SpottedCat
Well-Known Member
Theirs not ours for once!
I've been to quite a lot of events recently in one capacity or another, and have overheard some interesting snippets of conversation. Obviously I could have completely got the wrong end of the stick, but a discreet enquiry or two would suggest otherwise....
Apparently BE currently have 1.5M (yes, million!) in reserves in the bank account - essentially members monies. BE also requested that organisers accept a 'freeze' in revenue from entries (and to reduce prize money if they were faced with the prospect of making a loss from this freeze) - which organisers agreed to. This was 3 years ago, and apparently has resulted in a loss of 3% per year, which is 9% (give or take the slightly complex maths that happens when you reduce a number by a % each year!!). So organisers have now asked for a rise in their share to get their income back in line with costs - which have increased due to inflation, rising fuel etc - which is apparently where this rumour of an increase in entry fees next season has come from.
So my question is, should BE be holding that kind of money as 'reserves' in the account, and increasing entry fees/start fees; or, in these times when we are all feeling the pinch of the cost of eventing, should BE be thinking about taking a smaller share of the entries - because clearly they have the required reserves for times of strife - and keeping entry fees static, thus allowing organisers to make up the difference through the reduced amount they pay to BE? It'd be nice to think that if the reserves exceeded the projection for a worst case scenario year, BE would also be thinking about using reserves to increase prize money too (I guess foot and mouth/the really wet years we've had recently would make those projections pretty accurate?) - but I suspect that's wishful thinking on my part....
I'd love to hear what other people think about this?
I've been to quite a lot of events recently in one capacity or another, and have overheard some interesting snippets of conversation. Obviously I could have completely got the wrong end of the stick, but a discreet enquiry or two would suggest otherwise....
Apparently BE currently have 1.5M (yes, million!) in reserves in the bank account - essentially members monies. BE also requested that organisers accept a 'freeze' in revenue from entries (and to reduce prize money if they were faced with the prospect of making a loss from this freeze) - which organisers agreed to. This was 3 years ago, and apparently has resulted in a loss of 3% per year, which is 9% (give or take the slightly complex maths that happens when you reduce a number by a % each year!!). So organisers have now asked for a rise in their share to get their income back in line with costs - which have increased due to inflation, rising fuel etc - which is apparently where this rumour of an increase in entry fees next season has come from.
So my question is, should BE be holding that kind of money as 'reserves' in the account, and increasing entry fees/start fees; or, in these times when we are all feeling the pinch of the cost of eventing, should BE be thinking about taking a smaller share of the entries - because clearly they have the required reserves for times of strife - and keeping entry fees static, thus allowing organisers to make up the difference through the reduced amount they pay to BE? It'd be nice to think that if the reserves exceeded the projection for a worst case scenario year, BE would also be thinking about using reserves to increase prize money too (I guess foot and mouth/the really wet years we've had recently would make those projections pretty accurate?) - but I suspect that's wishful thinking on my part....
I'd love to hear what other people think about this?