The Cost of a Silhouette Match

[dustinflint]

I am the match director for several annual championship matches in Louisiana, including the high power state championship in Zwolle, LA. This match is (I think) the longest-running championship match in the United States (51 years) and it's in my opinion the most fun match in the country.

This year, participation at this match was very low. Several shooters that attended last year did not come this year; and 12 shooters backed out within the last two weeks before the match. It was a bit depressing.

While I was discussing this with one of the shooters at the match, he told me that he thought that more shooters might attend if an accounting was provided to show where their entry fee goes. He said the assumption amongst the shooters is that match directors (or promoting organizations) make lots of money off silhouette matches.

This doesn't make sense to me. The match fee is just one of the considerations I make when deciding whether to attend a match - it's just a cost of attendance, and a minor cost at that.

Anyway, I've decided to show everyone that attended the Zwolle match this past weekend where their entry fee went. This is the last time I'll ever do this since we keep our Louisiana matches pretty spartan in order to keep the entry fees low; and I think that our entry fees are fair, especially considering those fees have not increased in the more than ten years I've been running matches, despite costs rising dramatically.

So here is where your entry fee went this weekend. A couple of notes for this particular match: food costs are usually higher for us - the owner of the range decided to provide food this year and the cost was almost half of what it usually is. Also, there are usually costs for paint that we didn't have this year because we used leftover paint that we had laying around.

The entry fee was the same as the entry fee for all of my championship matches: $100 for adult shooters; $50 for juniors. We had two juniors and one shooter that shot 1/3 of the match and paid a $40 entry fee. One shooter paid an extra $25 and refused to take it back; so that is added into the total. The turnout was lower than expected by 10-15 shooters.

Of each adult shooter's $100 entry fee:
$58 went to the target setters.
$27 went to awards.
$11 went to range prep (grass cutting and control).
$8.50 went to the Port-O-Let.
$6.80 went to food.
$4.50 went to the NRA.
$1.20 went to small incidentals like scorecards and drinks for the target setters.

Here is the math: $100 - $58 - $27 - $11 - $8.50 - $6.80 - $4.50 - $1.20 = -$17.00

So it cost us $17 per shooter to put on this match.

Hope that answers some questions.

Dustin

[c4p6t7r188]

Thanks for the break down. At some matches the people running the match don't even get to shoot! They give their time and energy and still have to submit scores etc.

[squinty_shooter]

Dustin, Well stated, I hope all shooters have a better appreciation of what it really takes to put on a match!
Kimbal

[atomicbrh]

Dustin, Thank you for posting that.
The nra has zero transparency and I think the lack of true leadership by the organization that claims to be the sanctioning body has fractured the sport.
By the time average people pay their property taxes, car insurance, property insurance, utilities, mortgage/rent, cell phone/internet, gas and food there is no money left to go to matches.
Then many have credit card bills, a second mortgage and healthcare bills on top of that.
It is simply a matter of math.
They want to shoot a lot of matches but they literally do not have the money.
We are not physically able to compete now but if we could pure economics would prevent us.