Welcome back after a scorching summer! We are excited that the 2023 Rosslyn Park National Schools 7s draws even closer!
For schools, if you have registered, please ensure payment has been made because we only have six places left in the U11 competition and three places left in the U13 Prep competition with all other competitions currently at capacity. HOWEVER we are looking to extend all the competitions by a further 10% so it’s still well worth entering now. We will move teams from the Reserve List to the tournament proper if we haven’t received payment. Please remember that if you do not receive entry and remain on the Reserves List then you are entitled to a full refund.
We mentioned in the previous newsletter that we will outline some of the financial costs of the RPNS7s event, so please have a look at the following paragraphs and please do contact us if you have any comments or feedback.
The entry fee for the 2023 event has returned to the 2019 amount of £225 per team after the 10% reduction over the pandemic period. Most of our contractors charge us a year-on-year increase typically based on RPI rates, however on top of this this we have seen some higher than usual contractor costs passed on to us.
Fuel costs in general have had a large impact across all of our contractors and all the transport costs for infrastructure to and from the event have seen significant raises; this includes our delivery of toilet units, grandstands, delivery of programmes, match balls, post protectors, control cabins, marquees, skips & bins, furniture etc. In addition, the government’s decision not to allow red diesel usage except in certain agricultural industries also has a large effect on power costs for our event generators.
We have an excellent relationship with our two landowners, the WPCC and Merton Council (through IDVerde), and they have been very understanding with us during the pandemic, however we have seen our cost for the main WPCC pitches rise by over 30% since 2019, with future yearly increases tied in at RPI Index rates. Our Merton (M) pitches also see a rise in line with RPI Index.
Our own staffing and production costs continue to rise and those familiar with the events and hospitality industry will understand that staff costs quite rightly rise across the board.
We would like to improve many of the facilities at the 2023 event particularly regarding toilet, shelter and streaming provision.
With that said, we are committed to keeping the participants and schools at the forefront of our mind and ensure that those who do play have an unbelievable experience each and every year. We are currently putting together a plan which we hope will be able to assist lower income schools to compete – more information on this coming shortly.
We hope to announce some key dates such as our Draws shortly and we also have some exciting sponsors’ offers so please make sure you keep checking our emails and website for updates.
Have a great term and we wish you every success on and off the rugby field!
#roadtorosslyn
For all commercial opportunities at the 2023 tournament including advertising, exhibiting & sponsoring please contact – [email protected]