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20 Aug 20
20:42
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Date Joined:
02 Jul 20
...mate has just been on a Zoom conference with them. 8,000 members. Only 4,000 to be let in for the forseeable. Ballot for individual places. Can't join ballot as a group. You must book a table in advance to enter a bar. Membership can be paused for a year without repaying £100 enrolment fee. Some derisory credits for days racing missed. Nothing concrete said about January onwards. I haven't had a single thing from them so far and have been a member 25 years. No letter, email or invitation to the Zoom. As has been mentioned on another thread by The Anorak etc, the excessively stringent conditions make it hardly worth going given the expense of train, hotel no mates (perhaps). I begin to have concerns that we will get back toi proper normal in the space of years , not months.
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see more, did they give any indication as to what their max crowd might be (as in how many tickets for non members)?
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my mate didn't say but I would be very surprised indeed, no offence intended, if they disallowed 4,000 annual members from going but allowed others. So my guess would be....zero.
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no offence taken , it did cross my mind that it may be zero but i suspect that they are starting small and may open up further as the year goes on, so maybe by the time they get to march perhaps they'd expand it, who knows? cheers anyway
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First come first served get your membership asap posted that days ago my
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you did ronnie, but i have to be honest, given the uncertainty re what may be allowed and the continued fck ups from our supposed government i#d be hard pushed to want to book it
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I agree but the sad thing is if you do. Not book asap you will not get in
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I agree but the sad thing is if you do. Not book asap you will not get in
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I agree but the sad thing is if you do. Not book asap you will not get in
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slightly different point though that isn't it Ronnie? There was no suggestion that membership itself might be limited, rather that not all members would be allowed in. I pay my £ by DD and I am assuming they will honour it.
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This may just be the 'kick in the ballcocks' that Cheltenham deserve - for their greed in increasing both the Festival to 4 Days, and price increases accordingly ... along with (trying to) turn the November Open meeting into Festival2.
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Members is limited first come first served
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Members is limited first come first served
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Members is limited first come first served
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Members is limited first come first served
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Sorry sent from dog and bone
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the thing with this and was probably mentioned elsewhere, chelt may sell 4000 members badges and the gov might limit crowds at sporting events to 2000, too many things up in the air right now
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and ronnie needs a new phone
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cheltenham will see this as an opportunity to expand socially distancing facilities , ie ; corporate and dining packages . us lot chatting and hugging in the arkle ...as charles byrnes would say...those days are gone .
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however ... look on the bright side , lets all join ludlow !
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a 5 day festival or possibly more wont be far away once we get back to normal,got to get their money back
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my guess would be 10,000 allowed each day for the festival next year
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The greediest pigs in The Cotswolds.
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Sorry but I think the original OP has simply made this up, or been hoodwinked by their pal.
To start with, hosting 8000 people on a Zoom conference is very expensive, 100 is the standard and you pay more after that. Then, I cannot imagine Cheltenham being daft enough to resort to ballots in that way. Yes, they might hold a ballot for the very first meeting but for the ones afterwards any member who was lucky in the initial ballot would surely be excluded until all annual members had been able to attend at least once. Furthermore, I cannot imagine Cheltenham jumping the gun like this. We don't even know what sports will have pilot events yet, but Cheltenham are pressing ahead in this fashion? It is all nonsense and why some forum users take pleasure in doing things like this I will never know. It spoils the little bit of intelligent debate still remaining on here. |
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There was a webinar last night for Cheltenham annual members - no idea how many were on the zoom call but Cheltenham last year had 8000 annual members of which 1200/1500 only attend the festival.
The first few meetings will have restricted numbers and you will have to fill in a form beforehand to let Cheltenham know you are going - depending on how many allowed to attend then there maybe a ballot - the public won't be able to go unless not enough annual members don't go which won't happen. As said above no standing in bars - have to have a table. Also four meetings lost last season and given an insulating £20 to compensate when an on the day price I believe would have been £115 so a complete joke - this year offering £15 for each November day if it doesn't happen yet will be £40 to go on each day - they have also increased the annual fee by £20 to £430 if paying by 14th Sept so that just cancels out the £20 compensation. Basically if you want the chance to go racing then you have no choice but to buy the membership but if the racing can't be attended then you get stung by a very small refund - with all the uncertainty you have to be mad to buy it given what they are offering. Although nobody knows exactly the festival will have heavily reduced numbers - I would speculate on 15000 but it is a shot in the dark. |
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the Knight, I resent that I'm afraid. I did not say all 8,000 were on a zoom conference. It was invitation only (as you will see from my original post). I know 5 mates who are members. Only 1 was invited. He has messaged me the content which I have relayed on. It may very well be that he is deceiving me though I've known him 30 years and he has told all 5 of us the same news. I can assure you the contents of my post are true to the best of my knowledge. The details of the ballot were not conveyed. You may be right that attendance at one excludes you from others. I have been posting on this site for nearly 20 years (as aec and FourGoldCups previously).I agree that we need some rational intelligent debate and try to contribute to it (last week I was widely praised for tipping an 18/1 winner well in advance of the race). I do not lie and resent being accused of it. Too much to expect an apology but I live in hope. You should be a little careful with your accusations. By all means disagree, but accusations of dishonesty are not on.
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thank you Pinjob.I was told Zoom. No idea what a webinar is! Perhaps The Knight may do the decent thing now. Did they say anything about the Direct Debits? Presumably you are guaranteed a membership if they have your bank details and renew every year?
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No they didn't say anything about direct debits but I would have thought you would be guaranteed but best check by ringing them - I renew annually and got my membership renewal form on Monday but won't be doing so this year - also this year you can't get a guaranteed seat and they have introduced an Insurance bar membership at £780 which gives you a seat but that has been restricted currently to 250 places which has already sold out.
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Just to add they are planning to put a recorded version of the webinar on their website so you should be able to view it yourself.
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I have to wonder who would honestly want to pay £430 with no guarantee of being able to attend, and in the knowledge that at least in the short term, attendees are treated like the inmates of a leper colony.
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same anorak, it's too volatile currently to understand where we will be in 6 months as much as we all want normality , just to add to above re the op, i'd have no reason to doubt his comments and likewise didn't think he meant 8000 people had been on a conference call, he's been here years and i've never seen him post anything fake
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change the "he's been here years" bit, the original smb was here years i'm not sure if this is the same one, either way i still believe his message re the call
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Elise,
I didn't believe the 8000 members bit - I'm not daft and I watch the BBC and read the Daily Mail, so I know that at least half of those 8,000 must have died of Covid-19 after the Cheltenham Festival was disgracefully allowed to go ahead!! I'd post a sarcasm emoji if I knew how, just in case. |
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lol, world's gone mad - complete farce though this whole situation, not just racing it's a shambolic mess now
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thank you elise. Yes my history here goes back to 2002 or so I think. Whenever it started. Hence my posting my original User Names which have only been changed through accounts being hacked and requiring closing/re-opening. It may be there was another SMB, but that was not me. aec and FourGoldCups were my names. Good luck
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yes, we had a smb,remember aec though, either way hope it all works out and we're able to watch racing soon
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