As many of you have surmised by now, the club is in serious financial trouble. In spite of the Board's best efforts to put on a fun, challenging, steady, and varied race season in 2009 - nobody has been showing up. We have over 250 licensed racers for 2009 - but only about 150 of the 250 have even attended a race this season. We can only assume the economy has had a bigger impact on our members than we could have anticipated...
At any rate, it's come down to this:
It will be UP TO THE MEMBERS to decide whether or not we finish out the 2009 race season. Simply put, YOUR vote will be based on YOUR attendance (or lack thereof) at the remaining three rounds at High Plains.
Based on our current financials, we MUST have at least 140 racers at each of the remaining three rounds at High Plains for there to be any reasonable chance of us completing the season.
If we have 120 racers at the next HPR round, we'll have less than a 50/50 chance of doing the two remaining rounds.
If we have fewer than 100 racers sign up for the July 25/26 round at HPR - we will cancel that event, and the rest of the season.
It is absolutely imperative that people come out of the woodwork and support our club - NOW! If you can't afford to run the sprints, at least show up and do some endurance racing on Saturday. If you can't afford to race at all, then grab up all your friends and family and bring them to watch the races. Even a $10 gate fee will help at this point.
If you're wondering "where did all the money go" I can summarize it pretty easily below:
We've never had very much to start with
We lost money at the school - this is normal
We made a modest profit at Round #1 Pueblo
We made a small profit at Round #2 High Plains
We lost over $23,000 on Rounds #3 & 4 at Hastings
We lost a small amount at Round #5 High Plains
We lost over $10,000 at Round #6 Pueblo
If you want greater detail, please come to the General Meeting tomorrow night - but overwhelmingly where we've lost money it's because the turnout was low. Hastings averaged 75 riders between the two events, and the recent Pueblo had only 90 riders. Our NORMAL turnout for a race weekend is between 120 and 150 riders. At $200 per rider (average entry fee) that's a difference of as much as $45,000 in lost revenue for just Hastings and the recent Pueblo round. Given our fixed costs to operate an event, there is no way we can recover from those types of losses without a stellar turnout at the remaining rounds.
We have discussed as a Board where we can cut operating costs WITHOUT reducing the quality of the events and WITHOUT comprimising rider safety. Unfortunately, our options are limited - but here's what we've come up with which will take effect immediately and will remain in place for the remainder of the season:
1) The Board of Directors will take a 50% reduction in compensation
2) The Race of the Rockies payouts will be reduced by 50%
3) We will utilize an "appropriate" number of corner workers, instead of being overstaffed as we have been this year
4) All spending that doesn't directly relate to running/promoting the remaining events will be suspended
That's it in a nutshell.
Here's what you guys, as members can do:
1) SHOW UP, SHOW UP, SHOW UP
2) Promote, promote, promote
3) Bring a friend - get your buddy off his butt and on the track
4) Run an extra class (what the hell, it's only $20...)
5) Forfeit your ROR checks
6) Donate to the cause, if you can
This is an absolutely desperate time for the club. We WILL NOT run another event in 2009 if it will cause us to go further into debt. It would be better to shelve the season and start fresh in 2010 than continue to run at a loss. Please, please - show your support for YOUR club and do whatever YOU can to ensure a good turnout at the final three rounds...
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Originally Posted by oldtimer
