Regional Bid Packet

Program Overview

This document is intended to help tournament organizers prepare all the needed information to submit a successful online bid for the 2025-26 season.

All bid submissions must be made through the USA Fencing online bid portal. Submissions made after the posted deadline will not be considered.

Once bid selections have been made, all regional organizers/tournaments who submitted a bid will be contacted directly. Those awarded will be announced on the USA Fencing website. USA Fencing will accept bids from any Affiliate or Premium Club, division, city or sports commission interested in hosting an SYC, ROC, RJCC, RYC, or RPC. The bid must provide the required information on tournament/organizer history, venue, community, personnel and other considerations. The bid process will be managed by the National Office with the assistance of a support review panel of USA Fencing members. Bids that are submitted online without all required information will be removed from consideration and the organizer will be notified that the bid has been declined. The National Office will make final regional tournament selections. Acceptance of a bid shall result in the formation of a binding contract between the host and USA Fencing to conduct the tournament, and to do so in accordance with the requirements set forth in the Regional Tournament Requirements document and all other applicable published documents.

Bid Allocations

The following chart shows the maximum number of regional circuits that will be awarded for the 2025-2026 season in each region. The National Office and the Tournament Committee came to these numbers in looking at qualification procedures, population density, geographic location and growth and development needs.

If needed, the National Office retains the right to adjust these allocation numbers.

​	SYC​	ROC​	RYC​	RJCC​
Region 1​	2​	5​	6​	5​
Region 2​	2​	5​	8​	11​
Region 3​	3​	5​	13​	14​
Region 4​	3​	5​	13​	14​
Region 5​	2​	5​	6​	8​
Region 6​	2​	5​	12​	12​
Total​	14​	30​	55​	60​

RPC events will not have a maximum allotment for the 2025-2026 season.

Regional Calendar

Fixed Regional Calendar

Starting with the 2025-2026 season and with the approval of the Tournament Committee, the regional calendar will be moving to a fixed calendar. Tournament circuits and dates will be fixed, and organizers will be able to bid on those fixed items accordingly. The fixed regional calendar for the 2025-26 season is below.

To view the fixed regional calendar, click here.

How does bidding on a fixed regional calendar work?

Organizers will submit a bid application for the tournament they would like to run. In the tournament date section, they can choose up to three weekends that they are able to run that tournament on. If the organizer is only able to run the tournament on one weekend, that one weekend should be the only weekend listed. Organizers should not list multiple weekends if they are unable to host that weekend.

After the bid window closes, the Regional Events Manager and the Bid Review Committee will go through and score the bids based on the criteria listed in the Internal Review Form and the Bid Committee Review Form. Each region will be scored by two people from the Review Panel. The average of the two Bid Review Committee Form scores will be added to the score from the Internal Review Form. The total score will be used to award bids by weekend.

The Regional Events Manager will start with the month of August and review bids weekend by weekend in chronological order. The highest scoring bid will be awarded. If a bid was made for multiple weekends and is awarded, it is taken out of the running for any remaining weekends.

In the event that two bids are tied in scoring for a single weekend, geographic diversity within the region based on other awarded tournaments will decide the tie.

There will only be one bid window with the fixed regional calendar.

Two Year Bid Window

With the creation of the fixed regional calendar, we are hoping to move to a two-year bid window. The two-year regional calendar will be approved by the Tournament Committee. It is our hope that by opening the bid cycle up to two years, it will make things easier for the organizers. They’ll be able to contract venues and hotels farther in advance and will only need to submit bids once every two years. The 2025-26 bid cycle will remain a one-year bid window so we can evaluate and improve anything that may need to be changed.   

Creating the Fixed Calendar

The decision to move to a fixed calendar was made because creating a cohesive regional calendar that works for organizers, participants, staff, and other resources is difficult. Historically, the regional calendar has seen weekends become incredibly loaded and a fight for resources ensues. By creating a fixed regional calendar, we alleviate several of these issues and believe the regional system will grow because of it. The fixed regional calendar was not created in a vacuum. The Tournament Committee, a subcommittee, and the national office all contributed to its creation.

