I would like to see one of the EC staff do a serious article on registration fees for gravel races/fondos in the US. So many are over $100. I understand that every municipal agency on the route wants their cut but c’mon…
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Many are close to or over $200.
Police/traffic control are a cost for sure, but at the races ive been to, there isnt a whole lot of those. insurance is something too, but seeing that a local mtb race promoter charges $25 a race here- insurance per rider doesnt seem that big of a big cost. So i guess port a potties and a medal and some food at the end are driving it up?
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I’m curious about this as well. I’d love to participate in more events but can’t justify the cost when I can ride the same routes for free.
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As someone who has promoted CX races for many years, and has officiated road and gravel races, one of the biggest expence is traffic control. In Oregon you need certified traffic controllers which typically means hiring thru a temp agency for a day. On CX and MTB races that are not held on public roads, non paid volunteers can do that for little to no expense(food, entry for family member, etc.) I do agree that some events seem to have outrageous fees, but at least in Oregon, there is no one getting rich on putting on events.
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I am not accusing any promoter of gouging and I certainly do not begrudge them a profit knowing how much time and effort it takes….just making an observation that so many reg. fees are prohibitively expensive and I just wish they weren’t.
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I typically do 6 to 7 proper events each year. Two are fundraisers for research charities that have been important to me. The others I choose because they become destination events or help focus fitness. The selection usually is based on some basic questions.
Would I ride that route solo? Sometimes a supported ride with many entrants feels safer were a mechanical or crash happen.
Who else is entering? I’ll never win anything, but a race can often help you push harder than a solo ride.
If traveling does the place offer other attractions that make travel worth the time and have appeal to other family members?
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The reality is that the demand warrants the high entry fees. People are willing to pay it, so I can’t begrudge promoters for charging it.
There are also plenty of smaller, regional events that cost significantly less…..and often great races in their own right (sometimes even better than the marquee events).
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Yup. Look at BWR vs Rule of Three. Both are long gravel races with an expo area, and food and beer after. Ro3 cost half of BWR, and they treat you much better.
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Barry Roubaix (regional event that predates “gravel” per se but is basically gravel) came to $107 this year. I tried and failed to find my last registration from maybe ten years ago (let’s not talk about it) for a price check. No dice. I would not be surprised if it more or less mirrored the rate of inflation.
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I can’t speak for the US event market, but at CyclingTips we had an annual gran fondo in Australia that cost somewhere around $180 to enter. Sounds ridiculous, right? That’s what I thought until I saw the economics of running an event myself. Each year we ran the event, we nearly bankrupt the business. From memory, the best we did was loosing around $50k.
Entry fees multiplied by the number of entrants sounds great, but it costs much more to organise the event than that. Bless them, but volunteers aren’t free (you need to buy t-shirts, donate to their cause, feed them, have someone on staff to organise them etc). As @Vern_Niehaus says above, traffic management is incredibly expensive. Little things you wouldn’t expect such as community communications/engagement is also a cost (when you’re paying someone) so that it runs smoothly and you have the town welcoming you rather than protesting. Insurance, toilets, etc all chip away at the revenue.
Not to mention that there are two spikes in entry numbers: The first is early birds right after the event. The second is the week of the event where people see if they’re fit enough, if the weather is good, or if they even feel like it. I couldn’t imagine a more stressful business to be in.
The only way I could see it working was by getting tourism grants from the state governments. Sure there are other little ways to incrementally make money, but nothing substantial for the amount of work. Industry sponsors barely pay anything, and they only have so much capacity to sponsor an event since their employees need to work the weekend. The best use of sponsors is have them add to the event so that your costs are reduced (start/finish line banners, signage, nutrition, mechanical support, etc).
I’m in the same position as most others - I can’t afford the entry fees to do regular events because of the cost. Club races run by club volunteers (mandatory in some places) for $20 set an expectation that this is what it cost to run an event, but that’s not true. Individuals who spin up a fun event for $50 entry fee also sets false expectations, because they don’t account for their time, and don’t pay for things like traffic management and insurance.
I only know my firsthand experience and that of speaking with a few others in the event business, but it’s enough for me to know that we won’t be going back into this space. Events like Cape Epic and Gravel Burn have an exceptional model and very clever founder (Kevin Vermaak) who can make good money out of these things, but that’s the exception rather than the norm. I’ve done a couple podcasts with him if anyone wants to know more about his business models behind these: Spotify – Web Player
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Wow, you guys have it good if you’re only in the $100-$200 range. Ironman events are minimum $500 these days and it’s almost completely driven me away from the sport and intro trail running (which Ironman is trying ruin as well!).
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This would be a very useful story to tell. We all see the cost of gravel events getting out of reach, but I’m confident it’s not simply because promoters are gouging participants. Every one of us who has helped run a cycling event in the last decade knows how hard it is to make any money at all (and that’s with a TON of volunteer help). This isn’t mega corporations destroying skiing in America. Almost all of these race promotions groups are led by one or two very passionate, very dedicated people who mostly do it for the love of the sport.
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Great concert it was too!
Ironman would be next level in terms of logistics. But good on them for figuring out how to create a strong brand where people tattoo it on their calves! I can’t fault them for charging what the market is willing to pay.
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I work with a number of municipalities in the US, and I would add that most aren’t trying to “take a cut.” They are just trying to make sure that the permit fees cover their costs for the services they are providing to a private event, and make sure that there is insurance in place so that they are protected from liability.
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Perhaps ‘taking a cut’ was not the best way to express the thought as I did not mean to imply corruption. The problem really is that the US is litigation happy and people sue people and municipalities like a sport. That of course leads to high insurance rates and in turn jacks the price up on everything from auto insurance to entry fees.
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I can’t vouch for 10 years ago but I just looked and BR cost $60 in 2021 and $75 in 2022 (before taxes and fees).
Also, if Barry Roubaix isn’t ‘gravel’ then IDK what is, the ‘main event’ is 100k and probably about 90+k is on gravel.
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My position exactly! Sometimes I’ll pay for an event because I think the cause is worthwhile, but paying huge amounts of money to ride a route I can ride almost any day of the week becomes absurd.
Great callouts Wade! I was a race director for two years for my club’s ominum that we ran, and the economics were a nightmare 10 years ago, and have only gotten worse form what I understand.
While a big promoter like Lifetime likely pulls in some decent cash sponsors, most support we got was in-kind services or prize donations for podiums. In addition to rider insurance, basically any jurisdiction, sponsor, or venue involved is going to require being a “named insured” on the event’s liabilitiy policy. Equipment rental like porta-potties and traffic barriers add up. Gotta feed event staff and volunteers. Pay for EMT/medical support, traffic control (at overtime rates), permits, etc.
Road events, especially, are extremely costly to run and in the US, many jurisdictions are increasingly hesitant to allow road closures, rolling enclosures, or even open road races where there’s a potential to impeded traffic. Only events with popular local support (e.g. city-sponsored fairs and such) can reliably shut down city streets.
My club would run road and cx events, and basically we would count on losing money on the road and making it back in the dirt.
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A couple of my favorite “small”(<300) events, all-volunteer, all proceeds to a charity, are approaching $100 US. I’m sure a big chunk of that is insurance.
I now think “Is this something I want to support?” as well as “Is this a ride I want to do?”
And yes, I could ride the routes on my own, but a good event has a vibe that you don’t get riding solo.