Email open rates hover around 20%. SMS open rates are above 95% within 3 minutes. For game-day communication, that gap is the entire game.
What to SMS (and what not to)
SMS these events
- Schedule changes inside 24 hours
- Court or field changes
- Weather delays or cancellations
- Bracket announcements
- "Your next game is in 30 minutes"
Do not SMS these
- Fundraising pushes
- General newsletters
- Photo day reminders (use email)
Opt-in the right way
Collect phone numbers at registration with an explicit opt-in checkbox. Save the consent stamp in the record.
Automate everything
SignUpGo's Sports Tier includes 1,000 messaging credits per month and lets you trigger messages from schedule changes, bracket updates, and weather holds automatically.
Run your K-12 season on the Sports Tier
SignUpGo's Sports Tier ($59/mo) is purpose-built for K-12 athletic directors, tournament organizers, and league coordinators. You get unlimited tournaments, 5 user seats, 1,000 messaging credits for game-day alerts, pool play & bracket automation, captain score entry, team & player registration, entry fees, and merch sales — all in one dashboard.
- Unlimited brackets and pool play across multiple courts or fields
- SMS game notifications the moment a schedule shifts
- Captain score submission with secure one-time tokens
- Custom branding so parents see your school or league, not ours
Ready to stop wrangling spreadsheets? Start with the Sports Tier or compare all plans. You can also try the tournament builder in under two minutes.