Fixed Calendar Benefits

• A balanced schedule
  • Fencers will have more balanced opportunities to compete in events that will qualify them for Junior Olympics and Summer National/July Challenge
  • We won’t see weekends that are overloaded with five or six regional tournaments, making resources more readily available.
  • There are fewer circuit conflicts across regions
• Predictability
  • Fencers, organizers, and referees will be able to know what dates certain circuits will be held years in advance.
  • Local and Divisional tournaments will have at least one free weekend each month that they can use to plan their tournaments around.
  • There will be less back and forth between the National Events Manager and the organizers on scheduling. Organizers will not be asked to move dates outside of the dates listed in their bid – barring any unforeseen scheduling conflicts with the FIE and National Event calendar.
• Referee/Staff Retainment
  • Each region has one weekend a month where no regional or national tournaments will be held
  • Efforts were made to avoid large regional tournaments directly following a National Tournament
  • Local tournaments will have access to more referees on their designated weekend

How Will Bids Be Scored?

Two forms will be used to score bids – the Internal Review Form and the Bid Committee Review Form. Both forms can be viewed here.

Internal Review Form

The internal review form will be filled out by the Regional Event Manager for all bids. After all internal review forms are completed, organizers will be sent their results for review. If a mistake was made on the internal review form scoring based on the information provided in the bid application, organizers will have a chance to petition the score. Additional documentation and information cannot be submitted during this window. Organizers will have one week to review their scores and submit any discrepancies to the Regional Events Manager. If organizers miss the deadline for submitting any scoring discrepancies, they forfeit their right for any additional review.  

Tournament/Organizer History

If the organizer submits all required information, tournament history and organizer history will be scored as listed in the internal bid review form.

Tournament/Venue Information

If the organizer submits all required information, tournament/venue information will be scored as listed in the internal bid review form.

Organizers should pay attention to the…

• Dimensions listed on their venue diagram. Are enough dimensions included that all scoring components can be evaluated?
• Scoring for designated seating will be based off daily anticipated participants listed in the strip management plan
• Scoring for adequate number of bathrooms will be based on daily anticipated participants listed in the strip management plan

Community Information

If the organizer submits all required information, community information will be scored as listed in the internal bid review form.

Organizers should pay attention to the…

• A shuttle to/from the venue and hotel is not an uber or Lyft. It is prearranged accommodation provided by the organizer for participants of the tournament
• We are offering a tiny incentive to any tournament that plans on using the services of GroupHousing
• Scoring for the number of parking spaces will be based on daily anticipated participants in the strip management plan AND how far the venue is from the host hotel(s)

Personnel

If the organizer submits all required information, personnel will be scored as listed in the internal bid review form.

Price Exemptions

If the organizer submits all required information, price exemptions will be scored as listed in the internal bid review form. If the tournament has differing price exemptions for different circuits, the higher difference for each circuit will be what’s scored.

Previous Tournament Feedback

If bidding on a tournament that has been hosted in the past two seasons, the most recent tournament feedback form will be used to score this section. If the tournament is new or has not been hosted in the last two seasons, it will be scored as N/A. Otherwise, scoring will be reflected as listed in the internal bid review form.

Bid Committee Review Form

The bid committee will complete the Bid Review Form for any bid in their assigned two regions. This portion of scoring is more subjective. If the committee member answers “no” to any of their questions, they will need to provide feedback supporting their answer. Organizers will receive this feedback.

The Bid Committee review score will not be sent out for review before final awards are made.

Important Dates

January 10 – Bid window opens

Organizers can submit bids through their tournament organizer dashboard. If submitted before February 28, organizers can request edits be made to their bid if already submitted.

February 28 – Bid window closes

No bids submitted after this date will be considered. All incomplete bids in the system after this date will not be considered. No edits can be made to bids after this date. There is no 24hr grace period after the bid window closes this year.

March 1-31 – Bids are reviewed

Bids will be reviewed and scored using the criteria outlined in the Internal Review Form and the Bid Committee Review Form.

March 24-30 – Organizers can review their internal review scoring

The internal review forms will be sent out on March 24. Organizers have until March 30, 2025, at 11:59PM to submit any inconsistencies in scoring to the Regional Events Manager. No submission after 11:59PM on March 30, 2025, will be considered.

