trying to make money from this emergent phenomenon; Urban Outfitters carries a beer pong kit called Bombed. A company called Bing Bong sells a portable folding table that’s narrower than a Ping-Pong table but still the right length (Sawyer, 2007).” The opportunity to earn substantially in this market is unquestionable due to the long honored tradition the game has built for itself on college campuses over the past 60 years.

Beer Pong is big business. Since its origin in Dartmouth College in 1950, it’s grown in popularity on college campuses to such an extent that it’s becoming an official bona fide sport with its own World Cup. As Keith Sawyer notes, “The 2006 World Beer Cup Tournament in Nevada drew more than one hundred players from California to New York. And like modded video games or YouTube videos, there are as many versions of beer pong as there are fraternities (Sawyer, 2007).” The growing craze surrounding beer pong as a professional sport is turning into a major market for startups.

In an ABC News article titled “Drinking Your Way to Financial Success,” reporter Scott Mayerowitz chronicled the success of Bing Bong, a Philadelphia based beer pong table manufacturer. The story covered the rise of Tom Schmidt and Matt Brady, who came up with the idea of designing a regulation beer pong table that can be folded into the size of a briefcase. The table which they referred to as a “great social lubricant,” has found the massive financial success, as Mayerowitz notes, “they have sold more than 10,000 tables at $69 to $120 apiece, depending on the model — enough to make Bing Bong a full-time gig for both of them (Mayerowitz, 2007).” These guys are just one example of how people are capitalizing on the love of this rapidly growing sport. A small Arizona company just outside Arizona University called Brewing Rivalry has established a beer pong merchandise store, with daily competitions, but the key difference is that they use cups with water or underage members to play. This is a perfect example of how the market space is expanding beyond the college level (Quizon, 2009).

Project Scope

There are three approaches that can be taken to establishing a successful beer pong mini-league that can capitalize on multiple revenue streams within this market space. One approach is the create league that is solely open to members of the club; the other would be to open it up to all member’s only clubs nationwide with all of the clubs competing against one another for the public’s entertainment, and finally to run a mini-league open to the community for public citizens to compete against club members.

There are numerous benefits to each model as well as a wide range of limitations. Creating a mini-league specifically among club members and then inviting the public to attend the matches could be effective in drawing the attention of potential new members, but it could be of a greater cost to the club than a financial benefit as outsiders would be less likely to attend these events without incentive. On the other hand, if non-members in the community are allowed to compete as well, they would be more likely to pay an entry fee and invite friends and family, who might pay for tickets. Creating a league specifically among members only clubs, has its own unique set of added benefits. In many cases, members of differing prestigious clubs rarely encounter one another, and in other cases they may have known each other all their lives. It is a common trend of human nature that competitors develop respect for one another and in many cases can become good friends. For the club members who may be isolated from potential networking opportunities, establishing a mini-beer pong league specifically among members only clubs expands the exclusive social reach of all of the respective clubs involved.

There are numerous avenues through which this business model can be monetized. The most obvious is for members to pay for participation in the league, but outside of that there are concession costs for spectators, such as tickets food and beverage and party favors. Likewise, there can also be an opportunity for merchandising, such as team uniforms, either kept within the limits of the club or sold externally as well depending on the expected growth of the project.

Conclusion

In sum, starting a beer pong min–league is the most immediate way the club can capitalize off the competitive nature of its members, while encouraging social engagement. The entire purpose of a members only club is to establish a community of select like minds and allow them to build long lasting bonds. Creating a beer pong mini-league puts this goal into hyper-drive. Likewise, a Beer pong league is a very subtle effective way to engage the community surrounding the club. Most importantly, as research shows, while orally difficult to promote beer pong as a business model is thriving in many diverging markets, specifically the college, party, and club arenas.

Work Cited

Mayerowitz, S. (2007, September 21). Drinking your way to financial success. ABC News Business Unit, Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=3629340&page=1

Quizon, D. (2009, october 2). Business brews beer pong bonanza. Statepress.com, Retrieved from http://www.statepress.com/archive/node/8016

Sawyer, Keith. ( 2007). Group genius: the creative power of collaboration. [Books24x7 version] Available from http://common.books24x7.com/toc.aspx?bookid=22631.