The Gamble at Mohegan Sun!

Post date: Dec 30, 2017 2:19:43 PM

The 2017 ACO New England Championships is the tournament of the year!

Big performances on the big stage!

Competitive cornhole is a difficult thing because there are not any handicaps and with the current New England talent pool, the outcome is often predictable. However, the title of "State Champ" has always carried a different type of appeal that has made our ACO State Championships better attended than the regional events. As the only Season XII Certified Official in New England, the ACO agreed to transform our typical state championship to a New England Championship. This cleared the way to move the event to the Mohegan Sun Casino for a summer classic! However, given the overhead to host this tournament and my insistence on modest entry fees, would people travel to play for just pride, trophies, and...eventually jerseys? The answer was a resounding yes! We had 48 total players make the trip from every New England state except Vermont. We had some great matches, upsets, and the expected Massachusetts dominance as most of the Bay State's top tossers were in attendance! It was a great day for Boston Cornhole and a cornhole in New England. Thanks to John and Lisa for the behind the scenes work and to all of you who were part of the 2017 Tournament of the Year!

Did the gamble really pay off?

It took the perfect storm of a vacant Convention Center and a very generous Mohegan Sun to pull this off. There is no doubt our tournament benefited from the venue. But, I am not sure if the converse is necessarily true. While I am more than thrilled with 48 participants, we need to be fully aware that the casino is the business of making money. At the very least, I hope we demonstrated that we can run a successful tournament and that there is value there. Casinos fit the cornhole demographic very well and the next step is to partner with such organizations that can not only provide great space, but great prizes too! Stay tuned...