Tournament Day Schedule Builder
Set how many courts or fields you have, how many rounds you are playing, and how long a match lasts. The builder times the whole day — check-in, every round played side by side, the knockouts, and the final — and shows you exactly when it ends.
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Reorder by dragging, save versions, invite vendors, and export branded PDFs in the full app — see all features.
Courts, not teams, are your real constraint
Tournament organisers usually start from the team list, but the length of the day is decided by something else: how many matches you can play at the same time. Every round lasts one match, because every court plays at once — so the schedule is really courts multiplied by rounds. Eight teams in two groups of four play three group matches each, which is twelve matches: three rounds on four courts, or six rounds on two. The same tournament is a morning or a whole day depending on the courts you have. That is why this builder asks for courts, rounds, and match length rather than teams. Set them to what you really have and it shows you the finish time honestly. It times the day; the fixtures — who plays whom, on which court — you type straight into each court’s slot.
More on Drag-and-Drop Builder →Changeovers are where tournaments lose an hour
A match scheduled to finish at 09:30 does not free its court at 09:30. Teams shake hands, the scores go to the table, the next teams find their court, and the referee resets. Leave no time for that and each round starts a few minutes late, and the lateness compounds: by lunch you are running forty minutes behind with no obvious cause. The builder puts five minutes between rounds for exactly this reason. It looks like padding on paper, and it is the reason the afternoon starts on time. For younger players or larger squads, make it longer rather than shorter.
More on Auto-Sort by Time →Put the buffer before the knockouts, where it counts
However carefully you plan a group stage, something will run long — an injury, a disputed score, a team that went to the wrong field. The question is where those delays land. This builder places a ten-minute buffer before the semi-finals and another before the final, so the morning’s drift is absorbed before the matches people have come to watch. It also gives referees and finalists a short rest. Finals are scheduled a little longer than group matches because they usually are: more is at stake, early finishes are rarer, and the crowd wants to see it played out properly.
More on Sharing & Participants →Prefer a written guide?
This builder generates a live schedule you can edit and print. For worked examples with downloadable PDF & Word templates, read the guides:
Common questions
How long does a tournament day take?
It depends on courts, rounds, and match length rather than the number of teams. Four rounds of thirty-minute matches on four courts, plus semi-finals, a final, and lunch, runs from 09:00 to about 13:30. Change the numbers and the builder shows the new finish time.
How much time should I leave between matches?
About five minutes between rounds for teams to swap, scores to be recorded, and courts to reset — more for younger players. Without it, every round starts a little late and the delay compounds through the day.
Does this builder create the fixtures?
It times the day rather than drawing the matches. Each round appears once per court, and you type every fixture into its court slot. That keeps you in control of the draw, the seeding, and the group format.
Is this tournament schedule builder free?
Yes — build, edit, and print your schedule with no signup. Open it in Chronolio to share it with referees, captains, and volunteers so everyone knows where to be each round.
Do more than build a schedule
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