Match entry fee

[Pennine Ploughing]

following on from a comment in an other thread, in the last 12/15 years they dont seem to have gone up,
would you be happy to pay more to enter a ploughing match

discuss

 

[Mydexta]

Depends what is included in the entry fee, and also what the match is for????

 

[Pennine Ploughing]

lets just say an every day match no dinner

 

[Mydexta]

Up here, I don't think I pay more than £10 for any match apart from the Scottish championships.

I never leave the caravan with change of £10 anyway, if it's an £7 entry fee then I always take £3 of raffle tickets

 

[Dealer]

Normally around the £10 mark in Shropshire some a bit more don't think I have paid more than £15 at any match.

Happy to pay a bit more depends on what the extra goes to.

Charity / free raffle entry or more prizes or (not more money to the same) if that makes sense.

Not bothered about food happy to pay for it but have the choice on the day.

Paid £20 for a road run last week with 2 course carvery so don't see much difference between the two.

 

[Fergie Ploughman]

It all depends on where the money is going and what your getting. Max I ever pay is £10 or £12, the lowest being £5 I think. It doesn't tend to bother me, its more is it a good match, good judges, decent prize giving, etc. Also, IMO, all matches should provide lunch, even if its a ticket for chip van - you work hard all morning, we should be given a feed for what we're doing, I think the hedge hackers should be given a medal!! NB, the National is of course the exception at £20 plus £25 membership.

 

[Ley253]

I can remember the time when there were no entry fees,fields full of ploughmen and no vintage! It was hard to get a vintage class in, usually no room.That was when skill still mattered, not speed.
Things have gone full circle, Vintage keeps many matches alive, and the entry fee is essential, gate money being almost non existent, certainly at the smaller matches.Thing is, how do you arrive a fair entry fee? The SOP with the national are really taking the ..... with the hidden supplement in the membership requirement, its even more of a sting for the high cut, the sop want them there for both days, so charge two entry fees! £65.00 to plough up concrete and old iron at some sites!
In my view, the entry fee should cover what the organisers spend on the competitor in the way of food and a place to eat it. That being the case, £ 15 would get you a cooked seated meal with a sweet, and a hot or cold drink in a covered area. £10 a salad in the same surroundings, £5. a decent bag meal on the plot ,not just a bag with an onion, curly whirly plastic ham and rubber cheese sandwiches and a can of diet something to wash it down with!
Would I be happier to pay more? Not really, sites are getting worse, and competitors are tolerated trouble makers instead of an honoured guests.

 

[Dealer]

NB, the National is of course the exception at £20 plus £25 membership.

Now then this is different, I believe that this entry should be free and will state why

You should be rewarded for qualifying not penalised financially, often they are held one end of the country and transport accommodation and probably a day off work is involved to get there Friday ready for Saturday.

The event attracts trade stands sponsorship & paying spectators. this should be enough to cover the entry fees of competitors and provide income to put the event on.

lets say 150 ploughmen @ £20 each =£ 3000 if you cant cover that through sponsorship & Advertising its a poor set up.

you have already paid to enter the qualifier (along with all the others that did not qualify) and will have paid membership fee.

I am not a sop member yet!! and probably wont qualify in the nr future

I know that some wont agree or will say that monies go towards world qualifiers expenses but I am led to believe that they have to fund a large part of attending those matches as well.

Just my un-educated opinion.

