Competitions prices
Various views were expressed:
- Competitions should be subsidised
- Cutting prices would generate enough extra entries to balance out the loss of revenue
- Competition prices are not the major determining factor in attendance, since hotel, travel and meal costs amount to more than the entry fees.
Comments
EBU Congress prices are expensive, especially compared to county congresses which must deter entries.
My partner and I do enter EBU congresses but limit the number as there are county congresses available with large entry lists at much lower cost.
How about an 'early bird' offer giving a discount to those that sign up months in advance?
Peter Bushby Suffolk
Or, if cost is an issue, running lower priced qualifiers with prizes of entries or accommodation/entry packages to the big Events. These could be run on BBO to eliminate the bulk of tournament setup cost. They could be multi-stage e.g. hourly first qualifiers with winners getting a ticket giving entry to Stage 2. You could have Multiple Stage 2 qualifiers with winners getting a ticket to a final qualifier of their choice. Then have a set of monthly final qualifiers scheduled at different times of the day the number of finals and prizes depending on entry.
Peter Bushby Suffolk
In the short term I feel it is difficult to do much about the entry fees. If numbers increase then it should be possible to reduce them. I would suggest the EBU might continue with its current approach to aiming for break-even (once overhead allocations are taken into account), but set a budget over three years for expenses related to increasing numbers (e.g. free entry, additional prizes / trophies etc.). This would need to be regarded as an investment so would probably need to come from reserves. There would need to be a plan over that period as to how it would be used (i.e. it might be applied to a subset of selected events rather than spread across all of them), and I would suggest the plan be reviewed annually (so you might change what you do in Year 2 relative to what you planned based on what you observe happened, and the feedback received, in Year 1).
I agree with most of the above. Keep going with deleting prizes/trophies. Several years ago put a great many trophies in the bin as all they do is gather dust. By deleting prizes/trophies your cost diminishes.