ArenaGear University · Events

How to Run a Combine, Camp or Showcase With Hundreds of Athletes

A step-by-step event playbook: pre-loaded rosters, NFC wristbands, live leaderboards and zero per-athlete fees.

Running a combine with 400 athletes is a logistics problem before it's a timing problem. You have one day, a fixed number of stations, a roster that keeps growing, parents who want results, coaches who want clean data and scouts who want it live. A stopwatch and clipboard break down somewhere around athlete number 50. Here's how organizers run events at scale with ArenaGear.

Step 1: Pre-load the whole roster

ArenaGear uses authorized NFC wristbands for athlete ID. Pre-program your entire roster before the event and assign each athlete a band. Bands stay dormant until an athlete's first scan, and unused bands return to stock.

For one-off events, disposable event bands are $0.99 and lock to the activation day, so a band activated at Saturday's combine can't wander into next month's camp. The Auto-ID kit with 100 bands gets you running the moment you open the case.

Step 2: Set up eye-safe infrared gates

ArenaGear gates are eye-safe infrared, never lasers. That matters at a combine, where athletes in the 5-10-5 start with their faces directly in line with the beam. The gates are wireless and self-aligning, so setup is just placing the tripods and powering on, with no cables across a field full of athletes warming up. Why eye-safe matters.

Step 3: Run every station with Global View and Global Sync

• Global View lets one phone see every station at once, perfect for directors and for side-by-side runs.
• Global Sync keeps roster updates, station changes and results in sync instantly across every device. Add a walk-up athlete at station three and every other station already knows.

Step 4: Publish a live leaderboard

Parents and scouts don't want to wait for an email on Monday. With ArenaGear, unlimited phones, iPads and web browsers can follow a live, real-time web leaderboard, from the sideline or from home. For a showcase, that live board is the product.

Step 5: Push results the moment they happen

ArenaGear's open API webhook delivers each result to your recruiting portal, registration platform or display system the instant the athlete crosses the beam.

Step 6: Turn the data into coaching insight

After the event, everything lives in TEAMS, ArenaGear's free cloud data management service. Run lifetime records, consistency and trends, and export results sorted by class, athlete or drill. Because the same system tracks athletes year over year, a sophomore's first 40 becomes a junior's baseline.

The cost math that changes the decision

Per-athlete roster fees are the hidden tax on high-volume testing. A camp testing 2,400 new athletes a year would pay $2,400 a year, or $12,000 over five years, at $1 per athlete. With ArenaGear, it's $0 at any volume. Testing 400 athletes costs the same as testing 40.

Event-day checklist

1. Pre-load the roster and assign NFC bands.
2. Set eye-safe infrared gates on their tripods at each station.
3. Open Global View on the director's device.
4. Confirm Global Sync across all devices before the first heat.
5. Share the live leaderboard link with parents and scouts.
6. Confirm your API webhook is receiving results.
7. After the event, run exports by class, athlete or drill in TEAMS.

ArenaGear is the most cost-effective professional timing system on the market, used by thousands of schools and professional teams. 0.001-second accuracy, made in McKinney, Texas.

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