Saskatoon Minor Hockey Association (SMHA) uses TeamLinkt to run online registration for the over 7000 athletes & families who participate each season. They also use TeamLinkt’s all-in-one platform to build game and practice schedules for every team, manage their league website, and communicate with all their members.
By switching from Goalline, SMHA reduced their annual credit card processing fees paid by 24% and software platform fees by thousands to 0$.
About SMHA
The Saskatoon Minor Hockey Association (SMHA) offers a variety of hockey programs for children and youth from five to 17 years of age. The SMHA consists of six geographic hockey zones across Saskatoon which are used for player registration and team competition.
The six zones are: Saskatoon Aces, Saskatoon Bobcats, Saskatoon Flyers, Saskatoon Redwings, Saskatoon Renegades and Saskatoon Wild. The SMHA also has two city-wide hockey zones – the Saskatoon & District Female Comets for female hockey programs and Saskatoon AA Hockey for U13 AA, U15 AA and U18 AA programs. There are also four associations that play in the city in Clavet Minor Hockey, Delisle Minor Hockey, Martensville Minor Hockey and Warman Minor Hockey.
Running a seamless online registration for 7000 athletes
Registering 7000 athletes across 6 zones is no easy task but by partnering with TeamLinkt, SMHA was able to streamline the entire process for registering athletes, coaches, volunteers, and officials.
To kick off the registration system transition, TeamLinkt staff hosted an online meeting with each zone & SMHA board members. From there registration forms were finalized and launched. TeamLinkt allowed SMHA the flexibility and customization options to collect all of the info required for each registrant. TeamLinkt also made sure that each SMHA board member was fully trained in the platform ensuring a smooth transition from their previous provider.
Because the TeamLinkt sports registration software is fully customizable and flexible to each organization’s needs, SMHA was able to go live in a short period of time and with little stress.
In addition to the countless hours that were saved just during the registration process, each SMHA zone reduced their credit card processing fees by 24% per season by switching from their previous provider, Goalline.
TeamLinkt’s registration rates start as low as 2.7% +$.30, one of the lowest processing rates on the market.
“With the rising cost of sports, families are going to have to reduce the number of sports their children play in a given year. As league organizers, it’s crucial to ensure that we aim to keep registration costs as low as we can. By partnering with TeamLinkt, we can keep our processing rates and platform fees as low as possible so that we can keep more money in the wallets of families and continue to grow the game of hockey “
Simplifying communication during the season with the team management app
For an organization the size of SMHA with 7000 athletes and their families, finding a way to simplify communication is essential. The TeamLinkt Team Management App was the perfect fit to solve SMHA’s communication problems.
After registration, each player was placed on a team within the TeamLinkt mobile app. From there, SMHA and each zone was able to send messages to all, or a selected number of teams with just a couple of clicks. As messages were sent, they were delivered as an email and a push notification right to the user’s phone. This also included real time mobile updates about schedule changes and other critical communications.
The app facilitated seamless communication and coordination for every team. Using the team chat feature, members can exchange messages with each other. Additionally, they can set their attendance for each game and practice, share photos and videos, receive real-time updates during games, and access gameday matchups, scores, and standings. This streamlined approach ultimately enhanced the overall experience for teams throughout the season.
“The TeamLinkt Team Management App gives every team and every player a simple and fast method of information and contact for their team games. It also allows the league and team a central simple place to manage seasons, games, and rosters. If the league needs to push out a message due to game cancellation or venue change it can be done quickly, and helps give multiple options to ensure players are updated.”
All 12 zones get setup with their own hockey website to run registration from and keep schedules, stats, scores, and standings
Once the SMHA board decided to move operations over to TeamLinkt, all 8 zones and 4 rural associations began the setup process.
This included transferring their old websites over to their new TeamLinkt League Website. To help ensure a smooth transition from their previous provider, TeamLinkt staff assisted with the initial website design and transition of content.
Once the websites were set up, registration forms were automatically available on each site, and any schedule posted by SMHA applied to the zones’ websites. The scheduler for SMHA made one schedule that passed down to all the zones in real time, saving every zone a significant amount of scheduling time.
Also, because SMHA is set up as a “governing body”, they can post news articles onto each of the zones’ websites as well.
SMHA scheduler saved 340 hours per season using TeamLinkt’s sports schedule builder to create game and practice schedules
Before TeamLinkt, SMHA was going one by one entering their games from a paper binder to goalline.
This was a huge task considering they had to schedule 484 teams across 23 rinks in Saskatoon—9,300 games and practices scheduled each season. Previously, this process took the scheduler 5-10 hours a week, and when games had to be rescheduled, changes had to be made in the binder and then manually on the Goalline website.
Now, all games and practices were built in TeamLinkt’s Schedule Builder (for games) and Practice Schedule Builder (for practices). The builders offer an easy drag and drop editor, as well as functionality to auto-fill games and practices based on the availability set for each arena. In addition, any changes made to the schedule can be done with just a couple of clicks, and are accompanied by a push notification to each team.
Growing with TeamLinkt
Switching to TeamLinkt proved to be a successful move for SMHA. With the help of the platform, the organization was able to:
- Streamline its registration process for over 7,000 athletes across 12 zones, saving 340 hours each season and reducing credit card processing fees by 24%.
- Invest in the growth of their league rather than paying for platform fees or costly registration rates that other sports managment software companies charge.
- Simplify communication during the season and improve the overral experience for teams with the Team Management App.
If you’re interested in learning more about the TeamLinkt registration platform or mobile app, use the link below to book a meeting with the sales team.
Looking to save time and reduce your fees next season?
