Post
by Claire Summerscale » Sat Jan 05, 2008 7:04 pm
It could not have been foreseen that the Paragon would renege on its agreement with the 4NCL and this situation is not convenient for anyone.
The Paragon intended to charge the 4NCL £14,000 per weekend for use of the hotel facilities, which equates to an additional cost to each team of approximately £400 per weekend. A huge amount of effort was invested in the short period of time available to find alternative venues.
Finding venues is an extremely complex and time-consuming task, given the relatively limited number of hotel/conference venues who are able to/willing to meet the 4NCL's requirements regarding free venue, commission, size of playing area, number of bedrooms, room rates etc. We haven't been able to find central venues that meet our requirements all the time - hence the spread around the country.
We can have our pick of any venue in the country if:
1. Teams are willing to pay an additional £166,000 per season in entry fees to cover the cost of paying for venues and not receiving commission (ie around £2,400 a team, based on the terms quoted by the Paragon Hotel).
2. Players are willing to pay considerably more for their rooms.
Until that time, I'm afraid our leverage over hotels is somewhat less than we would like.
In response to comments received from team captains and despite the difficulty in finding suitable midlands based venues, the 4NCL board who invest their time and effort for free to ensure the 4NCL is a success for everyone, have worked hard to move to a more central bias next season.
Claire Summerscale
4NCL Chairman
