Stop High Entry Fees

In article <[email hidden]>,

(macelroy) said:

A lot of my runners refuse to run races because of today's
high entry fees. They refuse to pay the $35 or more
dollars that the average race is charging nowadays. I also
think it is outrageous. Races have become a business to
make money and not something for the purpose of the sport
itself. I have told my runners that if I could change it I
would. But I am helpless to change the greediness of the
world at large. All I have been able to do is to try to
instill in them an understanding of the insanity of
economics and everyone always having the need to raise
prices. I tell my runners that if I were president I would
completely freeze prices on everything for the next 1,000
years so that people can concentrate on doing things
without the purpose of greed. It's a sad thing to see high
school, college runners or anyone for that matter not want
to enter a race because the entry fee is too high.

well, as time goes by, the services and stuff needed to put
on a race gets more expensive, along with everything else in
the world. i do tend to think that many races COULD charge
less though, esp. the ones that look like they were put
together on a shoe-string budget. i don't mind doing such
races, but only if the entry fee is appropriately lower.

when money is tight, ANY fee seems like a lot. these aren't
great economic times.... i had to forego many races last
summer due to reduced income. instead i just trained and did
little personal race pace runs to test myself.

i do love running, but i love racing even more. something is
really missing from my life if i can't race at least once a
month during race season.

one factor in the prices is also the "free" souvenir t-
shirt. i think every race should give you a choice of
whether you want the shirt or not, and that you'd pay a
lower fee without the shirt included. i opted out on the
shirt a few times in the past, when i had the choice. but
more often than not, there is no choice.

Cam

[email hidden] (macelroy) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

A lot of my runners refuse to run races because of today's
high entry fees. They refuse to pay the $35 or more
dollars that the average race is charging nowadays. I also
think it is outrageous. Races have become a business to
make money and not something for the purpose of the sport
itself. I have told my runners that if I could change it I
would. But I am helpless to change the greediness of the
world at large. All I have been able to do is to try to
instill in them an understanding of the insanity of
economics and everyone always having the need to raise
prices. I tell my runners that if I were president I would
completely freeze prices on everything for the next 1,000
years so that people can concentrate on doing things
without the purpose of greed. It's a sad thing to see high
school, college runners or anyone for that matter not want
to enter a race because the entry fee is too high.

Hmm.

Partially true. A lot of races are in it to make money, for
charity that is.

but maybe it's just your area. there are races in Ohio much
cheaper than $35.

And who says you are helpless. Like your rants about eating,
apply your own advice: STOP whinning and DO something about
it. Get together with your runners (are you claiming to be a
coach?), and put together a race. make the awards yourself
(get some cheap picture frames, print certificates on your
computer and put them together as one solution) Ask for
donations to cover costs (paper and ink isn't that much but
the extra can go to next year's race).

Expand your horizons. The solution is not always right
in front of you. Like running, you may have to work for
your goal.

Ed

"macelroy" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

A lot of my runners refuse to run races because of today's
high entry fees. They refuse to pay the $35 or more
dollars that the average race is charging nowadays. I also
think it is outrageous. Races have become a business to
make money and not something for the purpose of the sport
itself. I have told my runners that if I could change it I
would. But I am helpless to change the greediness of the
world at large. All I have been able to do is to try to
instill in them an understanding of the insanity of
economics and everyone always having the need to raise
prices. I tell my runners that if I were president I would
completely freeze prices on everything for the next 1,000
years so that people can concentrate on doing things
without the purpose of greed. It's a sad thing to see high
school, college runners or anyone for that matter not want
to enter a race because the entry fee is too high.

The idiocy continues.

Define "greed". The organizers set a price they think will
cover their expenses and provide a profit so they can keep
putting on races. If everyone just broke even, there would
be little incentive to put on events.

Price controls do not work. Ask Nixon, he tried in the 70s.

The boycott by "your" runners is a way to make some change
in the cost of races, but you need to let the race
organizer know it.

The way to do this is vote with your feet. If it's too
expensive, don't run
it.

BTW - I got value for money last Saturday, running a 50 mile
trail race. How many races cost $1 / mile or less?

Alan.

