Article by Joe Nemelka about One Loft Racing.
One Loft Racing -It is time for some order!Joe Nemelkae-mail: jnemelka@yahoo.comWhen one mentions one loft racing to another pigeon flyer you are likely to get aplethora of responses with some being very supportive and saying it is the future of our sportand others aggressively saying it is the bane of pigeon racing. There is no question that thenumber of one loft races continues to increase – even worldwide – and the dollars involvedcontinues to increase. I am not familiar with exactly where the start of one loft racing began,but as with many ideas that gain traction they start and grow in disarray or chaos and thenover time rules and order is established. Is one loft racing the future of our sport? I wouldventure a guess that it is a very important part of our future and as such I think it is importantthat we start to establish some order. Have we done that? I don’t think so and I would like tomake recommendations that will stimulate some ideas and hopefully some action.Just for perspective as to the influence that one loft racing has in our sport I roughedout some numbers that I think are demonstrative of the impact one loft racing is having in oursport. I looked at eleven well known races in the United States and here are some roughnumbers:• Total Birds Entered: 5500• Total Perch Fees: $742,000• Again, this is only eleven races in the United States that I summarized. How many one loftraces are there out there? I would venture that there are at least 50-60 one loft races so it ismy estimate that the numbers above are at least doubled when one looks at all the one loftraces in the United States. It should be noted that the Sun City Million Dollar Pigeon Race(“SCMDPR”) in South Africa does significantly more than those numbers by itself! If thesenumbers don’t cause you to take a step back and say “Wow!” then the rest of this article isprobably not relevant to you. If, however, you review those numbers and it causes your mindto start churning then I am hopeful that some of my thoughts below might be of interest toyou.Why the popularity of one loft races?I don’t think it can be disputed that one loft races are continuing to grow in popularityand more and more people are participating in them. While I have seen many races comeand go – especially some of those that crossed the threshold into the extremely high perchfees and entry fees – there are certainly many new races each year replacing those shuttingdown. I have noticed that there appears to be a threshold amount that people are willing topay in perch fees and entry fees and if the race exceeds that amount they don’t get thenumber of entrants they are anticipating. I would say that any perch fee greater than $150.00and entry fees over $500.00 will struggle to find enough pigeons to make the racemeaningful. There are simply not enough fanciers out there who either (1) are willing to paythat much or (2) have that much discretionary income for that expensive of race. There areobviously exceptions to this rule and the SCMDPR is one of them. Remember, however, thatthe SCMDPR is drawing pigeons from all over the world therefore the pool they are drawingfrom is much larger. Also, they have spent a considerable amount of money on marketingtheir race to the world and they also have quarantine done right at the lofts under their ownwatchful eye, which is certainly a huge selling point. Although I have yet to enter theSCMDPR, I think they have been able to put together a first class one loft race and that iswhy they continue to draw so many pigeons. Look no further than the professionalism oftheir website and the information provided on each toss—rankings, graphs and charts—andyou will see why they call themselves the greatest pigeon race in the world.There are certainly many reasons one loft races are growing in popularity. In talking withmany fanciers and reading quite a few commentaries regarding one loft races, I think thefollowing list is a good start as to why one loft races are continuing to find success:Total Entry Fees/Prize Money: $2,687,500• The loft managers can make money• The loft managers enjoy the prestige• someone else do the work of getting them ready for the raceThe ease of participating in that you send youngsters when they are young and you let• even the worldCompeting against birds and some of the best fanciers from all over the country and• The prize money• The camaraderie with other fanciers at the events• Testing the quality of the pigeons and breeding pairs in our loft• The ability to market & sell pigeons based upon success in one loft races• There are certainly other reasons, but I think this covers the majority of the fairly obviousreasons. Again, whatever the reason is, one loft races are here to stay and it is likely theamount of money involved will only increase.Challenging Issues for One Loft RacesEven with the proliferation of one loft races and the success one loft races are havingthere are many issues challenging the integrity and legitimacy of one loft races. I do enterquite a few one loft races and in talking with the loft managers and/or participants Iinevitably hear disparaging