Entry fees
pataallen
Posts: 94
in General Chat
Excellent letter in 220 this month about the cost of entry fees.
Whilst i fully understand that there are overheads it would seem that fees are ever on the increase - even a modest 1 event per month over the main summer period racks up to around £300 by the end of the season....does anybody else share these views, or am i just tight fisted?
oh and BTW what exactly are the overheads - working on 300 pax at £35ea - £10k is a lot of overheads?
Whilst i fully understand that there are overheads it would seem that fees are ever on the increase - even a modest 1 event per month over the main summer period racks up to around £300 by the end of the season....does anybody else share these views, or am i just tight fisted?
oh and BTW what exactly are the overheads - working on 300 pax at £35ea - £10k is a lot of overheads?
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Comments
I'm hearing about lots of events not being fully subscribed which were in previous years.
That said, there is an awful lot of organising, even if you're a tri club using volunteers.
Just went to enter the South Cost Tri on 15 Aug £50 - this is a joke?!!!!!! i wont be bothering now!
Yes, some events are expensive. I shelled out 70 notes for London Sprint this year which is at the top end... But I'm guessing they are expensive to put on! No one wants to work for free either and if there wasn't any money in it for the organisers why would they put these events on in the first place?
If Conehead was around and not larking about at some second rate tournament on some dodgy island, then he might give us more insight (you busy Conehead?). But IMHO, you pays your money and takes your choice.
YoY the actual 'organisation' side isn't that difficult as it's pretty much the same format & even now the entry is all online (only Mazda events seem to still send out any bumpf)...yes costs go up like liability cover / printing/technology etc for such events....also let's not forget the basic economics...Tri is the fastest growing participation sport at the moment..so supply and demand...?!!
I think most events are extremely well organised and I don't want to knock that as I'm sure most of us on here wouldn't, but i am in agreement that the price does make it an important factor in deciding which to do moving forward!
Most OD races seem to cost £50 to £60 regardless of whether organised by a tri club or an events company. You're not forced to enter I guess.
however profit, greed, unecessary overheads, lack of local authority subsidy, whatever the reason is driving up costs and make the sport less accessible.
Access to sport, underfunding at absolute grass roots level and general malaise is an underlying reason why we as a nation underperform in a range of sports relative to our population size and general world development.
One example if i may, a swim at my local pool at a weekend is £5.50. when i lived in Germany (albeit in 2006) entry to the local hallenbad was €2.50...
edited for clarification
Chris does the half ironman in two weeks time, that was £180 and again they said that the roads would not be closed.
It does mount up somewhat but luckily for me I am extremely slow so even the sprints offer good value for money in terms of ££££'s versus minutes!!
But long post short - I agree that events seem to be over priced particularly in comparison to running events, which tend to cost a max of about £30
MD, that's an obscene amount of money! It's a good job you're loaded... [8D]
However there were nearly 3000 runners, and it's not a tremendously big event. Not may tris will have that many entrants. It had sponsorship from Shell too which would help. They only supported the event for three hours - ie after that you were running by yourself, roads open again etc.
By comparison the Cheshire Triathlon (about £40?) last year was going for most of the day, due to the limited numbers you can get in the pool, meaning staggered starts over several hours plus a triathlon has to have large transition areas, security etc.
Most OD events are in lakes so who do you pay to rent a lake out?
Most events that I've entered don't close the roads so there is no police involvement which must cost a fair old wack.
There is a fair amount of kit required like chips and bike racking but again once your compnay has bought this then the cost per race would be very low.
most tri's I've done have maybe 10 people so that doesn't cost that much
SO WHY ARE THE FEES SO HIGH...... Profit ! Simple it must be.
Last weekend I took part in one day of the Tour of Wessex cycle sportif - this involved 112 miles on a well sign posted route and included three well stocked feed stations. I believe the slowest person took about nine hours.
[:D]To enter a grand total of £27 - beat that if you can for value for money!!
Thats ridiculous!! I was considering this race in 2010!! Sod that, I'd rather pay a bit more and do Norseman or pay less and do Challenge Roth!!!!!!!!!
It will still fill up quicker than an MP's expense form.
It will still fill up quicker than an MP's expense form.
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You're not wrong, its a popular event. However, for the same price I'm going to Lanzarote for a weeks winter training, all inclusive, in December.
Then it cost £25, and was full with about 2K entrants, they even advertise this is the largest pool based tri in UK.
I entered again last year, and was planning on entering again this year (to see if i'm getting any quicker)
But its now £43 !!!, that almost double in 3yrs. (remember 2K people)
Have been doing alot of club events for £30, where I feel at least my money is going back into the clubs, not some professional events company that is just boosting their profit margins.
However i'm due to do the Dambuster one this month and almost fell over when i saw that price of that, after travelling has been included and food purchased i'll be looking at at least £100 for the weekend, which pretty much reduces me to one maybe two OD a year.
One thing that really annoys me is the online booking fee, and its not a few pence here or there its at least a couple of quid - why???