BE hiking up prices

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popsdosh

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Just wondered what other people felt about BE putting up all membership and entries by about 10% and even now not got the guts to show new prices on their website.As quoted in horse and hound yesterday apparently members had voted 2to1 in favour of increase in entries to cover abandoment fund, I am a member and dont remember being asked to vote.
Just looking at the bigger picture maybe the abandoment of Blemheim has left a huge hole in the finances(maybe of the order of £1m)taking example figures from 2007 accounts.I hope the grass root members are not suffering because of this.For those that remember Windsor all over again.
 
Well its probably the end for my family and BE, I can't see how we afford it next year.
I am upset that BE couldn't have been more upfront and at least emailed their loyal members with details of their price increases, not just letting them slip out with the 2009 calender.
Does this mean a fulll refund if an event is cancelled, or will BE still keep a % ?
What about membership prices and day tickets any "official" news about them?
If my family can no longer afford to event we will no longer be volentering either, we will offer to help where we can afford to compete, have the powers that be considered this?

You could vote on the web site for the increase but I for one didn't as I it wasn't quite clear if this vote would be taken into consideration, or if it was just to see what the membership thought. It appears that it was the former
 
Having read about this, I too fear it is the end of my BE adventures. I consider myself a 'grass roots' person, happily going along at PN (or whatever it will be known as now).

As someone who liked to just do the 4 events a year on a ticket, the combination of the price increases plus the inevitable balloting makes it just to depressing to even try.

This season I bought 2 tickets at the start, with the intention of doing 2 spring events and then seeing how it went to decide on 2 more. Living in Scotland, there is a limit to events I can reasonably get to (bearing in mind diesal costs).

I was as shocked as the next person that the 1st 2 scottish events balloted, and my plans were out the window. Eventually I only got to 1 event (the furthest North, and you dont even want to know how much that cost in fuel!).

What a shame that this has already in November made me rethink doing BE at all next year.
 
My aim is to do a few intros next year. . . looks like i wont be doing it now. . . my parents were just about ok with possibly paying for this when the prices were lower. . .but not now. . .
 
On the membership front all I know is it will be£140 with a £10 allowance for renewing online,
The clincher for lots of parents though is no Junior concession ie they pay the full £140
This I can understand ,if juniors wish to compete with adults why should they do it cheaper.
Horse registration going up about 10% as well so can only asume day tickets will be in line.
BE somehow believes its members are imune to the problems going on in the rest of the world.
 
I am seriously thinking about taking the horses at BE 90 and 100, (sorry I hate that and HOW MUCH IS IT COSTING TO CHANGE THE NAMES??????????) to unaffiliated events next season, when they are ready to move upwards will do one or two PRENOVCES before running novice. You can get two runs unaffiliated for the price of one BE.
Wonder if there will be much need for balloting next year, if anything it will be unaffiliated events having to not BE.
I do hope that someone from BE reads these posts they might just get an idea about how much they are alienating their grassroot members even further than they do now
 
I can't decide what to do either.

The cost of 4 day tickets is little less than the annual membership. But I know that if I join proper, I'll want to make use of my membership and do about 10 events. But with them going up £5-10 per event as well it makes it enormously expensive.

So option really is to join or not do BE at all and stick to Unaff over BE courses or give up altogether.
 
So annoyed
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I wanted to carry on competing my current horse at PN next year as well as slowly bringing up my youngster
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It may seen that unless we win the lottery my plans may be squished
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The Balloting is annoying! but i entered 4 events last year and got into all 4! (i used ballot stickers on all of them)
In all my be events done about 16 (entered 17) only been balloted from 1 - which happened to be my first ever BE.
If you plan which event you go to, which ballot sticker you will use it tends to work out.

x
 
i guess at the end of the day its supply and demand, with every event being over subscribed the be can put up their prices knowing that even so many drop out the places will already be filled
 
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So its £110 and £46 per horse if you are a RC member

That's much cheaper than BSJA - or are these the old rates?

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Not sure where you're looking but the BE site says £86 for a horse with no points (BSJA Grade C is £68). A Full Member is £110 for a renewal or £130 for a first-timer (BSJA is £116).

Bear in mind the BSJA does special deals for RC members too, doesn't charge you £10 to start at the event you've already paid in the region of £50 to enter.....AND .....pays prize-money in a structured way and you start to think BE looks ridiculoursly expensive.

Unfortunately for the members it's down to supply and demand, and all the time they have a waiting list to enter events then they can get away with increasing their prices.