"macelroy" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

A lot of my runners refuse to run races because of today's
high entry fees. They refuse to pay the $35 or more
dollars that the average race is charging nowadays. I also
think it is outrageous. Races have become a business to
make money and not something for the purpose of the sport
itself. I have told my runners that if I could change it I
would. But I am helpless to change the greediness of the
world at large. All I have been able to do is to try to
instill in them an understanding of the insanity of
economics and everyone always having the need to raise
prices. I tell my runners that if I were president I would
completely freeze prices on everything for the next 1,000
years so that people can concentrate on doing things
without the purpose of greed. It's a sad thing to see high
school, college runners or anyone for that matter not want
to enter a race because the entry fee is too high.

Well, I'm sorry people but I come from a time where people
would often run road races almost every week and where there
wasn't one road race that cost more than one dollar.

Alan Walker said:

BTW - I got value for money last Saturday, running a 50
mile trail race. How many races cost $1 / mile or less?

West Grasslands?? 9:56 respectable. I'm doing Hinte Anderson
this weekend Bull run three weeks after and yup they are
worth every penny. When will these road weenies wake up and
get some real enjoyment and dollar value. 🙂 🙂

--
Doug Freese "Caveat Lector" [email hidden]

macelroy said:

Well, I'm sorry people but I come from a time where people
would often run road races almost every week and where
there wasn't one road race that cost more than one dollar.

And ice cream was a nickel. Don't forget that.

--
ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,-
,ø¤º eNo "If you can't go fast, go long." ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°-
`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º°`°º¤ø¤º°`°º¤ø,,,,ø¤º

Yep, that was the race, you found my time. More of a
meltdown than anything, but a race I'd definitely like to do
again. Well organized and my running club buddies were there
in force to race at all distances and support those of use
that were out there all day.

I took a look at the HAT website, looks like a pretty area
to run, good luck this weekend!

Alan.

"Doug Freese" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Alan Walker said:

BTW - I got value for money last Saturday, running a 50
mile trail race. How many races cost $1 / mile or less?

West Grasslands?? 9:56 respectable. I'm doing Hinte
Anderson this weekend Bull run three weeks after and
yup they are worth every penny. When will these road
weenies wake up and get some real enjoyment and dollar
value. 🙂 🙂

--
Doug Freese "Caveat Lector" [email hidden]

"onemarathon" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

one factor in the prices is also the "free" souvenir t-
shirt. i think every race should give you a choice of
whether you want the shirt or not, and that you'd pay a
lower fee without the shirt included. i opted out on the
shirt a few times in the past, when i had the choice. but
more often than not, there is no choice.

I agree with this. The last thing most of us need is another
freebie t-shirt. The next time any of us do a race it would
pay us to make suggestions to the race director on how they
could improve the race from the runner's point of view. In
our area most of the people putting on the races are non-
runners doing it for a specific charity or organization who
really have no idea what a runner wants or expects.

Jim Johnson

Jim Johnson said:

"onemarathon" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message news:cam_wilson-
[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

one factor in the prices is also the "free" souvenir t-
shirt. i think every race should give you a choice of
whether you want the shirt or not, and that you'd pay a
lower fee without the shirt included. i opted out on the
shirt a few times in the past, when i had the choice. but
more often than not, there is no choice.

I agree with this. The last thing most of us need is
another freebie t-shirt. The next time any of us do a race
it would pay us to make suggestions to the race director
on how they could improve the race from the runner's point
of view. In our area most of the people putting on the
races are non-runners doing it for a specific charity or
organization who really have no idea what a runner wants
or expects.\

If you ask any RD going without offering a shirt(or some
other "free"😉 item is an automatic loss of numbers. Call it
greed or whatever but if there are two races at the same and
one offers a shirt and the other doesn't, the result is
obvious. Those RD's, especially those that are trying to
raise money for a good cause will try to get a sponsor to
pick up the shirt tab. Same strategy for all the items that
cost money.

If you haven't tried it, it's hard to get sponsors to pony
up for races, even for good causes. There are a bazillion
good causes and they only have so much money for
advertisements. In addition it's a lot of hard work and time
consuming to go begging each year. So, to keep it simple,
RD's simply roll the cost into the fee. You can try cut your
costs by only giving pre registrants shirts and sizes and
allow exact numbers and not giving race day entrants a
shirt. This also pisses off people because they can't or
don't want to commit so early AND get socked for a higher
race day sign-up fee and don't get a shirt.

I know lots of people that race every week, have drawers
full of shirts and still want another. 'Tis a fact of life
sorry to say.

If you think the price of races are too high today wait
till the mass budget deficit from Bush's private wars
catches up with us.

--
Doug Freese "Caveat Lector" [email hidden]