$75 for a masters road race?
 

When did it become OK to charge $75 for a masters race?
And what are we getting for that money?

There's one next month. I won't be there.

I come from an event production and promotion background. I know what it takes to put on a road race in the town they're planning here in Michigan. I can't see what is costing a promoter to charge that much for ALL categories (except Juniors-$25).
A Cat IV woman pays $75 to race against 3 other women for medals?
Cat V Men pay $75 for medals? Really?

The prize list for Masters is $1000. This is absurd. There is NO need for a prize list of that size for that field.

The problem is that people will show up, shell out the $75, and ride a race that is of no greater value than the $30 RR a week later. And then the $30 race will decide that 'if they paid $75 for that event, they'll pay $75 for ours'.

I'm not sure which is the greater crime.

I wouldn't go. I can't see paying more than $40 for a road race. Looks like you wouldn't either. If I had a real chance of winning, that'd be a different story. Or, if I had a teammate who had a real chance of winning, he'd have to cover some of my entry fee to convince me to go, but I'd work like hell for him.

lol

The one I'm hoping to put together will be cheap. $20 to $25 if the venue cost is reasonable.

I'll ride with almost anyone for free.

it is $75 but they have also have mass advertised the coupon code saving you $25 off of the entry fee, assuming you are talking about 'Tour of Washtenaw' but I do agree that $75 is far too expensive for a local Road Race.

I apologized to one of the racers about the cost of the race I hold. The racer just laughed. Apparently she does ironmans, marathons, and other non-cycling things. I don't remember the exact numbers but it's in the range of $650 for an ironman (Hawaii?), $150-250 for regular ironmans, and something similar for marathons.

Suddenly the $32 she was paying for two races wasn't a lot.

I think that road races should cost more than a crit. I can't imagine trying to hold a road race, due to both budget and organizational stuff. It's closer to a marathon than a crit, but you have competitors going 50-60 mph down hills (well around here anyway).

I know of only one road race's budget around here, and it's in the low $100,000 range. For a one day road race!

It depends.

$75 for a 90 mile point to point road race that goes through multiple counties (with cooperation from multiple sheriffs) is understandable.

$35 for and industrial park crit is not.

In my area there is an upcoming twilight crit....48 dollars....45 minutes.....pass.

Profit .... Look at Battenkill. Promoter takes home about $150,000+ after expenses & prizes .... not bad.

They better have good food afterwards!

The M45+ race I'm in on Saturday has a $1000 purse, $40 entry, 64.5 miles. It goes through at least six towns. The prize list has a 50 rider minimum for the larger payout races. I don't think the promoter is getting rich.

We have a local series of crits (industrial park) for Master's racers (30+ & 40+): $26 entry fee, 1-hour, $1,000 payout. Other races (Cat 5, Women, etc...) don't payout as much, but this promoter at least knows where to butter his toast.

Every race is different. Some selfless guys like CDR put more into a race than they ever get back.
When my old club put on the annual race, we were happy to break even.

Yea the Tour of Washtenaw not doing it for $75. I'm a Cat 5 racer so why in the world would I pay $75 for the possibility of a medal? Notice how they do not have many people registered as of right now. Half of the race is dirt as well so you could easily puncture for the good old price of $75.

I don't know the $75 race. I haven't done Battenkill ($95?) but I could see the appeal. I tell people you'll either get a rider just once or multiple times.

One time rider - goes there, doesn't place, has a mechanical, uses up a whole weekend and has negative memories.

Multiple time rider - goes there, doesn't place, has a mechanical, uses up a whole weekend, and has positive memories. Wants to return and do better, even if it's improving from 102nd to 89th. Customizes bike for event (wheels, tires, possibly bar position or whole bike, etc).

If it's part of an experience, it's one thing; like triathlons or running races - very few people enter thinking they'll win anything. It's just improving on the previous performance. If you enter to win, well, that's a different story.

I'd do a Battenkill kind of race if it suited me a bit more (a hard race is one thing - a death march is another). If I really liked it I'd try different things. I kind of held an unofficial kind of race like that (it was free though):
http://carpediemracing.org/shartkozawa2008.html (when bridge work cut the course in half - last year it happened)
http://carpediemracing.org/shartkozawa2006.html ("full" course)

bkill was $75 for me.

I thought it was a bit pricey, but it was a very well-run event. As to whether Dieter is pocketing 150k.... I have my doubts about that. There was a lot going in to putting that event on.

I think I know the race of which you are speaking and I live in that area. Ironically I have been waiting for this discussion to pop up on local message boards.

I am torn, I would like to support it but that is alot of money for a race with no history. Furthermore I wonder what traffic control is planned on some of the route. I was born and raised in the county and know those roads, some of those roads are not the safest.

For a race that I have to travel to, stay overnight, gas etc, the entry fee is really a minor concern. These days I'm more looking for fun, different, challenging, interesting races, and yeah, I'll pay a premium for that.

Example: I haven't done Rouge Roubaix in Louisiana but they have a high entry fee and I'd pay it without blinking. OTOH, I'm not likely to drive/stay overnight and pay $30 for a 50 minute criterium, anywhere.

My estimate was based on Gross income (entry fees x # of riders registered) = $230,000 minus prize list $30,000 = $200,000. Allow $50,000 for expenses leaves $150,000.

Man, most of the races here are $50, more the day of. Only a few offer early bird discounts. And there is only like 15 road races per season so basically if you don't want to pay that, you don't race. I think there was one or two last year that were $75 (Provincials maybe?). I would pay it but I would definitely grumble about it.

Wow.

Connecticut lost 5 or so criteriums over the last couple of years, and the couple of road races are hill-fests, so us flatlanders with no time to travel won't be doing much this year.

Agreed. I'm hoping that they are just late to the party.

(FYI I know HB in real too) I'd respectfully disagree with the budget number. Although I haven't done Bkill and don't know the promoter, I'd guess that the expenses would be closer to the $150k mark. For example, I know that the police costs for a now-defunct crit in CT was about $25k. Originally it was waived to promote tourism but recently the municipality decided they wanted the money. I don't know the extent of road closures etc at Bkill.

I also don't know what kind of sponsorship etc he has, but I'm guessing he has some more money for both income and expenses. I'd apply the "prize money is 10% of budget" rule to this race, so I'd guess $300k budget to run it. A big-race promoter goes by that rule, generally/broadly speaking.

Does the Bkill guy have a job outside of promoting?