Elbaman 2020 canceled

Dear athletes and Elbaman friends,

It’s with true and deep sorrow, but with the true awareness of facts and situations, that I write, on behalf of the whole Staff, the present communication.
Please read and try to understand the whole situation and our position.

As anticipated in March, June would have been the gate and deadline about Elbaman 2020 and it’s time to maintain our promise.
Unfortunately, we have come to a decision that we would never have wanted to make: Elbaman 2020 is cancelled and XVI edition will take place in 2021.
Most probably in our usual date at the end of September (26.09), this will be finalized soon.

June is our deadline because it represents the limit within we have continued to organize digging our reserve fund without using any single Euro collected from entry fees.
Thanks to a very careful and detailed management, we have already spent about 18.000 Euro, but “only” 6.000 are wasted because used for material and services specific for 2020.
That’s sure, we are not so happy that our reserve fund is almost “over”, that is our life jacket for any unforeseen situation, but we have always to keep athletes in first place. We have taken the liberty to insert, amongst options available for registered athletes, to leave a donation to support
us.

Some of you could think: “it’s early, maybe we could race in September!” or “that should be a way to race with proper adaptations”, etc.
As you can imagine, it wasn’t easy to make the decision, but we want to respect all of you and your effort and offer the possibility for a 100% refund of the entry fee. Furthermore, we feel as a family in our staff and we want to maintain the joy of organizing such a difficult event that should never be a “duty”.

Many of you know that we organize Elbaman not for an economic return, almost zero, but for the pleasure to see you reach your goal and live a unique experience. As a family-staff we also enjoy a long weekend all together more as friends than as coworkers.
It seems not possible this year to let you experience what we want to offer, because the event should be inevitable modified and ruined. This represents a huge weight on our will to organize Elbaman.

Moreover, I feel personally responsible for each staff member and their families and I’m not sure at all that risks could be much bigger than what it’s normally accepted from everyone involved in organization.

Then, some very important and pragmatic aspects:

• Until today, it’s absolutely not clear when mass-sport events will be authorized in Italy and there isn’t any guideline or rule to follow;
• Even if some rules would come, we have valid reasons to think that our budget could not deal with extra expenses for organizational or infrastructural required adaptations;
• A remarkable number of our volunteers, including some crucial staff members, have informed that they can not be present for personal reasons or for lack of holidays from job after the lockdown;
• In Italy is effective a law that organizer has the penal (not civil) liability in case of contagion during the event, even if all rules are respected. This is a critical point for everyone, but especially for us organizing in our free time and not as a job;
• Given the economic situation, many of our supporter can not contribute as usual. This creates quite an important gap in our budget with certain consequences on the event.

If we want an even better future Elbaman, we cannot force events. Miss one year well be soon repaid.

We have studied all possible options for registered athletes and we offer you the following 4. All registered will receive an e-mail from Nextrace in the next days, from which you can access the private area and fill up the form.

Please, check also spam and in case no email would arrive, contact iscrizioni@nextrace.net.

Warning! It’s mandatory to enter your reserved area and make your choice, deadline is 15
July, No-choice is not an option and no default decision will be made by organizer.

POSSIBLE CHOICHES

1. 100% refund of entry fee (1)
2. refund (1) of entry fee, from which organizer is authorized to hold 50€ as deposit for preregistration to 2021 event (2)
3. refund (1) of entry fee, from which organizer is authorized to hold 50€ as deposit for preregistration to 2021 event (2) and an additional deduction of 50€ as voluntary donation to support organizational expenses to the cancelled 2020 event
4. refund (1) of entry fee, from which organizer is authorized to deduct 50€ as voluntary donation to support organizational expenses to the cancelled 2020 event

NOTES

1. 100% refund is calculated on the entry fee, excluding the 5% extra fee paid for service cost. Example: if entry fee paid was 210€+5% service, only 210€ are refunded.
2. Pre-registration consists in a ticket sent by email. The ticket has to be used after the formal opening of registrations.
   The ticket:
   • Guarantees a 20€ discount on the entry fee. (example: Entry fee 200€ – 50€ ticket – 20€
     discount = 130€ to be paid when registering)
   • Guarantees a place, within the time validity of the ticket itself, even in case of sold-out
   • Is valid only for 2021 edition of Elbaman and expires 2 (two) months after registration opening. Validity is extended to 4 (four) months for athletes that have donated 50€ to support the organizer (option c)
   • Can be used for any race inside the event (Elbaman – Elbaman73 – Elbaman relay)
   • Is not under a specified name and can be given/sold to third person without informing organizer
   • It’s refundable, deducted 10€ for expenses, within 30 days from registration opening

I would like to reply to a question that many of you could have: why is not possible a simple defer to 2021?

This is caused to the fact that we are not able, at the moment, to suppose which could be the correct entry fee for 2021. As soon as we will have this information clear, registration will open

With the ticket option, each athlete has the possibility to be refunded or to give it to a friend if her/his race schedule or cost connected would not be aligned with personal needs.
We believe that we have protected as much as possible both athletes and us as organizer.

I’m sure that many of you will be with us for a wonderful Elbaman 2021. The whole staff embrace virtually of you, as we are used to do on the finish line of yours/ours Elbaman.

Marco Scotti & Elbaman Staff