CASE 4.1
Manchester United Soccer Club
Nicolette Larson was loading the dishwasher with her husband,Kevin, and telling him about the first meeting of the ManchesterUnited Tournament Organizing Committee. Nicolette, a self-confessed“soccer mom,” had been elected tournament director and wasresponsible for organizing the club’s first summer tournament.
Manchester United Soccer Club (MUSC), located in Manchester, NewHampshire, was formed in 1992 as a way of bringing recreationalplayers to a higher level of competition and preparing them for theState Olympic Development Program and/or high school teams. Theclub currently has 24 boys and girls (ranging in age from under 9to 16) on teams affiliated with the New Hampshire SoccerAssociation and the Granite State Girls Soccer League. The club’sboard of directors decided in the fall to sponsor a summerinvitational soccer tournament to generate revenue. Given the boomin youth soccer, hosting summer tournaments has become a popularmethod for raising funds. MUSC teams regularly compete in three tofour tournaments each summer at different locales in New England.These tournaments have been reported to generate between $50,000and $70,000 for the host club.
MUSC needs additional revenue to refurbish and expand the numberof soccer fields at the Rock Rimmon soccer complex. Funds wouldalso be used to augment the club’s scholarship program, whichprovides financial aid to players who cannot afford the $450 annualclub dues.
Nicolette gave her husband a blow-by-blow account of whattranspired during the first tournament committee meeting thatnight. She started the meeting by having everyone introducethemselves and by proclaiming how excited she was that the club wasgoing to sponsor its own tournament. She then suggested that thecommittee brainstorm what needed to be done to pull off the event;she would record their ideas on a flipchart.
What emerged was a free-for-all of ideas and suggestions. Onemember immediately stressed the importance of having qualifiedreferees and spent several minutes describing in detail how hisson’s team was robbed in a poorly officiated championship game.This was followed by other stories of injustice on the soccerfield. Another member suggested that they needed to quickly contactthe local colleges to see if they could use their fields. Thecommittee spent more than 30 minutes talking about how they shouldscreen teams and how much they should charge as an entry fee. Anargument broke out over whether they should reward the winningteams in each age bracket with medals or trophies. Many membersfelt that medals were too cheap, while others thought the trophieswould be too expensive. Someone suggested that they seek local Page126corporate sponsors to help fund the tournament. The proposedsale of tournament T-shirts and sweatshirts was followed by ageneral critique of the different shirts parents had acquired atdifferent tournaments. One member advocated that they recruit anartist he knew to develop a unique silk-screen design for thetournament. The meeting adjourned 30 minutes late with only half ofthe members remaining until the end. Nicolette drove home withseven sheets of ideas and a headache.
As Kevin poured a glass of water for the two aspirin Nicolettewas about to take, he tried to comfort her by saying thatorganizing this tournament would be a big project not unlike theprojects he worked on at his engineering and design firm. Heoffered to sit down with her the next night and help her plan theproject. He suggested that the first thing they needed to do was todevelop a WBS for the project.
Questions:
1. Make a list of the major deliverables for the project and usethem to develop a draft of the work breakdown structure for thetournament that contains at least three levels of detail. What arethe major deliverables associated with hosting an event such as asoccer tournament?
2. How would developing a WBS alleviate some of the problemsthat occurred during the first meeting and help Nicolette organizeand plan the project?
3. Where can Nicolette find additional information to help herdevelop a WBS for the tournament?
4. How could Nicolette and her task force use the WBS togenerate cost estimates for the tournament? Why would this beuseful information?
