VOTE Date ETC 2017

Hi guys,

As promised, here is a short summary of what's going on regarding the 2017 edition of ETC to be held in Salamanca.

We met with the venue management office so we have a clearer picture on how to proceed because as you know our first budget (which was made before Athens) hinged on attendance figures based on Prague '15, with a bit of wriggle room to account for some Eastern European teams not being able to attend for budgetary reasons, while Athens '16 were significantly lower.

As it turns out, we have been able to get a deal whereby we will cover costs with the lowest predicted attendance and there will still be room if registration gets to 2014-15 figures (either by main 3 events or any of the planned side events) by booking the whole venue (which is composed of several halls) but being able to pull out of some if registration turns out to be on the lower end.

The projected ticket cost after this first big hurdle has been cleared (and provided the vote goes towards the 1st weekend) will be 65 with food - 45 without. With a chance to get it down to our budgeted 60 if attendance is up to previous levels.

Even at 38 teams per system (which we're pretty sure we won't be getting) all 3 main systems would still fit in the main hall, it's only the side events that will be moved to adjoining halls in case space is needed, and the combined floor space is enough to fit an even 2xAthens events, so there will be lots of action going on.

So we are looking at a flexible venue budget of between 26 to 36K (depending on how much space we finally need) including:
- Venue (with a dedicated dining hall where also the players with a foodless ticket will be able to bring in food and eat it sitting down on a table)
- Security (6-8 licensed guards, depending on final attendance)
- Cleaning and maintenance (loads of toilet paper, too)
- Air conditioning
- PA system
- Existing wifi (which we will sure won't be enough, that's one of the next things to look into)
- Referee rooms with full board

IMPORTANT: This budget is for the 1st weekend of August (4-6, basically matching Athens' dates), the following weekend is a big wedding weekend so we would get basically the same deal, just 5K extra for the venue and (most importantly) the hotel would block 50-60 rooms for their own use (which considering the hotel has 218 rooms, is a significant bite into its capacity).
So to sum up:
Aug. 3-5: 65€ per person, lunch included. 218 rooms available for us at the hotel 
Aug. 11-13: 5.000€ extra cost of venue (to be divided among participants, total fee increase will depend on number of participants). 50-60 rooms blocked so only 158-168 rooms available for us 
Aug. 18-20: same deal as 11-13 (5K extra, 60 blocked rooms)
Aug. 25-27: venue unavailable (trade fair)


If the ETC is to be held on 4-6, we would get the whole hotel for ourselves.

Check us on our facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/etcsalamanca2017/

Feel free to use this thread for Q&A, comments, etc. We will try to answer as quickly as possible.

Yours sincerely,

The Salamanca ETC'17 crew: Diego, Héctor, Pablo, Alex, Alberto V., Alberto A., David G., David R., Raúl, Javi, Rober, Fernando, Jonathan, Mariano, Juan Fco. and yours truly, Jordi.