comments regarding other one loft races and the individualsrunning the races. I have heard—and I am sure this is only the tip of the iceberg—thefollowing objections and challenges to the integrity and legitimacy of specific races:The pooling associated with the races• They never trained the birds• They released the birds short of the stated distance• They never vaccinated and/or medicated• They gave preferential treatment to certain competitors birds• They never paid the money out or it took forever to pay• They lied about the number of birds in the inventory• They never communicate with the entrants• They changed the results• Obviously this past years Vegas Classic had several of the above issues and more and therewere more allegations of impropriety than Elvis’ in Vegas. In my opinion, I feel this is veryunfortunate as I think Ed and Debbie may have made some decisions we don’t agree with,but I don’t believe they did anything improper. While I always question the truth of what Iam hearing, I always wish we could put an infrastructure in place to help facility honesty andintegrity for these races, which is what I will touch on in the remainder of this article.Recommendations for One Loft RacingMany years ago I was working for a company and an individual walked into theoffices and said, “I only know the problems, I can’t seem to find the solutions” and heproceeded to ramble off all that he thought was wrong on a project he was working on. Well,needless to say, he didn’t last long with the company. There are too many of us who aregood at identifying problems, but far too few who work to provide solutions. As such, Iwould like to provide some suggestions for all of us to ponder in an effort to improve uponone loft racing in the United States.1. Governing BodyI have heard some statements from many prominent and active fanciers in one loftraces about creating an organization that will work on resolving many of the above issuesfacing one loft racing and I certainly agree that this is a step in the right direction. I wouldstrongly encourage one or both of the existing national organizations to take the lead or forseveral prominent one loft races to start an association to address these issues facing one loftraces. How can our hobby/sport have a multi-million dollar activity taking place within ourranks and not have a national body governing it with some rules? Either through election orappointment there needs to be some individuals that can govern this aspect of our sport. Thisgoverning body should focus on setting rules and standards for all one loft races to adhere towhich are, in concept, no different than the race rules or club constitutions and by-laws thatwe presently have today that governs our clubs and other racing organizations. Youobviously can’t force one loft races to participate in the rules and regulations that arepromulgated, but you can certainly tell the world which one loft races are participating. Overtime, those one loft races who adhere to these rules will establish themselves as honest andlegitimate and will fill up. With the number of racing pigeon fanciers spread out throughoutthe United States it is still very difficult when reading the advertisements to separate thehonest one loft races from those that aren’t. With a national governing body, we could createa central point for all to look to for information and credibility.Another key purpose of a national governing body would be to resolve any disputes.I think it would very constructive to have an organization to petition in case there is a disputeinstead of trying to fight it out with the one loft manager with whom the fancier has noleverage. Create an arbitration panel that can review grievances. I hear far too often aboutone loft managers not paying the money out in a timely fashion. If we could file a grievancewith the arbitration panel it could be reviewed and addressed in a timely fashion. It wouldalso be appropriate to have this mechanism available to one loft managers for some of theirgrievances against fanciers. I often hear about individuals who either pay their perch/entryfees late or not at all. I get disgusted when I look at a one loft participant sheet and see a listof people who haven’t paid their perch fees. Once a bird is received, the financialrequirements for that bird start clicking off the dollar bills from that one loft manager – shots,medications, e-bands, feed, etc. If there are notorious offenders to paying their bills then letthis be known to all of the one loft races so they can avoid the headache of fighting with thatindividual over monies.2. Compliance & AccountabilityOne of the key functions of the governing body would be to assure that the one loftraces are doing what they said they would do and that they are being fair to every fancierwho entered the race. There is not one objection or potential allegation that couldn’t besolved if enough constructive people got in a room or on the phone and discussed them. Thegoverning body could solicit problems from the fancy at large and create solutions. Itwouldn’t be perfect over night, but over time the rules would mature, be refined and save alot of problems and