April 7-9 - Bids approval/denials sent out

Bid approvals and denials will be sent out. The regional calendar will be posted shortly after all approvals/denials have been sent out.

Who Can Submit a Bid?

Premium Clubs, Affiliate Clubs, cities, city organizations and sports commissions are all eligible to host a regional tournament. Priority will be given to Premium and Affiliate clubs with a good history of hosting regional tournaments, but this is not the only consideration for hosting organizations.​

Please reference the 2025-26 Regional Tournament Requirements for a full list of tournament requirements. ​

Working with a CVB or Sports Commission

As with any event, there are ideal scenarios a regional organizer looks for in the selection of a host city. The following elements are examples of how support from a CVB or sports commission can truly make a difference to a regional tournament organizer.

• City located within close proximity to a hub airport​
• Securing a minimal facility rental fee with free move-in day and no fee for meeting space​
• Support from the CVB/sports commission with marketing prior to the event​
• Banners, welcome signage in hotels/airports/restaurants/venue/street ​
• Reaching out to local media, graphic designing services for tournament logo​
• Assistance with the local hospitality community to secure discounts for the Stay&Save program to create incentives for our members for staying in the hotel block​
• In addition to the venue concessions, restaurants within walking distance to the competition venue are a plus for the attendees​
• Securing of city/local grants to aid local grassroots/developmental fencing programs​
• Taking additional steps to relieve regional organizer of tournament expenses. Bids that cover the cost of water service, internet, tables/chairs/staging and shuttle transportation, if required, and facility

GroupHousing

USA Fencing and GroupHousing have extended their partnership agreement to include providing benefits to Regional Tournaments. The use of GroupHousing by regional tournament organizers is not mandatory but encouraged. 

By partnering with GroupHousing, tournament organizers benefit from a streamlined approach to hotel sourcing, lightening the workload for event staff. The company takes charge of negotiating contracts with hotels and strategically setting up housing blocks to meet the unique requirements of the USA Fencing community. GroupHousing goes the extra mile by generating complimentary rooms for organizers and accumulating valuable meeting planner points from major hotel companies, enhancing the overall experience for USA Fencing members and organizers alike.

Why should regional organizers work with GroupHousing?

• Their services are free to regional organizers. The hotels they work with, pay them for their services.
• Assist in venue selection and contracts, if applicable.
• Contract all hotels for participants coming to your events. 
• Implement a hotel rebate program if one does not exist.
• Grow the current hotel rebate program by 150% based on current clients.
• They will sponsor your organization to show their support and partnership.
• Pay all hotel rebates back to your organization within 14 days after the event’s conclusion.
• Guaranteed complimentary rooms for the tournament staff, referees, and VIP’s.
• Hotel reward points from all hotels for business or personal travel to the organization.
• No liability to your organization for any hotel contracts or to your attendees if an event is canceled.
• Their technology gives your organization real-time reporting for hotel rebates, bookings, and all complimentary staff rooms.
• Their post-event reporting includes a hotel points report, rebate report, and economic impact report for your organization and the local tourism organization.
• #1 in customer service based on recent 2023 surveys.
• Your organization will have access to their CEO and Vice President 24/7.

Rebate Structure with GroupHousing

A $5 rebate per night will automatically be applied for all regional tournaments that work with GroupHousing. The national office will receive a $5 rebate, and organizers can work with GroupHousing on an additional rebate up to $15 per night to help

supplement revenue based on performance of their room block(s), post event. 

Organizers may also choose not to add any additional rebate beyond the $5 rebate in the interest of keeping rates as low as possible. Rebate preferences will be discussed if a regional organizer chooses to work with GroupHousing. Regardless of the rebate amount, GroupHousing room rates are guaranteed to be the lowest published rates listed by the hotel property. 

Hilton Partnership

USA Fencing has partnered with Hilton Hotels, and they have committed to helping support the sport of fencing. Whenever possible, organizers are encouraged to utilize a Hilton property for their host hotel or room blocks. When a Hilton property is utilized, organizers will receive a $2 rebate per room night in addition to any room night rebate they may have been planning on. The $2 rebate will come from the $5 rebate USA Fencing collects. Organizers are encouraged to utilize GroupHousing to help in reporting the room nights for the rebate revenue program. However, if GroupHousing is not utilized but organizers still choose to contract a Hilton property, the $2 rebate is still applicable. They will need to work with the property to receive all the necessary reporting items though.   

