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http://www.cla.org.uk/latest/news/state ... -game-fair


STATEMENT ON THE FUTURE OF THE CLA GAME FAIR
21 September 2015
The CLA regrets that it will no longer run the annual CLA Game Fair. This decision includes cancelling the planned event scheduled to be at Ragley Hall in 2016.

The decision has been taken by the CLA Board after the event failed to generate enough income in each of the last three years.

Director General of the CLA Helen Woolley said: “The Game Fair is an important and well loved event with a long tradition. It is a difficult decision that we deeply regret having to take.

“We are extremely proud of the Game Fairs that we have put on in recent years and we are grateful to our Game Fair team that has delivered these high quality, professional, events.

“Unfortunately an increasingly crowded summer calendar of outdoor events has contributed to falling attendance in each of the last three years. This has led to the event failing to generate enough income and has made the event financially unsustainable.

“Over the last three years the Board made the decision to invest in the Game Fair because of our strong desire to turn the event around. We have been able to make this investment because of the otherwise robust financial position of the CLA. However we can no longer ask CLA members to allow their membership subscriptions to underwrite the losses the event makes.

“We are clear that the Game Fair can no longer be run by the CLA in its current form. We will, however, begin a period of consultation in which we will invite proposals from other organisations on how the Game Fair might be able to continue.”

“The CLA remains committed to providing industry-leading advice and support, running a busy schedule of other national and regional events and being an effective lobbying voice for rural business."

gutted

went for the 1st time this year with the family and we all really enjoyed it and met some great new friends

we had planned stopping down next year but guess not!!

Chris

A great shame, but understandable.

Having been to two CLA Game Fairs in the last three years, it is clear what a mammoth amount of time, energy, effort and old fashioned dosh it must take to make the event happen.

Therefore there can be little incentive for the organisers to be further out of pocket. That's not to say that the Game Fair baton may not be picked up by another organiser, but perhaps a scaled down version.

Yup sadly as predicted......viewtopic.php?f=7&t=22096&start=10#p246867

I honestly don't think it ever recovered from the years it was cancelled due to the weather.....Traders losing revenue having already paid their pitch fees with no refund and purchased their stock and then not having the confidence to re book even with the 10% reduction in pitch fees offered for the following year...Great shame as; not only was it a great fair it was as much a social event too, well for us it was. Maybe the other Game Fairs around the country will benefit and be able to host some of the gundog competitions.

Possibly if they utilised some of the showgrounds dotted about the country where the infrastructure is largely in place it would be a less expensive exercise to put on but it won't be the same....Not conducive to holding a decent gun dog competition though....

What a huge shame to see that missing from the diary...

Rascal.

In an ever increasing society driven by the need for profit, I wonder what the costs must be? What's the ticket price? What is the pitch fees? There is iam sure inexcess of a £1million on whole event yet they want more, no doubt, yet there costings can't be anymore than what 300k?

Just guessing wildly there of course!

Stihl 090 wrote:In an ever increasing society driven by the need for profit, I wonder what the costs must be? What's the ticket price? What is the pitch fees? There is iam sure inexcess of a £1million on whole event yet they want more, no doubt, yet there costings can't be anymore than what 300k?

Just guessing wildly there of course!

I heard the 2014 CLA game fair cost £4.7million to put on, £300k doesn't go far these days...

OK, so where does that go then? Seems excessive to me!! Greed

It became to big, and the figures mentioned are correct.

If it's no longer financially viable it's not greed, do you go to work to lose money?

Rising costs of venues, pitches for exhibitors and a decline in revenue for traders will have played a major part in the decision. With the rise of the Internet revenue from shoppers will have decreased rapidly, many will go, window shop then buy from the comfort of their sofa at a lower price because internet traders do not have the huge overheads of a stand.

It's sad to think it won't be around any longer, but I'm sure something will take its place, the BBC has already made an announcement. Surely they have to get something right, maybe it could be this, but I doubt it.

I am surprised it took so long for this to happen. In today's economy when money is tight, asking people to pay £40 a head equating to £140 for a family of 4 before they have even stepped through the gates - is a lot to ask...especially when prices inside the fair are highly inflated particularly for things like food, and then the lack of traders along with the high cost for traders ( 2k i believe ) put a lot of local traders off attending.It doesn't make it financially viable for the average family.
I believe the Game Fair has lost it's way and it's roots of what it initially started out to do, i didn't see much there for what i would consider the "working man" - what i did see were stands selling Bentley and Jaguar cars and remember thinking at the time i have never seen anyone turn up at a shoot day in their Bentley or ploughed their field in their Jag.....

I think they got greedy and shot themselves in the foot, i just hope that the Midlands Game Fair doesn't go the same way.