Question about Legacy event entry prices and prize pools

[Isaac1408]

A friend of mine has a store that holds FNM events every week and I'm looking to add Legacy events to his repertoire 1-2 times a month. My main concern isn't if people show up, it's more about prize support. So here I find myself asking everyone has entered a tournament to tell me what was the payout for your legacy tournies (Of about 10-20 players).

He and I are deciding to make it 10 or 15 dollars and deciding how much to pay out to winners. I was thinking 80% of winnings to the top half, but that's a literal shot in the dark. Please drop some knowledge on me!

[atosecond]

Where I play entry is quite cheap £3-£5. Depending on if we need to cover a room and pretty much goes straight into the prize pool (1 booster per entry).

Will be the first to admit it is an unusual system.

[bigwerdz]

I think either amount is fine. Start at 10 and if people want 15 go up. I'd rather pay an extra 5 to enter if it means I score and extra 50+ if I win. Also most shops I've played at have had 100% of entry go to prize support. You already have the store and are getting people in to buy and sell cards. One place I play at has 100% of entries go to prizing, with all places getting store credit except 1st place gets cash. Either way its a win/win for the store since 200 dollars paid out in store credit does not equal 200 dollars in cash.

[Isaac1408]

Well our concern now are the IL laws with cash prizes, it may be seen as a form of gambling. I considered store credit; but the store is primary a hobby shop. It has allstandard set packs and stuff like EDH, modern masters, and general magic things. But, without singles I don't know how people will take to store credit.

[Esper3k]

The store I play at does $10 entry fee with 100% of the pool getting paid back out (usually even split to t4) in store credit.

[ESG]

If this store is paying out in store credit, then it should pay out 100 percent, since the store is making money on all the transactions. If the payout is in cash and the store is just hosting, then it makes sense that the store should take a cut. Maybe 20 percent or 25 percent.

[TheArchitect]

Payout in cash at about 75-90% or credit at 100% of entry fees. Don't give out packs as prizes. Toilet paper is more useful than standard packs to legacy players. If they really want packs, they can use their credit to buy packs.

Base the entrance fee and prize structure off of how competitive you want/expect it to be: High fee and payouts to a small percentage draws a more competitive crowd. Smaller entry and payout to more places draws a more casual/newbie crowd. If there is already a decent legacy scene in your area, the more competitive the better.

[Sloshthedark]

we have ~$4 entry and ~110% store credit (3-1s get ~$12, 4-0s ~$24, attendance does not matter) at 14-22 ppl... I'd gladly pay $10... entry/prices are relatively low, but we also have low purchasing power and LGS is in the center of a large city = no driving distance

[Isaac1408]

Given this is the stores (And my) first time planning an event like this, I'll have to gauge the room and talk around when it comes to entry fee prices. I'm looking for just large numbers of people; regardless of intent to win vs. play. Since the store will be using credit to avoid legal concerns, 100% of the fees is a good idea. My main concern now is the fact the store doesn't sell singles. What kind of things do legacy players like to buy?

[Sloshthedark]

Sleeves... last christmas I burned all of my credit in boardgames, acting as a dealer for my friends

[H]

We've been doing $7 Legacy FNM, play for a box of the newest set, regardless of how many people. So small FNM they may lose a couple dollars, but we usually go bigger and they make money (sometimes, when all the randos come out at once, the store will bump us to 1.5 boxes). When Modern Masters came out, we still played for a box, just made entry fee times people equal cost of the box. Top 4 almost always splits due to time though.

[Esper3k]

Our store allows us to use store credit on anything except tournament entry fees (to prevent people from going infinite) so buying sleeves and cards out of the case are pretty common.

What's particularly cool is that our store gives out store credit in the form of physical currency (plastic chips denominating different amounts) so we also use those to "buy" cards from each other if the store doesn't have a particular card in stock (pretty useful when you're getting Eternal cards). It gets around the whole selling cards in the store thing and keeps money within the store. This also benefits the store since they no longer have to keep track of how much credit each player has stocked up and doesn't have to do the lame "spend your credit immediately now or lose it" policy.

[Quasim0ff]

We have 7.5$ entry fee and we just play for boosters.

There's 3 boosters pr person entering the amount, and we are usually between 10 and 20 people playing, which equals to between 1 and 2 cases usually.

Sleeves are awesome, as long as they are good (kmc or something similar).

[davelin]

This is in Illinois? Where is your store located?

[Isaac1408]

Well when modern masters comes back, I guess that could be a good thing to use store credit on. Sadly this store doesn't have tokens denominating current, just a debit card thing. They get dragon skins normally, but I bet they could switch to KMC for a similar price. The store is called HobbyTown USA in Orland Park, IL if you know anyone interested. As it stands it sounds like 10 dollars with 100% of the fees going to store credit. My store allows you to use credit for more tournies so that might be an incentive since I could play legacy for months on end without losing interest. Mainly because the meta is so diverse compared to the standards I was in.

I'm still gonna ask the people that come what prizes they would like to see; but you guys gave me a ton to think about. Feel free to keep adding what you would like!

[ceustice]

At the shop where I run tournaments we pay out 120% in store credit on entries taken in.($10)