headaches.It is also so important that when a one loft race set rules, makes promises orcommitments that they adhere to them. How often do we read about one loft races sayingthey will update the inventory weekly, monthly or whenever, but when we visit the site theinventory says it hasn’t been updated for months. This is frustrating to all of those enteringthis race with certain expectations and they are not met. This is one example, possibly trivialto some, of something that I think needs to be addressed. To be brutally honest, I will notenter a race that doesn’t have regular updates. Part of the enjoyment in one loft races for meis being able to go out once a week or so and check to see if my bird is still in the race orwatching my bird progress through the training tosses. Curt Spragg of the Highlander raceand the Beaver Spring Break 300 Loft Managers (Randy Davis & Daniel Carter) send out ane-mail of every toss the birds go on past 20 miles! It is not a created sheet, but a printoutfrom the clock, which leads to the credibility of those races. It is great to get the e-mail andto watch your birds progress or digress on the sheet and there is no guessing on whether yourbird is still there or not. With the electronic bands and e-mail there is no reason every oneloft race manager can’t provide this same transparency into their races.3. Monies – AccountingAs we all know, whenever money is involved the rules of engagement change. I havewitnessed very level headed and sane individuals lose their cool over a few dollars. Whenthe dollars get as significant as they are presently getting in one loft races the potentialvolatility and anger increases exponentially. Most of the time the issues associated with oneloft races is the paying out of the entry fees in an accurate and timely fashion. My suggestionhere is to have the national governing body create an escrow account for the entry fees or, atleast, have the monies put into a local escrow account. All entrants into the race then paytheir entry fees into this escrow account and after the races the funds are dispersed from theescrow account according to whatever rules the one loft manager sets up before the races arecompleted. It is as simple as that. Take the one loft manager out of administrating the fundsand let them focus on caring for the birds.To use an example, I was talking with a one loft manager one time and he said that hewas mixing perch fees with entry fees when he received the monies and spending moneyfrom that single account. He stated it got him in trouble as he eventually spent too muchmoney and had to reach into his pocket to cover entry fees, which wasn’t pleasant. In myopinion, those entry fees are not even his – they are the participants – and they should be setaside in a separate account and not touched until it is time to pay them out. What if he hadn’tbeen able to cover the entry fees he had used for expenses? What a mess that would be!Anyway, the net is that the payout of the entry fee issue could be solved by creating aseparate and distinct escrow account under the direction of a bonded professional and thatissue and potential conflict goes away.3. MedicationOn this issue, I believe that every one loft race should have to be inspected by aveterinarian as to whether they vaccinated the pigeons. Also, they should have monthlycultures and dropping samples done on the pigeons. As I understand it, in many countries itis required that a veterinarian be there to vaccinate your pigeons and a certificate ofvaccination if provided to that loft from the veterinarian. I don’t know what it would cost,but I would imagine it wouldn’t be exorbitant to have a vet come and certify thevaccinations. Also, there are enough avian vets around that can culture and analyze droppingsamples and it is not that expensive to get this done. It would be very helpful for all parties ifthe one loft manager would do this monthly and publish the results. If he takes good care ofthe birds, then all is well and he won’t have anything to worry about. This would certainlytake some of the steam out of the continuing allegations regarding what a fancier did ordidn’t do.4. Miscellaneous IssuesI am now going to air some pet peeves that I think are issues that also need to beaddressed. I think it is one thing to have birds entered on behalf of an international fancierby an American fancier using the American fancier’s bands, but it is wholly a different issueto have someone use international bands on birds born in America. I think there should be anational organization policy against banding American bred birds with international bands.There is no question as to the reason why fanciers do this – deception and greed. In myview, it is flat out dishonest. The hope of those doing this is that the rest of the world willthink the birds were born in Holland, Belgium, Germany or wherever and that they will dowell and fetch a premium price in an auction or they can sell the youngsters off these pigeonsfor more. I know I am stepping on some pretty big toes here, but this issue needs to beaddressed. You can’t take a Mercedes symbol and stick it on a Kia and say “Ah, look at thatMercedes!” It was either