as reported in the news, it was announced that the government's funding for the sports council has increased by quite a sum, and for this fiscal year money going towards all the NSAs will increase as compared to last year's.
i hope that the sdba will stand to gain something from this, and that the series be brought back again.
im a lil disappointed that the committee decision to cancel the series is made without consultation with teams that are looking forward to these races. the official reason given was due to the need to reduce costs, but maybe there could be other alternatives that can be taken without needing the race to be cancelled. i'm sure many will agree that the masters series is seen as a good gauge of each team's latest standards compared to the rest of the fraternity, and personally, the series is a decent race to row in.
i feel that $600/$300 (i don't know the original participation fee, this is stated by KNS) fee per men/ladies team to participate in the series can be re-evaluated, and increase to maybe say, $1000/$500. the numbers might look big, but if u calculate that $1000 allows you to participate in 6 decent races throughout the year, the sum a boat of 20 rowers + 1 coxswain each must pay is just $8 for each race, compared to $10-$18 that SAVA charges per head. the increase in participation fees would mean a haul of $27,500 for 20men teams and 15ladies teams compared to $16,500 based on the original fees.
also, with a team able to submit as many as 50 names, that average sum of $8 is brought down even lower.
to cut cost further, SDBA could have considered lowering the cash prize for the winners, or remove it totally, saving them $4500. if there are so many teams who have no qualms paying $17 per head to participate in last year's SAVA sprints without any cash prize, i'm sure they'll won't mind a masters series with no cash prize either.
to cut cost further still, reduce the number of races from 6 to 5. i don't think teams will complain about having 1 less race to race on, at least it's still alot better than 0. 1 less series would mean a saving of about $4.5k (based on KNS' calculations below).
there are still alot of ways to cut cost for organizing the masters series, the above are just a few that i thought of in the past 10 minutes. i'm not sure whether sdba will get an increase of funding from ssc, and i'm pretty sure there won't be a reversal of decision by the committee, but i hope i can look forward to racing in masters series in 2010.
