BNAA Reminds Public Of Race Scheduling Rules
[Updated] The Bermuda National Athletic Association [BNAA] has advised the public of the need to schedule charitable road races through that governing body in order to avoid complications and potential canceling of the event.
Donna Watson, President of the Bermuda National Athletic Association [BNAA], said, “We at the BNAA understand that the economy is not in a good space but charities need to realize that they can not just put on road races as they please. Any road race has to come through the BNAA as the governing body to be sanctioned.
“We are seeing races pop up that are not on our official calendar and they are being scheduled for the same day as other races. The public needs to know that every sport has a governing body and they can not just go out to any sport and do as they please. We have all rights to cancel a race if it has not been sanctioned by us.
“We have already had an incident last year when two races were held on the same day and that was a disaster. We would never schedule two races on the same day, be it one in the morning and one in the afternoon, as one race will always suffer.
“The public needs to respect our organization and again realize they can not do what they want to do when it comes to road races. They have to follow the governing rules and go through the right channels by contacting the BNAA to ask for the race to be added to our calendar and, based on the date they choose, we will grant them permission. We normally have our calendar out by September 1, with the first race taking place on Labor Day.
“If anyone wants to submit a race, they can send a submission to our office at bnaa@logic.bm and we will advise if we can accommodate the race. You can not just wake up and decide you want to put on a race. This would cause our road race calendar to be totally out of control. That does not happen in any other sport,” added Ms. Watson.
Update 11.37am: The BNAA wanted to clarify that they are only speaking of road running races, and said that charities can have walks without them having to be sanctioned by the BNAA.
I fully appreciate the desire to avoid scheduling conflicts and would think anyone organizing a race would want to. However, I believe in most other places it is possible to simply run an unsanctioned event and label it as such. I don’t see how the BNAA can require this.
How much does it cost to have your event sanctioned and what are the benefits provided through being sanctioned?
$7 per person per race and they provide no benefit other than making money off of road runners.
I concur that two races should not be run on the same day. However, I would like to know where it is written that BNAA has to sanction any road running on Bermuda roads.
As a member of a running club, I pay a yearly membership fee to the club where I receive membership benefits. I then have to pay BNAA $7 for every race that I participate in. Therefore, I sometimes pay close to $100 to BNAA a year! And for what? Is this a membership fee? If so, one runner can pay $7 and another $84 a year for BNAA membership. Is this fair?
They don’t even collect their own membership fees. They don’t provide race equipment or officials and you don’t even get a membership card! To add insult to injury, the running club has to pay BNAA 25% of their race funds for races that they organize, promote and officiate. The club marks the race route, provides water stops, race officials, prizes, race numbers, etc. What does the BNAA provide? NOTHING but a race calendar!
Since it’s the clubs that encourage people to join road running and put on the training for their members, BNAA should be giving the CLUBS funding.
In these tough economic times, the levy needs to go and they need to put into place a proper annual membership fee that THEY collect.
Is it possible that race organizers get insurance coverage through being sanctioned by BNAA? That’s a hefty levy to get nothing. it is hard to believe you could not hold an unsanctioned race if you chose to….what is the need or benefit to being sanctioned?
This Seasoned Runner’s response should be a published in order to bring light to these relevant points. BNAA wants to sanction for their financial benefit not organizational purposes. It was the BNAA that caused the scheduling conflict last year by sanctioning a race date change knowing there was confluct. But they collected their fees!
Bernews, can you find the “required to be sanctioned” and all “road running races” information. I have looked at the BNAA website. The information is not obvious for the average person to find.
one thing that is clear to me (as a person who has organized a few races myself) is that there is NO single governing body that provides any benefit for any semi-private or private entity who wishes to put on a race.
this is ludicrous!
what should be said is that organizers should look at the calendar place in the public domain for these races and organize themselves accordingly.
if not – there should be a law written to govern these events in order to eliminate self serving elitists such as the originator of this putrid message that Bernews has thankfully posted!
the public needs to know that this BNAA provides nothing for even its own members 90% of the time and just collects money to be spent on what I might ask??
additionally, is there not a requirement by Bermuda Police Service or Govt House that any race must be passed by them in order to get permission?
On average, a race like Lindo’s or partnerRe often has to pay $5,000 or more to BNAA per race for the pleasure of being a sanctioned race.