This article provides a summary of where your entry fees go, covering the cost of the event along with the income required from event entry fees for OACT’s fixed operating expenses. There are two types of expenses: costs per participation and fixed costs that aren’t tied to the number of participations.
What is a Participation? Every time anyone does an event it is counted as a participation. For example, one person doing 10 events, counts as 10 participations.
Costs per Participation
1. Transaction Costs
| Percentage of Entry Fee | |
|---|---|
| GST | 10% |
| PayPal/Stripe | 1%-5% |
2. Orienteering Australia (OA) Levies and Fees
| Cost per Participation | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Event Levies | $0.88 – $10.45 (2025 rate) | 1. Street Series, Sprint Series, Midweek Series, Metro Series, Twilight Series, SC-ORE, L2O and most MTBO events are charged at the lower rate. Higher charges apply for Carnival and Championship events. 2. The OA levy is paid per participation with the same rate applied to all, no reductions for Juniors, even though they pay reduced event entry fees. |
| Eventor Licence, Public Liability Insurance & Australian Orienteer Magazine | $1.25 (2024 rate) | Eventor Licence, Public Liability Insurance & Australian Orienteer Magazine. Amount varies slightly each year as it is calculated on OACT’s proportion of total participations across all States. |
3. MapRun Licence Fee
| Cost per Participation | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| MapRun Licence Fee | USD$0.50 (2025 rate) | 1. For Street-O events. 2. OACT does negotiate for a reduced fee, usually about AUD$0.60 per participation. |
Event Expenses
These are the current costs to run an event. All events will incur some of the following costs.
| Amount | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Map Paper & Printing | $0.10 – $3.00 per map | Depends on map size, quality of paper and where the printing is done; OACT Office or commercial printer. |
| Mapping | $250 – $5,000 | Cost varies depending on: 1. New map or updated map. 2. Area covered by the map. 3. Type of terrain. 4. Distance from Canberra, for reimbursing travel. |
| Reimbursement of Travel Costs | $0.40 per km; $0.70 per km if towing the trailer | 1. For Course Setter, (up to 4 trips), Controller (up to 3 trips) and Organiser (up to 2 trips). 2. Mainly for ACT League and Championship events. |
| Computer Operator(s) | $75 per event | For Saturday Metro and Wednesday Twilight series, to improve the administration of events and to reduce the load on volunteers. |
| Club Tithes | $150 – $250 per event | Paid to the organising club for Metro Series, Twilight Series and Classic Series events. |
| Location Access Charge | $300 – $500 per event | 1. A charge by the property manager to use the location. Typically for Gov’t and Institution managed sites, such as National Capital Authority, Stromlo Forest Park, the Arboretum, Botanic Gardens, NSW Crown Land. 2. In some cases it is a flat rate charge, other cases it is a charge per participant. |
| Toilet Hire | $100 – $300 per toilet per day | 1. Cost depends on whether OACT volunteer(s) tow the toilet trailer or if the toilets are delivered to site. 2. Other factors are distance from point of hire, whether or not it is a Public Holiday, and the period of time toilets are on site between delivery and pick-up. |
| First Aid Providers | $750 per event | Cost varies depending on location and the provider chosen, which is determined by availability. Used for larger events, or in remote areas. |
| Trophies & Prizes | $0.20 – $9.00 per prize | 1. Cost varies from certificates printed in the Office to design and manufacture of medals. 2. Usually only for Championships events. |
| Street Series | $40 per event | Covers map updates and co-ordination. |
| Newcomer Welcome Person | Currently N/A | The role is being done at no cost to OACT. |
Major Carnivals incur additional expenses such as (but not limited to) tent hire, vehicle hire, equipment hire, marketing, video/radio tracking/spectator services, occasionally subsidising catering, traffic control, costs for travel and accommodation for key event officials, shirts/hats for volunteers, and miscellaneous expenses.
OACT Organisational Expenses
Event entry fees need to cover the costs for an event as well as most of OACT’s organisational expenses. OACT’s organisational expenses include:
- Salary & Superannuation
- Office Rent, Shed Rent, Telephone, Internet, Leasing the Printer, Insurance, Magazine Mailing.
- Equipment; for new and maintained equipment not covered by ACT Gov’t CEP grant funding.
- Support to OACT members selected to represent Australia at WOC, JWOC and WUOC.
- Miscellaneous expenses, including Accounting & Bookkeeping, Advertising & Marketing, Annual Trophies & Awards.
Each year OACT makes profits through non-event activities; Memberships, Coaching, Sporting Schools, Merchandise Sales, Fundraising etc. These profits contribute to covering some of OACT’s organisational expenses. However, the majority of the organisational expenses are covered by the event entry fees.
| Covered by | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| OACT’s Organisational Expenses | $5.90 per participation (2024 data) | This is the amount per participation to cover OACT’s organisational expenses, taking into account the profits made by the non-event activities. |
Not all event types can contribute $5.90 per participation to cover OACT’s organisational expenses, as can be seen from the diagrams below. For the regular weekly events, most of the income from the event goes to covering the event and transaction costs. The higher fee charging events are the major income sources covering organisational expenses.
OACT continues to look at opportunities to increase participations, limit cost increases and to keep entry fees as low as possible. Hopefully this article provides some insight into the costs of running orienteering in the ACT.
