Cost of running chess events

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I presume Malcolm realises the World Championship is the most expensive of all, apart from the Olympiads.

Let's go into fantasyland for a moment. How expensive would it be to hold the Chess Olympiad in the UK and where could it be held? What are the numbers involved? It's clearly not impossible, but there wouldn't be a budget like that for the 2012 Olympics or the (possible) 2018 World Cup.

On a more modest scale, what is the general scale of costs for congresses and events like the British Championships?

[IM Jack Rudd]

Let's go into fantasyland for a moment. How expensive would it be to hold the Chess Olympiad in the UK and where could it be held? What are the numbers involved?

1294 players at the last one, plus assorted arbiters, managers and hangers-on. That's going to be an interesting accommodation challenge, if nothing else.

[Alex Holowczak]

A congress balance sheet, based on 100 entries, might look like this:
Expenses: Venue £500-750, Prize money £1000-1500, Grading £500, Admin (e.g. posting forms out, pairing cards) £100
Income: Sponsorship (usually £0), Entry fee £25ish (assuming you're balancing the above costs)

[Alex Holowczak]

If you wanted to host the Olympiad in England, I can think of a few candidates off the top of my head:
O2 Arena - London
Wembley Arena - London
National Indoor Arena - Birmingham (only a stone's throw from Birmingham International Airport too)
MEN Arena - Manchester

England has a wide variety of indoor venues that could be used to host the Olympiad. The problem, as Jack says, is finding somewhere for them to stay for a fortnight.

[Roger de Coverly]

England has a wide variety of indoor venues that could be used to host the Olympiad. The problem, as Jack says, is finding somewhere for them to stay for a fortnight.

If you have a big enough venue, you usually have the nearby accommodation to go with it. If you used all the Riviera Centre in Torquay, you could just about fit it in there as well.

The Olympiad is over a thousand people, but political and other conferences cope. The big stumbling block would be finding sponsors willing to put up the several millions needed to pay for it all. At Olympiads, the accommodation is paid for by the hosts. Torquay was going to be used for the Euro teams over ten years ago where the teams would have to pay. FIDE took fright at the hotel costs and awarded the event to Georgia instead.

[Michael Jones]

I don't wish this to sound too much like a plug for my employers, but this is the sort of thing a largish conference business hosts all the time - except instead of 2000 people meeting for a few days to give seminars, hold exhibitions etc., in this instance it's 2000 people meeting for a fortnight or so to play chess. Based on scaling up the known cost for a similar-sized event on a shorter timescale, I'd estimate somewhere around £2million for the 'basics' - venue hire, accommodation and food. Add to that prize money and anything else I haven't thought of.

[Stewart Reuben]

The Wembley Arena is not big enough for the Chess Olympiads unless they have added to it last time I looked.
The Excel Centre in the Docklands Area is much the biggest and could fit in several chess Olympiads. For the World Youth it was going to cost £300,000 in 2012 for the area we needed. Although there are 7 hotels onsite, there would not have been enough bedrooms for all. The logistics of children being brought in by train was very intimidating. Torquay would be best in England. They have the space to erect an additional venue and plenty of bedrooms in walking distance. The NEC, Excel, Wembley do not have adequate onsite accommodation. Possibly Brighton all combined would be adequate. I am unsure about Bournemouth or Manchester. I am sure Glasgow and Aberdeen would be fine . I am not sure about Llandudno.
The Olympiads probably need 6000 square metres for the main playing hall(s). I guess it would cost £3-4 million to stage.

The other problem with the Olympiads or the World Youth is that we do not have chess administrators capable of taking either on. They would have to be hired in or trained up. That is why we needed 4 years for the World Youth. Possibly I could have done it when 12 years younger.

Comment in 2002 when I discussed the logistics of the Olympiads with people from Adelaide. 'If we go ahead with 2010, we would like you to be Chief Arbiter - if you are still alive.'

Stewart Reuben

[Michael Jones]

Nice though a showpiece arena such as the O2 or NEC would be from the point of view of promotion/accessibility for spectators (although solely on the latter point, anywhere in Europe would be infinitely better than Khanty-Mansisk), and again trying to avoid sounding like a plug, a conference centre would be better from the logistical point of view - ie they have accommodation and catering facilities on the necessary scale, on the same site as the venue. They might not have the big name venues - in fact they might not be able to host the entire event in one room, but most probably could in two or three within easy reach of each other - but they can get the job done.

[Kevin O'Connell]

While searching for stuff about UK govt recognition of sport, I stumbled across the question at the start of this thread:
"How expensive would it be to hold the Chess Olympiad in the UK "

As a guide, the bid document for Tromso 2014 lays out a budget of €15 million.