Prize money, maybe I shouldn't ask

[carthorse]

As I posted yesterday ,my daughter won our area petplan festival at novice restricted level.We were a bit surprised there was no prize money ,she also won the prelim warm up and got £16 but nothing is given for area finals.Does that surprise you?
I was shot down a bit in an online eventing mag .when I questioned why regional and championship grass routes prizes are a bit poor [ At regional we won less than other sections and champ had 86 entries and first 3 prizes were good but the rest weren't brilliant]
I hate to question these things but the lower levels pay alot into the sport and they are hard to do well in but I suppose it is just the taking part and doing well.I just know how my daughter struggles to afford to compete.I hope you don't think I am being ungrateful.Just wondered what it costs the sponsore!

 

[Bananaman]

Yes, it does seem a shame that there is no prize money for the Area Festival classes.
I imagine it is because there is only the one sponsor, unlike the Regionals/Champs where one sponsor sponsors one level and there are far fewer Regionals compared to the number of Area Festivals.

For a quick tot up...... 16 AFs with 9 classes, Prelim to PSG inc 2 at Nov, Elem and Medium, means 144 individual classes.
So that's 144 sashes and 1440 rosettes, if they go to 10th place......I can't remember if that is right.
Then there are the plaques to each competitor too. I think these are sponsored by Petplan as well but mine is outside so I can't check.

And at the Finals, there will be 9 classes, so 9 rugs, 9 jackets etc., etc......

Some of the AF venues find extra sponsorship, or donate extra prizes themselves which is a nice touch, Sissons Farm and Sheepgate for example, whereas others just give the sash and rosettes.

 

[carthorse]

OK that makes sense but I couldn't understand why you get prize money for the ordinary classes but not the area. Do the organizers get to keep all the money from entry fees for that class and have to give prize money for the others.Actually we were given a photo as well but we bought one as well because you were only allowed to have the presentation photo

 

[Bananaman]

Not sure on that one!

I know normally the organisers get to keep the entry fee but out of that comes a levy to BD per competitor, the judges expenses, helper's lunches etc., marks sheets, and then the rosettes and prize money.

We need an organiser to answer this one!