Originally Posted by
shovelhd
The Northeast is a pretty active area. I'd say road fields in the categories I race in are down about 10-15% since 2011. Racers are ore registering later and later in the week before the race. One promoter has a sliding preregistration fee scale that rewards registering more than two weeks in advance. There are exceptions like Somerville and Exeter and Boston but for the bread and butter races field sizes are down. Race fees are up, payouts are down.
in my region, the penalty for late registration is usually $5-15. with on lie reg available until the night before and with variable weather, potential for low-turnout, other issues coming up (a crash the prior weekend), it tends not to make sense to pre-register unless one is super strapped for cash.
i get that this isn't good for promoters, but the penalty for late reg (or the bonus for early reg) isn't generally enough to align racers' goals with those of promoters.