THE City of Brechin Pipe Band may have to consider cutting back on equipment and competitions after a disappointing response to their sponsorship raffle.
The band launched the raffle last month after the previous deal with Mercury Signs and Designs came to an end.
The group need approximately £4,000 of sponsorship to help the 51 members keep their equipment in good working order and to ensure thei
r continued participation in the World and British Pipe Band Championships.
Recognising that no one firm was likely to find the cash to sponsor the group, they hit upon the idea of a raffle, with 50 tickets to be sold to Brechin firms alone at £100 each.
Only ten local businesses have entered the raffle by last Saturday's deadline though, meaning the band could be facing a cash shortfall.
Leading drummer Colin Ross said the band have now extended that deadline to Friday night and has urged anyone who was debating whether or not to take part in the raffle to help them out.
He said: "Only ten businesses have responded, which is extremely poor. We're not sure if it is because of the time of year or just because times are hard.
"When we launched this we thought that there's no business going to just give us £3,000-£4,000 in sponsorship at the moment and if we did this it's not really costing us anything. If we came away with just £1,000 we thought, well that'd be better than nothing.
"If someone had told us at the outset that we'd only get 10 responses though, we might not have bothered.
"We'll still do it, complete with fanfare for the winner, and while the deadline passed last Saturday we will still accept tickets returned by Friday night."
The winner of the raffle will find their business name, logo and website - where applicable - emblazoned on the band's bass drums, and gain valuable exposure throughout the year.
Over the course of the year of sponsorship, the band will also arrange to play at one corporate or private event of the winner's choosing, providing it is within a 50 mile radius of Brechin.
The winner will be announced at St Ninian's Square this Saturday with the band playing from 11am for 15-20 minutes before the draw.
It is hoped that a few more local companies get their tickets back in time but, barring a massive turnaround, the band is going to have to rethink their plans for the year ahead.
Colin said: "The sponsorship doesn't cover all our costs as it actually costs about £20,000 a year to keep the band going.
"The thing we'll have to do now is think about rolling out more fund-raisers. We're actually quite fortunate in that we do run with a surplus from the year before, so if anything it is 2011 that we'll be hit hard.
"If we don't get a big response then in the meantime we will just have to re-evaluate what we travel to this year and will restrict the purchase of new equipment.
"This isn't the collapse of the band - it just means next year will be a bit harder."
If you would like to buy a raffle ticket to sponsor the City of Brechin Pipe Band and your business is based in Brechin, you can either drop into the Inch Hall tonight (Wednesday) or on Thursday, return them to Colin Ross at the address on the ticket, or phone Colin on 01356 623 225 to arrange a collection.
