USTHA USTHAHomeAbout UsContact Us
USTHA
NA STIGA RankingOrganization MembershipTournament StatsMultimediaPress CoverageLinksSponsors

USTHA/CTHA North American Stiga Tour

Hello everyone. We've worked since the spring to come up with a more formal sanctioning system. Led by CTHA President Pascal Theriault,

this is what we've come up with. The document was approved by the boards of both organizations. It might look like a lot of new requirements, but it's really not. It's simply putting down on paper what's become the standard practice of the past few years. In fact, most of what's in the document are not requirements, but recommendations. You can download or view a Microsoft word version of the document.

Sanctioning document



Tournament Guidelines (approved July 2011)




North American STIGA Tour

Effective July 1, 2007 for all new events for the next STIGA season.

Here's how to register your event for sanctioning purposes: Every tournament organizer needs to send a request to the CTHA and USTHA by e-mail with the following information about the event:
  • Name of organizers and contact information
  • Name of the event
  • Date of the event
  • Place where the event will be played
  • Web site address with complete info about the event.

    Once the event request is submitted to both associations, all regional directors will discuss the application and a decision will be made with or without suggestions.

    Every tournament that already is on the schedule has priority to keep its date. But if a tournament wants to move their date to another one during the tour year, the organizer needs to send a request to the CTHA and USTHA to make sure the new date does not conflict with another tournament.

    We highly recommend sanctioned table hockey tournaments (Classic or Stiga) should not be scheduled on the same day in order to give players the opportunity to participate in any tournament.

    The USTHA and CTHA strongly suggest a minimum of four weeks between sanctioned tournaments. For events taking place in different geographic regions, we highly recommend a minimum of three weeks so that players have the option of playing in all events.

    Geographic Requirements:

    Tournaments seeking sanctioning cannot be held within a 100-mile (160km) radius of a previously sanctioned event within the same tournament season. If an organizer in a city slightly less than 100 miles (160km) wants to sponsor a new tournament in a separate market (that is, a city with its own TV stations and newspapers), the organizer can apply for special approval by the USTHA and CTHA boards. The intent of this is for new or different tournament organizers, not organizers who already hold a tournament to find another site in a nearby city.

    It is recommended that the event offer players services close to the venue including hotels, restaurants, place to sits, bathrooms, bars and other amenities.

    Sanctioning Fee

    The fee is paid to the USTHA by each tournament equivalent to $1.00 per player entered in that event. For this fee each tournament¡¦s logo and website link will be posted on the USTHA and CTHA web site along with player ratings from the tournament. It also helps cover the costs of maintaining and publishing the North American Stiga Tour Ranking, which is posted on both the USTHA and CTHA sites.


    Money Prizes, Trophy and Gifts

    It is up to the organizers to decide how much of a registration fee they will charge to each participant because each event is different to organize. The CTHA and USTHA recommend that registration fees are kept as low as possible, and we encourage organizers to find sponsors to reduce their event costs as much as possible.

    The CTHA and USTHA recommend that organizer give at least medals to the top 3 players in each group. Depending on budget, trophies, cash prizes and other gifts can be given as well to participants.

    (Note: Money, prizes, trophy and gifts are not a criteria to decide whether an event is sanctioned; they are suggestions only.)

    Tournament Rules

    A tournament has to follow the ITHF table hockey rules that can be found on the ITHF web site at : http://www.ithf.info/stiga/ithf/rules.asp

    We would like to note that minor adjustments are allowed. For example, the number of participants in each group could vary depending on the number of players in the tournament.

    It is up to the organizers to decide how many games are played during the playoffs. We suggest Best-of-5 for the Round of 16, with the rest Best of 7 in each group.

    Statistics

    Tournament organizers need to provide to their national organization a detailed stats document with all the goals in each group and division and playoffs. A final ranking need to be provided as soon as possible to be sent to the ITHF and to update the NA STIGA tour.


    In closing, these sanctioning rules are meant to govern the North American Stiga Tour. If an issue should arise not covered in these rules, the USTHA and CTHA boards will have a discussion and come up with a solution. Thank you for reading them.

    ###
  •