Bid Application Fee

Starting with the 2025-26 bid season, the fee structure for bid applications will change.​

• Previous structure: $50 per circuit
• New structure: $75 per circuit​
• RPCs will not have a fee associated with them. ​

Examples:​

• If an organizer submits a bid for an SYC, the application fee is $75​
• If an organizer submits a bid for an RJCC/RYC combo, the application fee is $150

Changes to the 2025-26 Season

Strip Requirements

An update, as recommended by the Tournament Committee and a copious amount of feedback from referees, has been added to the Strip Requirements, which includes specific recommendations for strip spacing as it relates to the space referees officiate in. Those specifications are:

• The strip layout must also provide an adequate amount of space for the referee on the side of each strip. Referees should have a minimum of 1.4m (4.5ft) of their own space stripe side. For regionals using a strip layout where officials are back-to-back, this means a minimum of 2.7m (9ft) between strips.

Please note 2.7m (9ft) is the minimum requirement - 3.6m (12ft) is recommended. To see how you will be scored in your bid using these metrics, refer to the Internal Bid Review Form.

Tournament Schedule

Some additional schedule specifications have been added to the tournament requirements. Those include:

• Whenever possible, events should not be running past 9PM at night.
• Organizers should not create a schedule that has events starting after 4PM.
• Tournaments with more than 15 events per day will not be allowed to use caps for their events

In addition, organizers will not be able to make changes to their tournament schedule after registration has opened without the permission and assistance of the Regional Events Manager.

• Schedule changes where an event moves days will not be approved – barring any unforeseen circumstances.
• Schedule changes of more than hour will not be approved within the 2-week mark from the start of the tournament
• Schedule changes of an hour or less need to be approved and communicated no fewer than 5 days from the start of the tournament.

Non-Regional/Local Events

Organizers will be able to host non-regional/local events in conjunction with their regional tournament. These local components no longer need to be run through AskFred, they can be run through the USA Fencing’s tournament registration system. Plans to include non-regional events with a regional tournament should be included in the bid. If organizers would like to add non-regional events after their bid has been approved, they will need to submit an updated schedule and/or strip management plan to the Regional Events Manager for approval. The Regional Events Manger may ask for more information regarding the addition of non-regional events.​ If organizers would like non-regional events to be sanctioned locally, they will need to be run through the approval process for the designated division. ​Points will only be awarded for local events if they are sanctioned by the Division.

Event Capping

Per the Tournament Committee, for organizers wishing to cap their events, they must follow the capping structure outlined in the Regional Tournament Requirements. Initial caps for the event should be set within these parameters, and then, at four weeks out from the start of the tournament, organizers may adjust their caps, based upon demand across the different events. Whenever possible, organizers are still encouraged to adjust their caps and add entries equally for the two genders in the same weapon/age category (i.e. JNRME and JNRWE).

Tournaments with more than 15 events per day will not be allowed to use capping.

Fee structure

Due to the overall demand and rising cost of materials, staff, and venues, price increases have been made to the following items:

• Registration fee
• Event fee

Please refer to the Regional Tournament Requirements packet for those exact increases. These will be the standard fees moving forward. Organizers can choose to decrease those fees or make a price exemption request to increase them. Price exemption requests MUST be made in the bid. Price exemption requests will not be approved if they are not included in the bid.  

Credit Card Dispute Policy

To help combat credit card disputes, the following policy is in effect:

• Organizers should keep an eye on their Stripe accounts for any credit card disputes. If a dispute is initiated wrongly, the organizer should reach out to the customer directly to inquire about why the dispute was initiated. If the dispute was made an error, the customer should be given a chance to rescind the dispute.
• If the customer refuses to withdraw the dispute and the dispute is lost, please reach out to the Regional Tournament Organizer. They will help lock the fencer’s membership account until funds have been sent back to the organizer.
• This policy is included in all regional event waivers signed by participants

Addition of DV3/Adult/Adult Combined

Three events will be making their way to the Regional Open Circuit for the 2025-26 season.

