Update to BROE fee changes for competitions
Cancelled competitions will now continue not to be charged BROE fees throughout the 2025/26 season
On 13 February 2025, we announced that BROE ‘per seat’ fees would increase from 2 June and that these would also be charged if the competition was cancelled after entries had opened.
We understand that fee increases are never welcome. Each year, we review membership fees, and club and competition affiliation fees, considering inflation, operational costs, and fairness across the community. This is only the second adjustment to fees since 2019.
This year’s review included the BROE/seat fees payable by competitions, which have not increased in the 20 years since BROE was first introduced. Investment is urgently needed to modernise the BROE system to make it more secure, reliable, and fit for the future. Redevelopment costs for BROE have been estimated at £180,000. Current fees have not kept pace with rising support costs, and it is necessary to begin raising funds for this work.
The full set of fee increases will also help to cover:
- Growing maintenance costs for BROE
- Higher insurance costs including an increase in liability cover from £10m to £15m
- Technology upgrades and system support (e.g. ClubHub and the British Rowing Membership portal)
- Employer national insurance cost increases
- Expanding safeguarding, welfare, and governance support
- Ongoing operation of the Incident Reporting system.
We gave over three months’ notice to allow competition organisers time to adjust entry fees, with changes taking effect from 2 June 2025.
However, we’ve listened to concerns about costs for cancelled competitions and in response to this feedback, we will remove the proposed BROE charge for competitions that cancel, while maintaining the £121 discount to the daily affiliation fee for cancelled competitions.
