In this special announcement episode of In The Club our company founder Nikki speaks with The Blackpool Cup director Gavin McIntyre about partnering with ClassForKids for the forthcoming 2024 tournaments.
With over 30 years of history and hundreds of youth teams participating every year, the Blackpool Cup is not just about the thrill of the game, but also about instilling life skills and fostering team spirit among the young players.
Gavin opens up about his personal experiences, having been a part of the tournament from a young age, and shares how the competition has grown, and continues to grow, under the banner of Euro Sporting.
In this special announcement episode of In The Club our company founder Nikki speaks with The Blackpool Cup director Gavin McIntyre about partnering with ClassForKids for the forthcoming 2024 tournaments.
With over 30 years of history and hundreds of youth teams participating every year, the Blackpool Cup is not just about the thrill of the game, but also about instilling life skills and fostering team spirit among the young players.
Gavin opens up about his personal experiences, having been a part of the tournament from a young age, and shares how the competition has grown, and continues to grow, under the banner of Euro Sporting.
Hi everyone, nicky here, founder of Class for Kids, and I'm delighted that we're joined by Gavin, who is the Tournament Director of the Blackpool Cup, representing Euro Sporting. And again, I'm terrible at getting Sporting right, but there's a bit of history there with where it's come from.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, well, we've got an extra R in it, and I'm not sure exactly where it comes from, but it's a Dutch thing. So, but yeah, it's Euro Sporting.
Speaker 1:
Excellent, okay, and look, class for Kids are very proud this year to be one of the main sponsors of the Blackpool Cup, which we'll go into a wee bit more about, hopefully, what we're going to get involved and what we're going to bring. But what I thought would be great, while we've got you here, gavin, is just to find out a wee bit more about the Blackpool Cup and also the history behind it, because it's been going for a few years now, isn't it?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, absolutely. First of all, thanks for having us. We're delighted to have Class for Kids as one of our main partners and we're really excited about some of the activation that we're going to have as well, and we see that Class for Kids as a partner has got great synergy with the Tournament as well, and so we're delighted first of all. So thanks for your support and, yeah, the Tournament itself has been running for 30 years this year coming, so it's a big celebration year for us. We're looking forward to that and it has been in the footballing calendar for such a long time. We have coaches nowadays that come and say when they were younger, they came down and played in the Blackpool Cup as a kid and now they're bringing their kids along to participate in it. So, yeah, and we've really grown over the last sort of five years since we joined with Eurosporting, and we have over 360 teams participate over the two weekends now, so it's a massive event over two weekends in Blackpool.
Speaker 1:
And it's a great story because you talked about coaches who played similar to yourself. You've also played, but you've actually been involved and actually there's some family connections there that have been involved in running the Blackpool Cup now for over those 30 years.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, absolutely. We played into myself when I was younger and also we family members established the Tournament and I took over at some point and then, as it's grown, sort of gone full time with Eurosporting. Because of the size of the event now and the number of people that attend it, yeah, so it's got a real sort of sentimental value to me, as well as being something that I do full time as a job.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and I mean so, look, I have suddenly I know a lot about the Blackpool Cup, obviously now with class for our kids, but I'm a football coach myself. I've got a team the 2013s football guy football club team that I coach and we're now hopefully going to be entering into it and so talk me through or let everyone know exactly if people didn't know about it, because you know, as I say, I've just found out about it really last year, but it's a big event and you've got how many teams are usually going and what age range do you have those sort of teams?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I mean we have age groups from under 7s through to under 17s. We have boys and girls and, as I say, 360 teams last year. We're hoping to get over 400 teams this year, for 2024. But it's an amazing experience for a youth team to go away for you know, it's like there are many sort of European championships or World Cup, so a lot of the teams 90% are travelling to Blackpool and they stay in accommodation so they get to spend time together as a team, and we've found that it's not just really about, you know, going away and playing in the competition. You know there's lots of life skills that they can learn. You know being part of a team, communication, winning and losing is part of it as well, so it's not just about going away to Blackpool for a weekend. There's lots of things that you know add value to the team themselves and, you know, teach individual players that participates.
Speaker 1:
Many tips for me because I'm thinking already the bus down with all the kids could be chaos. Can I ship them down early and then come later?
Speaker 2:
That would be ideal if it could, but unfortunately no, you have to be with them. One thing I'd say is we tend to get a lot of parents coming along as well. So from the team manager's point of view, the more parents and extra helpers there is better just to keep an eye, but sometimes it's the parents that side of the pitch we have to keep an eye on more than the kids.
