After 57 years the CLA has called time on the Game Fair. The CLA Game Fair at Ragley Hall in 2016 has been cancelled. Will a new partner or sponsor be found?
The CLA Game Fair is no more. A statement released today by the CLA has announced that the planned event at Ragley Hall in 2016 has been cancelled. The show began in 1958 and ran for 57 years before financial pressures took their toll. “The event failed to generate enough income in each of the last three years” says the CLA.
The new BBC Countryfile Live show is scheduled to take place the week after the now cancelled CLA Game Fair, at a site long popular with CLA Game Fair regulars, Blenheim Palace. But according to Shane Brennan, Director of External Affairs at the CLA, that was not a determining factor.
“The paid for ticket sales have declined and we have made losses for the past three years. That is the determining factor” he states.
Field Editor Jonathan Young says:
“The Game Fair has been part of rural life since it started in 1958. It’s sad that the CLA can no longer make it work for them but I am confident that the show will continue under another guise because July without the Game Fair is like December without Christmas.”
Read the full statement released by the CLA below.
STATEMENT ON THE GAME FAIR BY THE CLA
The CLA regrets that it will no longer run the annual CLA Game Fair. This decision includes cancelling the planned event scheduled to be at Ragley Hall in 2016.
The decision has been taken by the CLA Board after the event failed to generate enough income in each of the last three years.
Director General of the CLA Helen Woolley said: “The Game Fair is an important and well loved event with a long tradition. It is a difficult decision that we deeply regret having to take.
“We are extremely proud of the Game Fairs that we have put on in recent years and we are grateful to our Game Fair team that have delivered these high quality, professional, events.
“Unfortunately an increasingly crowded summer calendar of outdoor events has contributed to falling attendance. This has led to the event failing to generate enough income and has made the event financially unsustainable.
“Over the last three years the Board made the decision to invest in the Game Fair because of our strong desire to turn the event around. We have been able to make this investment because of the otherwise robust financial position of the CLA. However we can no longer ask CLA members to allow their membership subscriptions to underwrite the losses the event makes.
“We are clear that the Game Fair can no longer be run by the CLA in its current form. We will, however, begin a period of consultation in which we will invite proposals from other organisations on how the Game Fair might be able to continue.”
“The CLA remains committed to providing industry-leading advice and support, running a busy schedule of other national and regional events and being an effective lobbying voice for rural business.”