What event liability insurance is
General liability insurance for an event covers the organization against claims for injury or property damage arising from the event. It is separate from any medical coverage a family carries and separate from the venue's own policy. Venues almost always require the operator to hold it and to name the venue as an additional insured on the certificate.
It is sold by the event or by the day, by brokers who specialize in sports, and it is not expensive relative to what it protects. What is expensive is finding out at check-in that the venue will not open the doors without a certificate you do not have.
- Covers the organization for injury and property claims
- Separate from family medical coverage and the venue's policy
- Venue named as additional insured
What the venue will ask for
Read the facility agreement for three things: the coverage amount required (per occurrence and aggregate), the additional-insured wording, and when the certificate is due. Ask the venue for the exact wording it wants on the certificate and forward it to your broker; the most common delay is a certificate that names the wrong entity.
Keep the certificate, the venue agreement and your emergency contacts in one folder your volunteers can open from a phone.
- Coverage amounts from the facility agreement
- Additional-insured wording, exact
- Due date, and a copy volunteers can reach
Sanctioning: what it is and when it matters
A sanctioning body (a national or state governing organization for the sport) can approve your event, which usually means your event follows its rules, its member teams can enter without penalty, and sometimes its insurance program covers you. Sanctioning matters when the teams you want to attract require it, when it bundles insurance you would otherwise buy, or when it is the only way to get referees from a particular pool.
It also costs money and adds rules. If your teams do not care and you have your own insurance and officials, an unsanctioned event is a legitimate choice. Decide based on who you want in the building.
- Do your target teams require it?
- Does it bundle insurance or officials you need?
- What rules come with it?
Waivers, medical release and the athlete side
Insurance protects the organization; waivers and medical releases handle the athlete side. Have every athlete's parent sign the waiver and medical release inside registration, before the weekend, so the roster shows who is cleared. Paper waivers at check-in are how you end up with a team playing on Saturday whose forms are in a coach's car.
Keep an emergency contact for every athlete reachable from the roster on a phone, and post the incident procedure at every court or field.
- Waiver and medical release signed at registration
- One screen: who is cleared
- Emergency contacts on the roster
- Incident procedure posted
The checklist, and when to do it
Do all of it the day you sign the venue, ninety days out, and forget about it until the week before, when you check the certificate is in the folder and the roster shows everyone cleared.
- Venue agreement read for insurance requirements
- Broker quote and certificate ordered with exact wording
- Sanctioning decided (yes or no, and why)
- Waivers and medical releases in registration
- Folder with certificate, agreement, contacts, incident procedure