Speaker 1:
Some of the football matches there as well.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely, and we have a great programme around the football. So the tournament's certainly a massive part of it. But there's lots going on in Blackpool itself and we also have a big event programme round about the tournament, with an opening ceremony on the Friday night and we do official sort of respect ceremony on the Sunday after each team's game. So there's lots going on as well as them participating in a football tournament.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and you must. I'm guessing over the years you have so many teams that will come year after year, but also a lot of teams that probably for the first time last year, for example, that was it there for their first time. What would you say to people who have never participated they may be like myself. I've got a team in grass roots football right now playing every week. What would you say to them in terms of the reasons and the benefits that actually this is the year maybe to just do that extra mile? And also, how do you because I'm guessing there's costs there to it. So I know there's ways that a lot of teams will maybe fund raise as well. What are you seeing as the ways that people, teams, get involved and the benefits that would bring them?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, sure, I think the key thing is to try and start early.
Speaker 2:
So September, as the season starts, is a good time to sort of plan it and get commitment from parents and then you've got a sort of full season to fund raise, do events to sort of go towards the costs of it, but get as many sort of parents involved as you can. It's always quite difficult, I know, but if you have a separate committee set up that's just fundraising for an event or going on tour, then it certainly takes the pressure off because coaches, they've pretty much got a full-time second job, coaching two or three times a week in games at the weekend. So you really need to have that support from extra parents or committee members to sort of look after the fundraising side of things and start early. The earlier you start, the more chance you've got to do fundraising events and collecting money in. And the way that we split our payment schedule up we split it up into two 25% payments, so we're not looking for the full 100% payment straight away, two 25% payments and then 50% after sort of Christmas time. So make it manageable for people.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, to make it manageable for people.
Speaker 2:
So, and we've found that if you do start early, you do have a committee, then it does certainly make it easier for the coaches or the managers that are taking on the responsibility.
Speaker 1:
Brilliant, no, brilliant, brilliant, good tips again. So class for kids. We're going to be one of the main sponsors there, which, you know very excited, you know, to be part of it. Such a big tournament, you know, biggest in Europe I think you were saying about the 65 that EuroSport drink are involved in so really excited to be doing that. And I guess attracting sponsors and getting people involved, you know, is a big part of actually putting the event on itself, isn't it, you know? So we're hoping that class for kids can add to that. We're certainly going to come down with our film crew our expertise to support you.
Speaker 1:
But, you know, is that the sort of areas that you constantly look every year to try and get to be able to support the Blackpool Cup as well.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think, from our point of view, one of our strap lines, if you like, is to create memories that will last a lifetime and in order to do that, we want to add value. Every year we want to try and add something extra. So, you know, the opening ceremony was a massive thing that we started just three years ago and it's become a sort of mini event in itself and you know some of the activations that we'll talk about. I'm sure in the months to come that we're going to do with class for kids, we'll add some extra value as well, because we want to do that, we want to be something that is experiential and people feel that they've got some real good value from, and having you guys on board and other sponsors allows us to give that extra value back to the the participants. So we're really excited about what we can do and what added value we can give to participating teams.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, no, brilliant, brilliant. And likewise I think we've been so impressed with the setup and you know right from your ceremony at the start, but just everything that's going on around the tournament and the organisation. I'm guessing there's a few sleepless nights as it's coming up to the tournament for you, yeah, no absolutely.
Speaker 2:
I think just usually just after Christmas, sort of the new year, that's when I sleep maybe four or five years a day, but it's worth it.
Speaker 2:
Particularly, we do like an amazing closing ceremony for each team and respect ceremony, and that's probably my favourite time of the event because every team, regardless where they finish in the competition, they can come to a sort of which will be our class for kids hub and we have a main sort of respect ceremony stage set up there and they get their UF respect medals, sort of participant medals that they get presented with and we do country flag, national anthem and yeah, but it's honestly from kids that are seven right up to the, the older age groups of 17. It's the sort of five minutes of fame and it's a great photo opportunity for the parents. But it's creating that last long sort of lifelong memory and the. You know the amount of comments we get afterwards with people saying, oh, you know, you made my son feel like he was a professional. You know, you made them feel so special and and that is the. That's when those sleepless nights are worth it definitely to get that kind of reaction and you see them on the stage.
Speaker 2:
They're absolutely loving it.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, listen, look, we are delighted to be part of it this year, really looking forward to supporting it and, and you know, just can't wait to to get stuck in with the, the organisation, and hopefully make some of those sleepless nights a bit less for you if we can take a bit of the burden and so on, I'll take that anything.
Speaker 1:
So, yeah, listen, look great to have you here in the class for kids studio. It's been brilliant chat, catching up with you and, yeah, we'll see you. We'll see you at the Blackpool Cup. Broke necky, thanks. Broke cheers, guys, thanks.