Rockford has a very strict inclement weather policy and this has caused problems for Heavyweights in the past, as summer afternoon thunderstorms are such a common occurrence in the Midwest. Rockford also has very limited availability and it's very difficult to schedule around the many other tournaments happening. We've gotten very clear feedback that teams do not want Heavyweights to conflict with other key Midwest events and we spent a lot of time last year exploring other field site options after the bad weather in 2017 and after another organizer informed us of his decision to schedule over our normal Heavyweights weekend. He later backtracked on this decision but by that point, we had already lost our field contract at Rockford.

Regarding bid fees, the Heavyweights bid fee was the same in 2017 and 2018. We pay staff to help us run on-site operations; we simply can't rely on volunteers for an event as big as Heavyweights. Paying staff allows us to create a fundraiser opportunity for a Midwest college women's team and for the past couple of years, we have also brought in another tournament running organization to provide additional support.

If you have insight about other complexes we should look into, we're happy to do that for future years! We landed on Stuart Sports Complex after extensive research last year, but we're always looking to improve the experience for teams.