• DV3 – those born 2012 or earlier
• Adult – those born between 2004 and 1986
• Adult Combined – those born 2004 or earlier

Regional Audits

If approved by the Referee Commission and in an effort to encourage honesty in the submitted bids, each regional tournament will be audited by three random referees who they have hired. These referees will be sent the layout and strip management plan submitted in their regional bid the Monday before the tournament takes place and asked to report back on its accuracy.

The Regional Events Manager will review the feedback submitted by these referees. If the information presented in the bid was inaccurate, and depending on the scope and severity of the inaccuracies, the organizer can lose the privilege to bid in the next cycle.

Credit Card Dispute Policy

To help combat credit card disputes, the following policy is in effect:

• Organizers should keep an eye on their Stripe accounts for any credit card disputes. If a dispute is initiated wrongly, the organizer should reach out to the customer directly to inquire about why the dispute was initiated. If the dispute was made an error, the customer should be given a chance to rescind the dispute.
• If the customer refuses to withdraw the dispute and the dispute is lost, please reach out to the Regional Tournament Organizer. They will help lock the fencer’s membership account until funds have been sent back to the organizer.
• This policy is included in all regional event waivers signed by participants

Addition of DV3/Adult/Adult Combined

Three events will be making their way to the Regional Open Circuit for the 2025-26 season.

• DV3 – those born 2012 or earlier
• Adult – those born between 2004 and 1986
• Adult Combined – those born 2004 or earlier

Regional Audits

If approved by the Referee Commission and in an effort to encourage honesty in the submitted bids, each regional tournament will be audited by three random referees who they have hired. These referees will be sent the layout and strip management plan submitted in their regional bid the Monday before the tournament takes place and asked to report back on its accuracy.

The Regional Events Manager will review the feedback submitted by these referees. If the information presented in the bid was inaccurate, and depending on the scope and severity of the inaccuracies, the organizer can lose the privilege to bid in the next cycle.

Grievances and Disparagement

Grievances

Any controversy or claim arising from or relating to my or the organizing bidder’s membership or participation  membership or participation, in USA Fencing, including but not limited to any matter arising from or relating to (i)  qualification or selection for or the conduct of, any fencing event, whether staged under the auspices of USA Fencing, the FIE, the USOPC, the IOC or some other fencing administrative body, (ii) qualification or selection of, or activities as, referees or other officials at any such fencing event; or (iii) compliance with any rule, regulation, policy, practice, bylaw, or statutory or common law, of USA Fencing, FIE, USOPC or IOC, or of any national, state, provincial or local governing or administrative body, including any issue concerning compliance by USA Fencing or by any officer, director, employee, agent, attorney, referee, official, committee member or volunteer of USA Fencing, shall to the fullest extent permitted by law be settled by arbitration, provided, however, that prior to the commencement of any such arbitration, any and all administrative procedures and remedies of the USA Fencing, FIE, USOPC, IOC or applicable sports, governmental or administrative body shall have been exhausted.     ​

Any arbitration shall be administered by the American Arbitration Association in accordance with its Commercial Arbitration Rules and judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof. The arbitration shall be governed by the laws of the State of Colorado and the United States, and shall be conducted in Colorado Springs, Colorado before a single arbitrator. If the dispute is less than $50,000, there shall be no discovery other than the exchange of documents. If the dispute is over $49,999.99, discovery may also include no more than two (2) depositions of each side, unless the parties shall otherwise agree, or the arbitrator(s) shall otherwise order for good cause shown. The arbitrator will have no authority to award punitive or exemplary damages. The arbitrator shall not award consequential damages. Except as may be required by law, or as reasonably necessary to give effect to a sanction or award issued or approved by the arbitrator, neither a party nor an arbitrator may disclose the existence, content, or results of any arbitration hereunder to a non-party without the prior written consent of all parties.    ​

Disparagement

USA Fencing and organizing bidder/tournament organizer agree to not disparage the other to any other prospective client or organization or within the USA Fencing community.