I just returned from a long run and planned to make good on my promise to respond to Taryn's meme, but then I opened the newspaper and found something far more worthy to discuss than 25 random facts about me.
Seems a reporter did a little digging into the organization behind the wildly successful Rock 'n' Roll franchise, Elite Racing. The investigation raised issues about where all that money goes, particularly charitable contributions. In fairness, Elite is for-profit; it's in business to make money. The article also mentions the New York Road Runners, which I believe isn't for profit and took home a handsome $6 million extra after last year's NYC Marathon.
There was an interesting thread on Daily Mile a few weeks back when someone questioned the $125 fee for this year's Chicago Marathon. I'd be curious to hear what everyone thinks of the Union-Tribune article, the rising costs of big-city road races and if you have a personal threshold for registration fees to run a popular race.
Here's the article: San Diego Marathon Runs Into Controversy
15 comments:
I did not realize Chicago was that expensive. I just shelled out $60 for the Cincinnati Marathon and thought that was a lot. I certainly want a great experience, but when money gets in the way of being able to participate that is unfortunate.
Thanks for the article! I think that anyone who is complaining about visitor $s (especially if they are from San Diego) should have their head examined. Or maybe forced to move to Riverside. I pent about $1,000 there last year for RnR with the family for one day!.If half the participants came with their families and spent only one day at $1,000 a pop, that in itself is $10M. If the $49M is overstated and the city is "only" getting $25M, it is still a good investment!
Of course, San Diego *can* adopt their old advertising slogan - "the best part of Los Angeles is San Diego." Yup - that was the ad slogan back in the 60's! And if all else fails, Elite is rapidly expanding into Las Vegas, Chicago, and Seattle. Who's next? Riverside?
interesting arcticle! one big reason I have for not running road marathons anymore is they are so darn expensive. $125? $120? for a marathon? You'd be hard pressed to find a 50K trail ultra for more than $70-80 and with that you get better scenary and better food usually.
Thanks for highlighting the article. Interesting topic for ongoing conversation, I think.
Elite is a for profit, so they can charge whatever the market will bear. I recall reading somewhere that marathon runners are typically well paid. With the current state of things the prices may hold for a while.
In other notes, I vow to resist the Daily Mile. It looks cool but do I really need another place to post my miles. Besides I can barely keep up with my RGF folks.
I am finding the bigger the race and the bigger the city locale, the more expensive races are getting. Most races I do I self-support myself, before, during, and after, so any food, water, other stuff is wasted on me, but of course you have to factor in the expense of insurance and the use of police and possibly a permit. And then of course you have to factor in travel and/or hotel accommodations, so I choose my races carefully based on all that and how much of a desire I have to do a particular race. I have been put off from doing IM North America races for the simple fact of the cost on top of everything else. You can get an iron distance race without all the unnecessary and extra hype for a lot less.
I haven't really thought about any of this... just paid my money and started the training. Hmmmm...
I haven't paid more than $100 on a race. Yet. I think I would pay it though, depending on how badly I wanted to run it and/or if there was some sweet swag.
I think that despite the economy we may continue to see the trend toward more expensive races. More people run them every year and until the number of participants starts to drop there's no reason to not continue to charge more. I think we'll also begin seeing more "options" such as paying extra $$ for a technical shirt, paying for a beer or wine glass for the after-race celebration, etc. We have a local 1/2 marathon in May (Santa Barbara Wine Country 1/2) and if you pay for registration and all the extras comes to a neat grand total of $153. For a 1/2!
I do think we all have our financial limitations and a lot of races are close to it. With the rising cost it makes you wonder who is the real bandit!
Well, I know that some ultras (such as the one my brother might run) can be even more expensive, but with those, I think it's because of how expensive they can be to run, with all the runner support, etc. I think I'd have to really think long and hard before paying $100 for a race. I'm doing one this year that cost me $55, but I also have to pay for a hotel room and travel in my car, but it's a sentimental race I'm doing - the one near my grandmother's cemetery - so to me that's worth it.
With this kind of economy and my husband just getting word of a 10% pay cut, I think I'll be watching the fees more closely. Luckily, for me, to go watch Boston is free because it's so close.
Now you know why we love all our free fat-ass type races around here! It is hard to shell out the big bucks, so we only do a couple of those per year.
I guess I misspoke when I said we were in Central Oregon. It was the Eugene area, Web is near Grants Pass. In my feeble mind, it was central because it was half-way down the state!
I just paid 75$ to register for the Eugene Half Marathon. Not sure where the money goes. But going to look into it NOW.
Thanks for the heads up.
i paid close to $100 to run the women's nike marathon 2 years ago. was worth it to me because of the tiffany medal. there were tons of 'freebies' that came with the race too. but i also didn't have to worry about any travel or accomodations. but if you're willing to travel far enough to need those, then i don't see how $100 is too much. defintely my cap, though.
Louise says...do you remember when we paid something like $40 for the SD RnR?? I think that was the last year my Achilles was working correctly ;-)
I can't see paying more than very low $100's to run, and that's pretty painful already.
There's got to be a better way to run a race for profit - but it can't happen alone on ticket sales. I doubt even the Super Bowl can justify itself as a business solely on ticket admission. The Dallas Cowboys make a ton on merchandise.
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