Only way they will get the message is if enough people vote with their feet and donzt renew/buy tickets.
 
It was £46 for a part year - (last couple of months of season). Full horse memb is between £71 and £144 depending on how many points (2008 figures) These rates are for renewing members
 
I voted for No on the website about the additional costs. How they can say that the survey was an accurate portrayal of members views is rubbish as anybody could vote on it. The survey was also very leading.
Frankly none of the big 3 horse sport authorities are perfect but the problem with BE is the vast expense. I think this is why they take more criticism than the others. We pay through the nose and have no voice for grass roots riders.
 
This may seem rather perverse to say but I am frightened that members are now shouldering all of the cost abandonment, we will see more events cancelled.
I hope BE keep a good check on the situation as it does not take a degree in mathematics to work out that if events have to refund nothing to riders they can make a larger profit if they cancell as no prize money etc will be given.
When the survey was first on the website I suggested to BE that refunds should be mandatory but events set their own entry fees to allow for the extra insurance they may need.Then members can vote with there feet if organisers are taking the mickey with there entry fee supplements.
This was a suggestion on the BE forums that are a total waste of time as they just remove posts they dont like as has been going on a lot recently.
 
I think you will find that most events are seriously out of pocket when they cancel - prize money is only a fraction of the overheads that an event has to bear.

Where are you getting the idea from that riders don't /didn't get refunded if an event cancels?

Riders have always shouldered the cost of abandonment insurance or levy as it was previously known as it has always been part of the entry fees
 
I dont think I said that riders were not being reimbursed entry at present as I know they are.
However your point of entries always having paid insurance to cover refunds ,Why is it that BE are giving this as the reason for putting up entry fees so steeply.This infact will mean that organisers will not have to refund any of the entry fees already taken hence my point about being better off as most of income for events apart from to top few comes from entries.Hence my reasoning.
 
My daughter wants to start eventing but having tried to get in on the introductory scheme this year to no avail I raised the issue with BE at Blenheim (Yes I trudged round in the mud) and they said that if she was to join then she would almost certainly get in but reading the above and talking with other firends it seems unless you are a top rider there is little chance as you will invariably be ballotted out. Also being at school and having to rely on me to drive the lorry for her the events she could go for are limited and I need a degree of certainty in my diary and can not be doing with not knowing until 48 hours before if she's got a place. I understand all about supply and demand but if you are a member of a club you expect to be able to use the 'facilities'. Surely the answer would be to drop the membership fee which would stimulate more interest in membership, and maybe keep loyal volunteers and non riders on board, but increase the entry fees so those that can get in are the one's paying. Or maybe they like taking money and failing to deliver or cybically BE is controlled by those who always get their places and enjoy their club being subsidised by those who can't.
 
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My daughter wants to start eventing but having tried to get in on the introductory scheme this year to no avail I raised the issue with BE at Blenheim (Yes I trudged round in the mud) and they said that if she was to join then she would almost certainly get in but reading the above and talking with other firends it seems unless you are a top rider there is little chance as you will invariably be ballotted out. Also being at school and having to rely on me to drive the lorry for her the events she could go for are limited and I need a degree of certainty in my diary and can not be doing with not knowing until 48 hours before if she's got a place. I understand all about supply and demand but if you are a member of a club you expect to be able to use the 'facilities'. Surely the answer would be to drop the membership fee which would stimulate more interest in membership, and maybe keep loyal volunteers and non riders on board, but increase the entry fees so those that can get in are the one's paying. Or maybe they like taking money and failing to deliver or cybically BE is controlled by those who always get their places and enjoy their club being subsidised by those who can't.

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IF you join BE balloting is not that much of a problem i dont think (but then i havent tried to enter things such as salperton as i know they ballot so heavily).... if you are on day tickets thats another matter
 
re the BE price hikes. My thoughts are to avoid the price increases, if an event is cancelled we should lose our money - and no i dont have money to burn (I am a very poor student with no money whatsoever).

My reasons:
- IF you horse goes lame etc or you cant do the event last minute for some reason, you are paying for insurance that you cant even use if that makes sence because the event is still running.
-If you enter a even in march there (ok i know recently weather has been varied) is a much larger charge it will be cancelled, however if you do get a run the chances are the ground will be good on the horses legs, however if you run at an event in July there should be more chance of it going ahead, however the ground maybe rock hard and you may choose to withdraw (again losing your money, inlcluding the insurance that you have paid out).

Just my thoughts....
 
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