nybb13,
My son's college team has played in the Port Charlotte tourney the past two years, and about half the team parents went down to watch, including us.
That is the "high season" for hotel and condo prices, so most accommodations are about twice the off-season cost. A few parents stayed in standard hotel rooms, but you can get a 2BR condo or even a rental home for about the same price as a 1-room hotel room. The catch is that you have to reserve well in advance (like right now), and most of the condos and nice rental homes only rent by the week, Saturday night to Saturday departure.
We have found our rentals mostly through vrbo.com, "Vacation Rentals By Owner", and we have not had any disappointing experiences (three years in a row; we also went the previous year for MN Twins Spring Training).
You can find condos and vacation homes listed for Port Charlotte. Also, one nearby condo/resort area that offers some interesting sight seeing is the "Burnt Island Store and Marina" area. We did not stay in the Burnt Island area (we rented condos directly on the Gulf each year), but several team parents stayed in that area and really liked it. It's kind of a collection of condo/resort buildings near an actual marina so you can walk along the docks, watch ships coming and going, etc.
(BTW, the condos on the Gulf are quite a bit more expensive and traffic has been a problem each year, so this year we had decided to stay in the Burnt Island area or in Port Charlotte instead. But we are probably not going because our son recently learned he will have to take a medical redshirt this spring.)
Feel free to contact me for any other info.
Julie