A Capital Weekend - City Race & Southern Champs

[Tatty]

London City Race I would say. If you're coming to London for the city race might as well do 2 events

[awk]

but at £18 now for the Southern Champs,

was £17 in 2009 so hardly runaway inflation is it

Below level inflation or not, I'm afraid that, along with the high cost of transport, it was the dealbreaker for us. Sad, as the London weekend has been one of the highlights of the past few years (we've done them all), but our orienteering budget won't stretch that far this year.

[SJC]

was £17 in 2009 so hardly runaway inflation is it

I don't think the question is about whether the cost has risen in line with inflation or not. Rather, can the entry fee be justified for what the event is costing to put on ?

Are the organising club going to publish the accounts for the event so that people can judge for themselves. This would seem as good a way as any of countering the feeling that the entry fees are simply too high.

[alanbrett]

Are the organising club going to publish the accounts for the event so that people can judge for themselves. This would seem as good a way as any of countering the feeling that the entry fees are simply too high.

I'll bring this up at our committee meeting in two weeks time.

Although not on the organising committee itself, I have been briefed on our break event point. Fixed costs for an event of this nature tend to be quite high [predominantly event centre (including facilities needed for commentary etc) and mapping related], while of the variable costs (per entrant) associated with the event the various levies come to circa £5 per person.

We still need 300 more entries to reach the break even point (of 800 entries). The marginal "profit" above the break event point is reduced significantly by the impact of the levies.

Making some rough assumptions, if we had 900 competitors the club's return on our volunteers invested time would be £900 (not a lot considering the volunteer hours invested) - which would then be reinvested in the club's community orienteering activities. The margin at this level of entries is therefore quite small.

We cannot budget based on a maximum entry figure of 1200 runners (which it does not look like we shall get) as doing so would involve significant financial risk to our club.

[cbg]

But if the entry fees were £15, where would be the breakeven point? Perhaps closer to 1000 runners? And would that be more likely to be achieved with a lower entry fee? However, if I am an example of anything, orienteers do not like entering until the last safe moment - plans change, injuries occur, so there'll probably be a late surge, at whatever the late entry cost is.

I am looking forward to my occasional run on/in Epping. Because of the London City Race and Epping Forest combination, I decided unusually early that this would be an orienteering weekend - last year I was refereeing a rugby match in Hampshire after the City Race. Last Sat start this time please.

[Mrs H]

I'm just wondering whether combining it with the London city Race was such a good idea given that a lot of people go to London by public transport which means they might be stuck for transport the next day. The two just don't seem to sit comfortably together. Perhaps combining it with a more vehicle accessible urban race would have been better. We are doing London only.

[awk]

Are the organising club going to publish the accounts for the event so that people can judge for themselves. This would seem as good a way as any of countering the feeling that the entry fees are simply too high.

Just to clarify - it wasn't me who said this but SJC.

Personally, I'm fairly relaxed about accounts being published. I don't know of any club who operate on the basis that they want to 'profit' from other orienteers - money (aside from reserves maintenance) gets recycled into the sport. Event costs vary from club to club, perceptions vary (e.g. how much reserve a club needs to run), clubs balance their books in different ways (e.g. big events subsidising small ones, or vice-versa, etc), clubs use their money in different ways and so on. So, the accounts for one event are fairly meaningless in the context of making a judgement, and it's not my role to judge another club's accounting - that's the role of the club committee and the club's AGM.

Mrs H - I agree entirely. I'm glad to see that next year it looks as if LOK are putting on an ultrasprint again: last year was a real stand-out weekend for us.

[Jayne]

Apologies if I'm wrong but think Epping should be possible by public transport.

Andy, glad to see you've entered London.

[Jon X]

Epping assembly looks like it is 2-3km walk from the nearest Central Line station?

I was thinking that was quite handy so a bit surprised to come on here and find the two events being criticised as too difficult to combine!

[alanbrett]

Apologies if I'm wrong but think Epping should be possible by public transport.

Central Line then a 6 minute journey on Bus 20 or 167 (4 buses per hour on Sunday) takes you quite close to the event centre. TFL says a 15 min walk, but for the average orienteer it would be probably 10 mins.

[graeme]

Would have been helpful if the event details told you that before you enter (and where to get off the bus: tfl denied any knowledge of Debden House Campsite, and Debden House sends you to a pub in St Albans!). The cost of two tubes and two buses probably puts the entry fee into context - or it would if tfl website could be persuaded to tell me what it was!

[Mr Chips]

The tfl planner will accept a postcode.

[Angry Haggis]

[alanbrett]

Would have been helpful if the event details told you that before you enter (and where to get off the bus: tfl denied any knowledge of Debden House Campsite, and Debden House sends you to a pub in St Albans!). The cost of two tubes and two buses probably puts the entry fee into context - or it would if tfl website could be persuaded to tell me what it was!

Thanks for the feedback - I have updated the Event Details.

[awk]

Andy, glad to see you've entered London.

Yes, but have cancelled entries.