> are we all aware that there is an ex-student is now
> holidaying round the world on profits made from the
> sheffield tour of 1999
If you're right, we are now...
...and my congratulations go to that person. Mostly for bothering to run the event in
the first place, but with a healthy dose of "for getting away with it"!
Ok, we could all probably niggle about something at Sheffield, and there were
definitely a few _comments_ about a couple of the pitches, but there was no noticable
_outburst_ at the time (was there?) and it's way too late now...
But does anyone wonder why we haven't been back there ?
Does anyone wonder if the powers that be learned lessons from experience and have
effectively now designated that particular Sheffield setup as "realistically too
small" for that no. of pitches?
Here are some other definite financial facts, that I have a personal involvement in:
and a large chunk of the Ultimate participation that the Layout Dreams duo do is
funded by the profits we make from the tournaments we run...
the Fluid Druids aim to (at least!) fully fund their entries to Indoor and Outdoor
Nationals from the profits they make at Newport and RossOnWye tournaments,
respectively.
For a couple of years, all UK tournaments we entered were covered by the profits
made by the tournaments we ran.
In 1997, the Ross entry was jacked up (near doubled!) to provide us with some
funding for WUCC - and we were still oversubscribed.
It seems to me that the current debate isn't so much "tournaments shouldn't make a
profit" as "tournaments should appear to provide value for money"
What is "an acceptable level of profit", or, from the alternative perspective, what is
"apparent value for money"
It's complicated by the "supply and demand" factor (my RossOnWye example earlier) and
the "vicious circle" it generates... If people really want to play, they WILL pay
whatever is necessary. Therefore, TDs charge more... teams pay more... TDs charge
more...
But, as Paul Meaney is rightly concerned but poorly expressing, are the facilities
provided actually any better??? Why should teams pay this much?
Answer: because, if they want to play, they either have to pay that much, or organise
a more economical alternative.
However: If a team CAN go out and run a tournament in profit for �60 per team, WHY
BOTHER when they can charge �80 and cover a whole host of other expenses?
For that matter, why aren't more teams doing this???
Hopefully, somewhere in my ramblings, there's some food for thought...
Wayne Retter
Fluid Druids
Layout Dreams
and fifth sub-level assistant to anybody that's asked questions on how to set up/run a
tournament.
--
Wayne Retter
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mobile: +44/0-7970-903420
office: +44/0-1737-273655
