Let's call a spade a spade.
Dave
Red Bull Air Force, I love that bit!
Herc, my concern is the public being led to believe the money is gong to good causes, but with the charity getting just 20 pence out of every 8 quid at the gate, maybe that could be made a bit clearer on the ticket.
Have a read at the accounts and you will see that they spent loads of that money on doing "stuff" as well as buying fuel. Some people will be doing rather well out of that. I don't object to companies making a profit but this smacks of being a bit close to a well known scam involving the Fire Service and books for schools.
Let's say I come up with a heart rending story. You get a million people to give us a quid each, I pass on all of what's left after we have paid the costs of generating that money. £123.45 ends up with the good cause since we had to pay (my mate) to build a website and advertise in (my other mate's) magazine and then we had to rent office space from the office rental company (run by my sister in-law) to have somewhere for the staff (our kids & their friends) to sit.
My cousin who has a classic car restoration business gets a chance to show off his stock and have his customers bring their cars along as an attraction for the punters to come to our open day. Obviously we agree to cover the costs of bringing the classic cars along as we will get money for the charity at the gate, based on punters coming to see the cars.
Cousin gets the business from the car owners who want to see their car look its best on the day, and everyone's a winner. Even the bloke next door to me who has a car transporter. He can charge the car owners whatever he wants, since the event organisers are picking up the costs of running the show.
Everyone is happy, even the "Target" as they have £123.45 more than they would otherwise have.
Any of this sounding familiar? I have no idea if any backs are being scratched in relation to RIAT and I am not suggesting that they are. I just wish to point out that it looks like some folk are doing very well out of the charity not getting much of the money.
Waste is frowned upon and i've lost count of the number of times Tim has reminded people RAFCTE is a charity.
Actually, it [Royal Air Force Charitable Trust Enterpises] is not a charity. It is a limited company. The Charity [Royal Air Force Charitable Trust] is funded by the "available profits" of the Limited Company. By the time they have paid all the fuel bills, hotels, caterers, aircraft operators and marketing people, the profits left are quite slim, and then a third of what they do pass to the Charity gets swallowed up in yet another layer of expenditure.
Winco, where did you get the idea that "the proceeds" from the events would be serious money?
I don't know where you get your figures from re Airshows, but certainly Waddo must have made some significant money this year, as the gates were closed I understand on both days. RIAT was sold out well before the show as it is an all ticket event. The proceeds from these events are then distributed to the service charities (not an insignificant sum) So which airshows are you refering too?
Read the accounts from the link I posted earlier.
They got over 8 Million pounds in and disbursed £196,997 to Charitable causes. Perhaps you are right, maybe Waddington did make significant money, RIAT certainly did.
Less than 20 pence out of every 8 quid was distributed to service charities.
AP