Why Do Some Races Cost So Much (Read 2463 times)

Excellent question! Which is why I asked it on page 1 -

Jeez, you expect me to remember a post three pages ago?

Mikey, two questions - Question 1: if you not an elite athlete, why should your race be underwritten by sponsorship? According to the industry standard, for big races, sponsorship covers between 50 and 70% of the cost of putting on a race (including profits). So either your race is underwritten further or you pay a lot for it. When you go golfing, does Gatorade cover 70% of the cost of your balls? When you pay $90 for a race, the race may cost $180 per person to put on. In our case, we do everything we can to stretch the runners' dollars so we don't have to blow away its grassroots-edness (which, in the end, is meeting an identified market need) by getting corporate sponsors. But that means I have to charge runners more than I'd like. As I mentioned above, I'd love this to be a free race, which would require sponsors. But that said, part of me wonders why cut the cost from the event that people are seeking out when the same folks are paying several hundreds over the months to train and another several hundreds to travel. Question 2: why would you not be willing to pay for a goal marathon even as much as the cost of a pair of shoes?

I love your site Chris If you don't race, you won't have goal marathons, so the questions does not really apply...

Mikey, two questions - Question 1: if you not an elite athlete, why should your race be underwritten by sponsorship? According to the industry standard, for big races, sponsorship covers between 50 and 70% of the cost of putting on a race (including profits). So either your race is underwritten further or you pay a lot for it. When you go golfing, does Gatorade cover 70% of the cost of your balls? When you pay $90 for a race, the race may cost $180 per person to put on.

Where did I say that a race should be underwritten by sponsorship? Though, I will admit, as a race director I am eager to accept sponsorship dollars if the sponsors feel they are getting good return for their investment and if it helps keep costs down for the runners. I've rarely paid $90 for a race and I am pretty sure none of the races I have ever run cost $180 per runner to put on. THe fact is it does not cost that much to put on a good race. A small 5K on public roads with permits, police details, professional timing and scoring, port-a-potties, cheesy t-shirt and prizes can be done for, oh, about $1,625. If you get just 100 people, that's a cost of $16.25 per runner. If you get 200 runners your costs don't go up very much and you're down to maybe $10 per runner. It does cost a lot to put on a gigantic race-like event for 45,000 people. I steer clear of these types of things, generally. I just ran a really, really well organized half marathon on public roads through the middle of a medium-sized city that were closed to traffic for the entire race. The entry fee was $25 for early entry or $35 up to day of race.

In our case, we do everything we can to stretch the runners' dollars so we don't have to blow away its grassroots-edness (which, in the end, is meeting an identified market need) by getting corporate sponsors. But that means I have to charge runners more than I'd like. As I mentioned above, I'd love this to be a free race, which would require sponsors. But that said, part of me wonders why cut the cost from the event that people are seeking out when the same folks are paying several hundreds over the months to train and another several hundreds to travel.

Cool. But nowhere did I mention your race. I've run some races that were more expensive than the typical race but were more about a unique experience than a goal race. Mt. Washington comes to mind, where I didn't mind paying above the going 7-miler rate for that one because, hey, how many races go to the summit of the highest mountain in the northeast? Still, it was a lot less than a pair of shoes. I think the entry fee was $45.

Question 2: why would you not be willing to pay for a goal marathon even as much as the cost of a pair of shoes?

Because I don't have to. Weren't you paying attention? The fact is there are lots of good marathons around that cost $75 or much less. Bay State is $55 and, as far as goal marathons go, about as good as it gets--a PR course with (this year anyway due to the USATF NE Championships) a really fast field and a starting line that's 20 minutes from my house. If you're looking to be entertained with live music and dancing and clowns and balloons, or if you want a unique experience on some breathtaking landscape, then Baystate is not your race. But if you're looking for a good ole fashioned no-frills road race, it's great. I've PR'd twice and qualified for Boston twice there. There are plenty of other similar races around. But the question is moot since the price I stated I'm willing to pay for a marathon ($75 per page 1 of this thread) is more than I usually pay for a pair of shoes. I'm pretty cheap when it comes to shoes, too.

I love your site Chris If you don't race, you won't have goal marathons, so the questions does not really apply...

I have goal ultras and unofficial runs as goals... but I don't race much anymore. Maybe 5-6 trail races a year. None on road, though somebody conned me into running the Denver Marathon last year. That was completely miserable and a total waste of money. All that pavement hurt and there's not much interesting scenery in downtown Denver, just a lot of buildings! After doing 70-80 races a year for 15 years it sort of loses it's appeal. Now I race for camaraderie and to challenge myself against a course, not the people. The kind of stuff that primarily interests me now is ultrarunning and stuff out in the wilderness and completely unofficial. Stuff like this: http://www.chrisgerber.com/outdoors/hairball.cgi and http://www.chrisgerber.com/outdoors/goals.cgi Though I desperately need to update that site and add some more stuff.... so many ideas for stuff and so little time to do them all. I suppose though Trent, when you get down to it... if an expensive road race WAS a goal of mine, I'd probably spend the money on it. Since it's not, I won't...but if it was, I probably would (though I'd complain about the price, since I like to complain). :-) As a side note: Adventure racing is something I really love and want to do badly, but the price of those races are so high I simply can't do them... no matter how much I want too. There is definitely an upper ceiling for me... and I just can't swing $500, $1000, and $5000 entry fees, regardless of my wants. My family would by living under a bridge somewhere if I did that PSS: A good example of the upper ceiling for me was the TransRockies race last year. (http://www.transrockies.com/). A friend wanted me to run it with her (it's a 2-person team race) but I just couldn't swing the $1,350 per person entry fee. No matter how much fun it might be, that's just too much money to run a race.

There is a lot of pressure in Portland for the races to start absorbing more of their own policing costs. Currently events pay some fee that doesnt relate to actual costs. The marathon is most out of line with taxpayers paying the difference.(est cost $34,000, event fee $2300) I hate to see what that will do to PDX marathon prices and other events, but really why should tax money go to it, sponsors I dont care. After all, they pay as a form of advertising. Obviously Clif feels that someone will decide they like the clif blocs they sampled at the marathon etc. But I'll still run portland ($90) because it is home and I dont have to find airfare, hotel, rental car and convince dh to take time off work.

shirts - Tech shirt $25 each (includes runner's name), second cotton shirt $4 each

Trent- Where do you get your tech shirts from?

So, turning the question around, what is a race worth to you? What is a 5k worth? What about a marathon? A race that you have focused your life towards for some six months ...

For me: 5k-10k $25-30. If it's a certified chip timed course $30-35 HM $45 ish chip timed certified course can squeeze another $5-10 out of me marathon up to $90 until I BQ then I'd shell out for Boston.