 

[Pennine Ploughing]

well some good replys above, and sor what its worth here is my thoughts,

entry fee for just a ploughing match,
I think this should be about £12.00, as it does take a bit of time to put the match on, with finding the land and sending entry forms out, then there is the marking out, insurance, toilets to hire all to pay for,
and then there is the prize money to come out of the fees as well,
but would have to bring/buy your own dinner

If there was a good dinner to be given by the match, then i think that £8.00 would not be out of the way,

So if it was match and a dinner a total entry fee of £20 would not be out of the way,

And just to compare this with a road run, I have never been on 1 that the entry fee is less than £10.00. and if you want your dinner and most do, then stopping at the local pub for lunch will be an other £10 or more, and no one seems to think that is to much, and they have little or no costs,

As for the bit about ploughing at the national,
Then i would make that each ploughman/woman in the qualifying class be a paid up member on the day of the match, as to many dont pay their subs unless they want to go to the national, this would give give more income to the SOP, and more news letters could be sent out to members throughout the year from the extra money they get

At a qualifying match, Affiliated societies may nominate one competitor from each class to plough in the British National Ploughing, and as they have taken the entry fee for this match, then when they send the winners list off to SOP, they should include the entry fee, so this way the winner would get free entry to the National with nothing more to pay


£20 entry fee I hear you cry, well how much do you spend on fuel for a start, and other costs besides

 

[Ley253]

£20 entry fee! Talk about flogging a willing horse! We pay enough already, and it the organisers cant cover their costs why should they expect competitors to?Without competitors, there would be no matches, where as without societies there still could be, but much smaller. Prize money? None. Have the classes sponsored by local firms, and name them after the sponsor. Its much easier to get a meal for two from your local pub for the winners of the "Hare and Hounds " whole work class, than it is to get the landlord to cough up cash! Tool firms like wise, socket set for first, combination spanners for second, lump hammer for third. It works, I have done it for a one off match, I was surprised the following year when the sponsors phoned me to offer their support again.

 

[kverneland es 80]

over here we pay 10 euro entry fee to the local matches ,our county run it on a league basis,top in each class after 8 matches go to our nationals where entry is free

 

[Bruce Almighty]

Our society - Forest of Arden - charge £7.50
With that you get a ticket for your dinner, same dinner costs the public I think £10 & it's bloomin good (well worth being a steward for the free dinner)
As discussed elsewhere about profitability of a ploughing match, I can assure you the Forest doesn't do it for the money !
Apart from the loss on feeding the ploughmen,hedge layers & stewards, there's marquee hire, toilet hire, appearance money for horse ploughmen, cutting money for hedge layers - the list goes on. Then there's the risk it may be cancelled due to bad weather, this happened in 2012. ( We were honoured to host it in 2011 & weather was perfect)

My Mrs is in it at 1.08 !

Other social events that the society run through the year help cover the cost of running the match / show

 

[Ley253]

Two things first of all, how can it be right that the tractor ploughmen have to sub the hay burners and wood workers? Our kit costs just as much to transport.Next, you may not do it for the money, any more than the ploughmen do, but you certainly dont give any money away either! If you want the hay burners and wood workers to have extra money, put them in a separate area with a pay gate, so the public can pay for them, you might find they are not the crowd puller you think they are.The other costs, marquee hire, toilets etc are your responsibility, and should come from the gate money, not the competitors.

 

[Bruce Almighty]

Two things first of all, how can it be right that the tractor ploughmen have to sub the hay burners and wood workers? Our kit costs just as much to transport.Next, you may not do it for the money, any more than the ploughmen do, but you certainly dont give any money away either! If you want the hay burners and wood workers to have extra money, put them in a separate area with a pay gate, so the public can pay for them, you might find they are not the crowd puller you think they are.The other costs, marquee hire, toilets etc are your responsibility, and should come from the gate money, not the competitors.

Where have I said that tractor ploughmen are subsidising horses & hedge layers ?
The cost of transporting horses etc is far higher than that of a tractor. Competitors are getting a feed that costs more than their entry fee, what makes you think they are contributing to marquee & toilet costs etc ?
Horses ploughing draws in the public, in this case they drew in the TV cameras. There is a very small charge on the gate, it just about covers the cost of the programme.
I also mentioned that the society runs other social events throughout the year to support the ploughing match cost.