manufactured a Mercedes or it wasn’t…this should be no differentwith pigeons. They were either born in Holland & Belgium or they weren’t…simple as that.When I see a series of international bands in a one loft race that are in perfect sequence, Ithink to myself that those bands were shipped over to the US and those babies were born andbanded here. As I said, if an international fancier wants to have someone band youngstersand enter them in a one loft race under the international fancier’s name…no problem, butband them with American bands. It doesn’t even matter if the parents of the birds are thatinternational fancier’s pigeons and he mated them up. He didn’t breed them in his loft inEurope so they shouldn’t be banded with those bands.Who is who? This issue is similar to the one above in that I think there are gamesbeing played regarding who is entering pigeons. How often do we read of a bird winningmoney in a big race and someone markets that pigeon as their entry and when you look at thename the pigeon was entered under you had no idea it was their pigeon. I think every oneloft race should require that it is disclosed at the time of entry (1) who bred the bird and (2)who is the individual behind the syndicate or loft name. I will give two fine examples ofpeople doing it right – go to the SCMDPR website and look up any pigeon and it says thename of the entrant, but it also says who bred the pigeon. Further, Carl & Tim Perry have alist they call “Teams of Disclosure” where they list the individual names of entrants who areflying under a loft or syndicate name. As I said in my previous Digest article on fulldisclosure, it is so important that accurate and fair information be presented when assessingpigeons and one loft races. I will never forget one year when I went to the Vegas Classicbasketing night and there was one individual that probably had 50-60 pigeons entered in hisname, his loft’s name, his wife’s name, his loft in Europe’s name, several friends’ names, etc.Sure enough, this person placed a few birds in the money and the marketing machine was inmotion! I don’t have a problem with any of this except the fact that we, as potentialpurchasers of pigeons, didn’t have all the information disclosed to us as to how many pigeonsthis individual entered. In assessing the race and the pigeons we should be able to know whois who.Another big problem is that I hear about people entering more birds on their ‘team’than others. When a race says “5-bird team” then an entrant should never have more than a5-bird team in the loft. I was talking with Frank Esposito recently who runs Espo’s EastCoast Challenge and I mentioned the birds on the bottom of his Inventory List and wanted toknow what those birds were for. He said that some fanciers just assumed they could ship afew extra birds and he would accept them as part of their 5-bird team. He then informed methat he called these fanciers and said “You shipped too many birds and I either need perchfees for these birds as stand alone pigeons or I will send them back to you.” Way to goFrank, that is what I call integrity to the rules. If one person enters six or seven birds on a 5-bird team and another guy enters five…who has the advantage? That question doesn’t evenneed answering. If, however, the fancier wants to pay for an extra perch fee…that is noproblem, but fair is fair and don’t let certain fanciers have an unfair advantage by having‘back-up’ birds sent just in case one if lost without paying the perch fee. If a one loftmanager wants to do this to make sure they have enough birds come race day…fine, publishthe same opportunity to send these back-up birds to all participants.I also am disappointed when I hear someone say “I am not entering that race as theysend out a 1099 and I have to pay taxes on my winnings.” Huh? Why don’t you just say“My goal in life is to try as hard as I can to break the law and avoid taxes.” Whether a racesends out a 1099 or not is one thing and then it is up to the individual to figure out how tohandle any winnings, but saying you won’t enter one because they do is just plain absurd tome.ConclusionFirst of all, I did include some one loft races in this article that I have participated inor am participating in, but please do not in any way take my reference to them as anendorsement. I was simply highlighting some positive things they were doing. Frankly, Icould have said some things that I don’t like that each of them are doing, but this articlewasn’t meant as a forum for me to either praise or criticize specific one loft races…maybethat will for a future article!In conclusion, I know that many will read this article and have different opinions andsome may even be offended or take heated opposition to my views. Well, sometimes it takesconflict to bring about change and I will accept whatever heat comes my way. I am notlooking to say my recommendations are “the way,” but “a way” to address some of theseissues. It is now time to start a formal and constructive dialog on how to address theseissues.The clock screwed up and my bird never scanned
KERMT, Belgium -- The coop where Blue Prince lived stands empty now, the racing pigeon gone for good.
