Frankly I find it hard to believe that some of the high hour guys in the run will accept having to pay for the rating when most of them are already earning a decent salary elsewhere. Let alone giving up their command.
So let's spin this a little further.
eJ have eventually completed the process of filtering out their 100 preferred candidates, a laborious task costing the company a fair bit of money. Mind you, those 100 the ones meant to increase the level of experience. Some time later those 100 people eventually receive the long-awaited call to start training.
I understand a highly unlikely scenario, but what if all of those 100 (and perhaps also the additional 20 eJ have screened on top of the 100 to safeguard against losing people seeking other opportunities in the meantime) suddenly cool off and one by one is turning them down when being asked to pay for the rating?