I've been down this road in a much smaller organization (EMRA) and seen the ugly financial realities. EMRA does not demand pre-registration, and does refund your entry if you chose not to turn a wheel after you pay.

Reality #1: Want a date in July? Be prepared to pay for at least 50% of it (varies by track) in the January-March timeframe. In the northeast, that means the organization has to do it on income from the previous year. Oh, and if you cancel the event too late you get to pay for the date anyway, or some huge portion of it.

Reality #2: Insurance. It costs a lot, and typically they want a huge amount of that up front as well. IIRC, EMRA's insurance is around $35K per year. And you can't rent a track around these parts without proof of insurance. So it has to be paid for early on.

The ugly reality is that a typical 10 weekend EMRA season chews up $50K or more before the first event of the year. And EMRA is small potatoes compared to SCCA and NASA in terms of size and expense.

Quote Originally Posted by jjjanos View Post
I am aware of these realities.

So opening registration 3 weeks prior to an event really doesn't help make the deposit required well in-advance of the event, does it?
No, but that is not the idea of a non-refund policy. It is to cover the organization's ass in the event of a fiscal, for lack of a better word, washout. It is designed to encourage the driver to attend and spend. For example, EMRA had an event at LRP a few years ago that had rain on race day (EMRA did/does two day weekends, one day Time Trial, one day race) which resulted in about 12 cars showing up and running. There probably were in excess of 60 "pre-registered." LRP is expensive, hugely so, with rentals in the $35K per day range at the time. Forgive me if I don't recall the exact amount. There is no discount from LRP for bad weather.

It would have damn near put us out of business, but fortunately the TT the day before was a huge success (except for me, I rolled the damn car going down the hill ) and EMRA lived to see another day.

I'm not involved over there as actively as before, but I do know that like a lot of smaller organizations they are suffering in this economy. It's not bad money management, it is the desire to put on affordable events and remain around to do so from year to year.