The Big Tournament 2007

Thank you for checking out The Big Tournament 2007, WCW's first charity event!

One of our purposes for existing has always been to try and give back to both the community, and the great city of Chicago that we live in. After many months of work we are ready to try something pretty big!

When: Sunday August 12th 2007

Where: Foster Field, at Lake Shore Drive and Foster Ave

Time: To Be Announced

What: WCW's first inter-club CHARITY tournament, exclusively for WCW members

Information:

For our first official charity event, we have chosen to benefit a truly great organization: Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Chicago.




"Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago has been serving Cook County since 1967, and is one of 500 agencies nationwide striving to aid in the positive development of our youth. Nearly 700 volunteers remain the backbone of our program by serving as friends, mentors, and role models; all to help children build self-confidence."

"Through partnership with our team of volunteers, it is our goal to provide support as mentors and youth create and maintain valuable relationships. Our volunteers' spirit and energy motivates us to meet a growing need for positive role models as we continue to expand our reach to children who need us most."

Founder of WCW, Matt Rosine, is a current Big Brother and has been part of the program since early 2006. "Big Brothers Big Sisters is a truly great organization. I have seen first hand the strides that young people can make when they have someone in their lives who can positively reinforce them, and help build many skills like self confidence, responsibility and goal setting. By aligning ourselves with this organization, we can make a quick, direct impact on the lives of many Chicago children."





Another key player in this event is the Chicago Fire. Together, WCW and the Chicago Fire hope to make the tournament an incredible success. Not only are the Fire partnering with WCW on many levels and providing several exciting aspects to the tournament, but they will also be making their own considerable donation to Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Pat McNamara of the Chicago Fire had this to say; "Working with Chicago's premier pickup soccer club on something like this really is a no brainer. WCW is doing a great job of spreading the word of soccer throughout Chicago, and that is something we believe in very strongly here at the Chicago Fire! Also, we all know what a worthy organization Big Brothers Big Sisters is, so we thought that if we could help make this event into something extraordinary, we would do all we can. The Chicago Fire and Fireworks for Kids Foundation hope to help WCW raise anywhere from $10k for $15k to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters at this event. If we can do this, it would be a great achievement for everyone involved!"

For information on sponsoring this great event, please see here.



So, what better way to raise money for a great cause than doing what we know how to do best, which is play soccer!

Now for the really exciting part - what will The Big Tournament day consist of?

• There will be a group stage, and knock out games. Every team will get to play at least three times!
  
• Guest appearances by two Chicago Fire players (plus Sparky, the Chicago Fire mascot!
  
• The cost per player is $50, or $400 per team. For that cost, each player will get all of this:
  
  
  
  • A ticket worth $20 to see the Chicago Fire vs. Kansas City on August 25th. (We'll all be sitting together in one section of Toyota Park, and will make a great day out!)
    
  • A Big Tournament t-shirt PLUS an official Chicago Fire t-shirt (everyone loves t-shirts right?!)
    
  • A catered lunch AND a souvenir water bottle
    
  • Entry to the MLS and Chicago Fire sideline soccer skills clinic, aimed at beginner players
    
  
  Here is the most exciting part:
  
  The winning team will be presented with the trophy during the Fire vs. Kansas City Wizards game, at half time, on the field in front of the whole crowd!
  
  
  Last but not least, 100% of the revenue generated from this event will go to BBBS of Metropolitan Chicago. This means that every donation you make, including the $50 is completely tax deductible!
  
  Also, we acknowledge that $50 is not a small amount of money for a lot of people, so we have put together a sponsorship form for you to print off, and use if you so wish. We believe that if you pass it around to your friends/family/colleagues, you'll get AT LEAST $50 pretty quickly!! You can find the file here in our Files section.
  
  Other information
  
  
  
  
  • We are currently talking to potential sponsors of the tournament. If you think your company might be interested in being involved in this event, please contact Matt Rosine We do have marketing collateral related to this event, and it will be available publicly on this site very shortly.
    
  • We are also offering the opportunity to sponsor an individual team for $500. That price includes 8 t-shirts that the players will wear during the entire event, and will have the sponsors logo on.
    
  • This event is for WCW members only. If you are reading this and are not currently a member of WCW, please contact Matt Rosine for details on how your team could participate. If you are a member of WCW, but you want to involve some people who haven't played with us yet - just get them to register on the site, and have them come along to a few Sundays before the event. We will not allow people to play on the day who have not taken part in at least two WCW Sunday games.
    
  • You can get together your own team of 8 people, or you can just let us know that you want to play, and we'll put you in a team. We will then let everyone know who's in each team so they can communicate and talk tactics!
    
  • The deadline for team submission is August 1st.
    
  • We will be holding a dry run of the tournament the Sunday before, August 5th. We ask that everyone who will be taking part in the real tournament to be there, but it will be a relaxed atmosphere! We will run the tournament as though it will be the week after, but the results will not matter this time! Plus, we will be grilling again!!
    
  
  
  To register for The Big Tournament, and for all team information, please email Tom at tomevans@wcwfc.com
  For general tournament enquiries, including sponsorship information, please email Matt at mattrosine@wcwfc.com