Is racing in UKGPL leagues cost free?
Have you ever wondered who is paying for your racing fun in UKGPL ?
Even this forum has to be paid for. Giz pays for this facility and allows us some space on it for UKGPL.
Yes, the mods give their time for free and trust me, there is sometimes a lot of time to be given!!
We volunteered for the job ( well some of us did
) and do it because we enjoy GPL as much as you do.
We have all heard the complaints in chat when we have suffered a poor server connection and cries for something to be done about the lag/warp etc. Some people have quit rather than try and race under those conditions. The mods do the best that they can but no-one can guarantee perfect server connections 100% of the time, although we currently have just about the best facilities that we have ever had on that front.
We currently have a very good sharing agreement for the excellent T7 and Gp8 servers which has been arranged thanks to Fulvio and this is definitely far cheaper than renting our own dedicated commercial servers.
But this facility is not free and we rely on voluntary donations from our members to pay a fair price for access to those servers.
It costs UKGPL approx £300 for each and every season ( equivalent to about £5 per race) to provide servers that can deliver quality racing for everyone.
You will all be aware that UKGPL has been very successful in attracting new members recently and we continue to grow year on year, which is remarkable given that GPL is now 13 years old. This is partially because we can offer such good servers and consequently good grids and good racing.
In order that we can continue to have top quality racing and survive, we need reliable access to good servers and they cost money. Although we have a couple of our own servers such as UKGPL 3 & 5 provided by some of our members, experience has shown that they are maybe not quite as good, or flexible as the likes of T7 and Gp8 when it comes to large grids and close racing.
The costs of renting access to these servers has been met over the last few seasons by regular contributions from the same handful of members, but it is a little unfair to expect these same generous individuals to continue to subsidise the rest of us every season.
Most of us enter at least 3 championships per season = 3 x 10 races = 30 races that require UKGPL to provide a server for you to use.
Enter all championships and you are looking at 6 championships and that is 60 races per season.
We currently have around 70+ active members of which around 50 are UKGPL based ( some are based in other leagues but race with us occasionally). It does not take a great deal of thinking to work out that if everyone could make a even a small contribution, we would share the financial cost much more evenly and probably have funds to cover a 3rd top quality server should we need it.
We are already discussing the possibility of a 3rd 65 league and maybe a 3rd server for next seasons Porsche Cup races, but we cannot provide any servers if we do not have the necessary funds.
If you are unable to make any contribution because of your personal circumstances don't worry, we are not going to chase anyone for money or name anyone. But, if you enjoy what we do here, and want it to continue and grow, please make a donation so that we can keep things going for everyone to enjoy.
To coin a phrase from a well known UK tv ad "every little helps".