 

[Timo@hattonfarms]

Christ, it's only a hobby if you don't think your entry fee is spent how you think it should be don't go. IMO these societies do a wonderful job keeping these rural traditions alive, regarding horses I do think they deserve an appearance fee, tractors don't cost money when there not working horses do. and ploughing with them definitely is a dying art, Any one with the patience and inclination to persevere with a pair of horses has my admiration.

 

[Ley253]

What is the point of drawing in the public, if the "carrot" costs so much that there is no profit generated? If you think they are worth more then fine, but finance it from their value to you, not from other competitors fees. You are running a show, so make a fair charge on the gate.
Your entry fee is very fair, but I think you could gain more value from it. Horses and hedge layers are just competitors, so should be treated the same as all the rest.

 

[Bruce Almighty]

What is the point of drawing in the public, if the "carrot" costs so much that there is no profit generated? If you think they are worth more then fine, but finance it from their value to you, not from other competitors fees. You are running a show, so make a fair charge on the gate.
Your entry fee is very fair, but I think you could gain more value from it. Horses and hedge layers are just competitors, so should be treated the same as all the rest.

If you didn't draw in the public, you wouldn't sell them their dinner which subsidises the plough men's dinner. Local schools come to the match, it's a family day out, not just a bunch of old farts / anoraks looking at ploughing. There is a house craft show as well.

I have told you earlier, competitors fees don't even cover the cost of their own dinner, how can anything be financed from competitors fees ?

Horse ploughing and hedge laying are much more physically tiring / demanding than sitting on a tractor all day. Some of the general public might like their garden hedge laid, but I doubt they'd want their garden ploughing !

 

[Ley253]

Horse ploughing and hedge laying are indeed hard physical work, but so is match ploughing, believe it or not.At Yeovil last year, the plots were extremely wide.I forget the measurement but I think it was three times the correct amount. I was "Lucky" enough to have a neighbour who left me a 18 " taper, by the time I had managed to get the plot parallel and to size, I had walked further measuring than the horse plough competitors did ploughing, on their normal size plots!
If nothing is being financed, even in part, by competitors fees, why are we paying them, and where is the money going? Horses are not the crowd puller that people believe. A friend did a survey at a local match, she stood by the Horse plots and asked spectators if they had come primarily to see the horses. Less than ten said that they had, and everyone said they would have been interested in the event even without the horses.
To conclude, I believe that all competitors should be treated exactly the same.

 

[Tonym]

At the end of the day match ploughing is a hobby and any hobby you take up you should be prepared to finance yourself and not expect others who choose the less expensive class of that hobby to subsidise you. If that is the case why are world style ploughmen not given appearance money as their equiptment is much more expensive than vintage.
As our Match is a charity match we will not pay appearance money to the horse classes but still have one or two wanting to plough as there are not many matches other than the largest ones that cater for them.
If we all would not enter unless we had appearance money then match fees would go up and you would be paying your own appearance money anyway.
If you cannot afford to finance your ploughing yourself pack up and take up a hobby you can afford.

 

[Pennine Ploughing]

I started this thread as last year we had our first match, as you may know it was a 2 day event with an entry fee of £20 for both days and meal ticket, and with 25 entries the first year we thought we had done not to bad, we started with nil in the bank, and as the match was on a friday and saturday (all sundays are full) a good few said they could not come on friday due to work, and so did not come on saturday either as they needed scores from both days to win, so the question was to find out if the entry fee was to much,
we dont think so, that worked out at £10 per day, and it was £50 for first in each class,

when you look at the grand scale of the whole job, the entry fee is not much of a cost,
as the price of plough parts, cost of running a 4x4 and trailer or wagon with fuel, insurance tax etc,

as said we started with nothing, and 12 months on after the match and road run, we have £400 in the bank, and after keeping a float = to covering all cost for the 1 year, we will then give the rest away,

as for gate money at a ploughing match, round here it matches it is worth nothing, as for just a ploughing match, you might get 6/8 come to see it, there for there is no charge,

I know the above will not sound alot to many, but it was our 1st year,


out of interest what are the cost for the likes of Golf in the way of entry fees