Thank you Ken - there's nothing like distilled information. Chris and I will
try to take on board all of these points when we run Tour 3 this year.
So according to your list nobody complained about the cost last year?
That's lucky because our venue have just told us they are sticking a massive
increase on the venue hire for this year. We charged £150 per team last
year. By cutting costs elsewhere and having the advantage of repeat bookings
we are able to limit the increase passed onto the players, but we will still
have to put the price up to around £180, if not a bit more.
I hope that people who were there last year will remember the beautiful
pitches and lovely hot showers...? We felt it was one of the prime
tournament venues last season, and had zero negative feedback - in fact,
looking down Ken's list I think we ticked most of the boxes. We did make
some mistakes - but nothing that we can't learn from and correct.
A rough estimate of our up-front costs for running this year's Tour 3 event
is £6,000 - and we are responsible for this money no matter how many teams
actually turn up.
I think that the bottom line is this: Until there are more people able to
offer the time (hard) and find suitable venues (very hard), the price of
tournaments can go up - for as long as there are people wanting to play
Ultimate, and willing to pay. Luckily all the TD’s are ultimate players
and I believe they all care about the sport as well as their pocket. A
little trust is required on both sides. Being self employed I have to make
every hour count - and believe me, the increase in costs this year have made
us seriously consider pulling out.
For those of us working, £10-£20 is not a lot to pay for a weekend's
entertainment. For the students out there the combined cost is steep, but
there is already a full calendar of student-only events for which some uni
teams get full subsidy (when I was running a student team the Uni usually
paid for our tournament fees, mini-bus and team kit… but that was a couple
of years ago!).
I think that most people should be willing to pay a bit more to go to a
tournament where everything runs smoothly - including the players (surely
the pitch quality is THE single most important thing). If you disagree, feel
free to send your comments to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Jack
Sticking my head above the parapet once again
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