2014 National Matches Entry Fees

I haven't seen anything on the boards/forums about this, but maybe I haven't look thoroughly enough.  Anyway, has everyone noticed the new fee schedule for 2014?  $50.00 off for Feb/Mar registration and $100.00 add for registration after 31 May!

It is the very first thing covered after the ads, in the Competitor's Corner, on page 4, in the Jan 2014 SSUSA issue: January 2014 - Competitor's Corner

Although I can understand an extra fee for registration at the event and am surprised there never was one in prior years, I find $100.00 extra to be a bit excessive, especially since it goes into effect over a month prior to the event.  I'm probably just a complainer, but a rather sizeable portion of the match attendees may be affected this year.

That's interesting on a number of levels. 

Core customer:  +
New shooter looking to get involved:  --
Unsure of plans because of family or work:  --

If there is a pretty good refund policy, then no big deal, but if there is no refund, it will probably depress turnout.  

     This is one of those penny wise, pound foolish decisions, like leaving the stickers out of the entry packets.  
   On principle, I have no stickers on my box for the last two years.  Haven't missed them much.  

One of the bad things, is you must make the decision to enter (for a discount) before you even know if you can get housing on Camp Perry.  Call in starts in April  for individual competitors.


One of the first rules of running a business, or a competition, is don't piss off your customers.  The NRA resembles a government agency more every day.

I am not agreeing or disagreeing with what they are doing but in the recent Shooting Sports it was said that they had a huge number of on-site registrations with the pistol shooters in particular that caused a day and a half delay getting packets ready and that it causes problems with squadding.

I understand there will always be people registering on site but I can't believe a good percentage of them didn't know the week before they were going.

Why is it more of a problem with pistol shooters over rifle?

sixftunda wrote:I am not agreeing or disagreeing with what they are doing but in the recent Shooting Sports it was said that they had a huge number of on-site registrations with the pistol shooters in particular that caused a day and a half delay getting packets ready and that it causes problems with squadding.

I understand there will always be people registering on site but I can't believe a good percentage of them didn't know the week before they were going.

Why is it more of a problem with pistol shooters over rifle?

I think pistol shooters are a slightly more spontaneous lot than rifle shooters.
That said, the rules in the past were structured so you could make a last minute decision with no penalty. 

It is quite sensible to give a discount for early registration.    It is also quite sensible to impose an additional fee for registration in person on the day of the event.  

What doesnt seem to make any sense is the arbitrary nature of the penalty starting over a month before the event when on line registrations are presumably still open.

    What would make sense is to close online registration, probably by the third week in June, and then require everyone registering after that, in person, to pay the penalty.