WHY do road racers have to pay to race and entertain everyone else

[SmilerMick]

I am trying to make sense of why roadracers have to pay to enter each race. is it to enable stallholders to make profit ? or to entertain the spectators who some of dont even buy a programme.
Its very costly for the people who race, and if any incident, they can be out of work and out of pocket a lot more.
 

[itsnota400]

its a very good point Mick! I for one would not begrudge a perimeter charge or even a hike in the price of a programme if i knew that not only was my money going towards prize money but that the riders got free race entries. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who can attend a whole days racing without dipping their hands in their pockets yet expect to be "entertained" by the men who end up risking life and limb for our national sport.

[rracergrl]

The Dungannon Club pushed the MLAs to allow clubs to charge into the racing, we are still waiting to hear from them!

[viking]

i am afraid it comes down to money.  here in the south we charge in and sell a programme , this accounts for about half of what we need. hawkers pay a fee to sell in the paddock. add sales in the programme and race sponsors also help, the rest is made up racers. but what is wrong  is big names getting start money to do flip all ( see mc pint)  while others pay; and some that have paid being excluded to make room for these stars

[Mago]

The problem as I see it is, Road Races are held on Public Roads, be that the roads close by order makes no difference, the roads are still public and therefore it requires an act of Stormont/The Dail for entry charges to be imposed.

Viking makes a valid point Re the chosen few getting start money, but this has always been the case even in Car Park Racing.

Would it be possible to have Irish Road Races declared a part of The Countries Heritage, therefore being eligible for Lotto Funding?

Another, maybe more drastic action would be for the riders to unite and say, we are not paying that.

I beleive that this happened Re one particular race at Frohburg and the organisers reduced the entry fee from Euro 75 to Euro 30.

[fcmr]

Mago what happened in Frohburg was down to the police. Because of the extra races more time was needed to pay for the extra road closure which I hear as £4000.00. If all the riders that had promised to turn up and race the race of champions then the club would have waived the charge.

[Mago]

Colin,

thanks for the clarifacation, as I was not aware of the reason only the talk Re what had transpired.

[Pat Corr]

I don't think any organising club wants to charge competitors an entry fee, it's a matter of having to due to the massive costs of staging a road race, of which a sizeable amount pays the insurance premium. Then you have a host of other expenses such as road closing order, crowd control barriers, safety equipment, medical etc etc, the list goes on and on and there is only a certain amount of programmes that will be sold and advertising revenue available to clubs and this income is dwindling even further due to the current economic climate.

I have seen events with 20/25000 spectaters, 5000 programmes printed with all not sold even though they were readily available, some people are that mean they owe themselves money.

Years ago you could run raffles, chat shows, sponsored wals etc and would mae a nice few quid, this is not the case anymore as ran there course and too many were been run by clubs, riders etc. It's just not easy making money anymore unless you can give good return to major potential sponsers with TV coverage and marketed professionally.

All through the years I've longed for the day when competitors would not have to pay entry fees, whether I ever see that day remains to be seen.

[SmilerMick]

What about Lotto funding,Bord failte, or is it just golfing atc that benefits from funding from them ?
What about TV rights to show it to a big audience like in the usa or some other place of a big population, or something on those lines.
I do understand that the clubs work very hard voluntary to hold races, and also the medical teams, marshals etc.
There must be some way of making it easier financially.

[Nod]

Bord Filthy or the b'Lotto?

Unless you've a hurley, 9 iron or wears a saddle n' whip, I don't think you'll get sponsorship from the likes of semi-state concerns, but it's good to see the likes of two of the commercial motorbike insurers getting involved

AON bikecare for Skerries and Adelaide Insurance with the Kells races

[fcmr]

Spectators need to start paying to watch the races, how can it be done well one idea would to create viewing areas that can be policed and fenced off. These areas would be under the control of club stewards whos jobs would be to charge entry, all other areas on the track could be restricted to spectators. I think this is what is being done stealthally at the TT,have you not noticed that at the TT now they seem to make all the viewing areas at places where the burger stalls can park up or for land owners to charge entry which allows the TT  the chance to rake some dollar in of the stall holders. It works at the UGP well so why not at other venues.

[SmilerMick]

in Frohburg,, the club issued wristbands (sealed) to paying spectators,, that seems a good idea.

[fcmr]

in Frohburg,, the club issued wristbands (sealed) to paying spectators,, that seems a good idea.

And its amazing what a small club can do, its just a pity others cant take a leave out of their book.

[Nod]

Those sealed Wristbands have been in operation at Skerries and Kells for the past couple of years (not sure about other meetings on the Irish calendar)

[viking]

it dose not matter if you give arm bands  stickers or what ever unless you get more people to the races you wont get any more money

hi smilermick i don't know you or where you are but if you would like to help at a race setup give me a shout next summer