I can make that exact same argument about people paying the huge entry fees for races from big organizers like Lifetime or Ironman.
To be a professional musician in today’s world is a far cry from what being a professional musician was in the pre-music streaming era.
Where in the past, recording artists could rely on record sales and royalties to provide the lion’s share of their income, now most of these artists, with the notable exception of the top 1% or thereabouts, must rely upon income from shows/concerts and merchandise sales to survive. This is a lot harder than it may seem, particularly when these folks are on tour and away from home and family for months on end.
So please don’t get too upset when you’re asked to pay more to see your favorite artists perform. You’re likely getting their entire discography for almost nothing.
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I compare this to the cost of the local cross country (running) league I started to do last year. £12 pre entry for the entire season of six 5 mile races. So for a fairly fit middle aged lump like me, around the same 40 or so minutes of a veteran cross race. Working out at £2 per race.
I haven’t raced cross once this season through injury, and I do miss it. But when it comes to comparing the costs … I mean is it any wonder grass roots stuff is dying on its arse? Road and TT in much the same boat I believe.
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“Why would I pay $X to ride public roads”
I’m not paying for a route, I’m paying because someone managed to put together hundreds to thousands of like minded individuals on a single day for me to go enjoy a day on the bike with that I may not have otherwise had the chance to. I’m paying for an experience, and if that’s what it costs, so be it. I want them to be able to feel that organizing and hosting the event was worthwhile so I have the opportunity to do so again in the future.
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If the roads are closed especially for the whole route, that’s worth something.
There’s about 1 closed road sportive in the UK as far as I know. Given the roads are going to be open to cars, there is not much value to me in riding a route with thousands of other cyclists, many of whom are unsafe, and putting up with congestion in cafes / toilets / trains. Etc. vs. Just riding a route myself with friends on a day with good weather.
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You forgot my PAS kit.
It’s not about the top end, it’s about bringing others into the sport/pastime.
There are 2 major factors in the cost increases for on-road cycling events:
- Insurance.
- Traffic management.
Insurance costs are best mitigated by the UCI affiliated cycling membership model - pay once annually. Instead, cyclists bitch and moan about the cost - then pay repeatedly at each non-affiliated event they sign up for. We can be stupid.
Traffic management is a tougher challenge. As a (former) bureaucrat, I note others have missed what I’d see as the key problem here - excessive red tape and rent seeking behaviour.
I’ve organised state level road races and experienced the scam that is the traffic management industry. The industry influences the standards / code that they are then obligated to follow in allocating excessive numbers of staff to redundant roles. I’ve witnessed it repeatedly - they turn up in droves and you can see half of them standing around with nothing to do.
If you question them (and I know we have in negotiating their procurement) they just tap on the standards that their industry pushed and say ‘we’ve gotta follow it’. It’s classic rent seeking behaviour and they have it stitched up.
The truth is they aren’t targeting cycling events - rather road managers, who are typically govts who just pay the bill without questioning it - cost it’s not their money they’re spending.
I don’t know what cycling event organisers can do about this - that is a tough problem to solve. The underlying cause is a greedy but motivated traffic management industry who have comprehensively outmanoeuvred sleepy govts who prefer to just pay the bill, whatever it is.
Cycling event organisers have near-zero bargaining power when we are bidding against govts willing to pay whatever they ask cos they aren’t bothered about the cost.
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Ha! I did that event in 2013/2014 and it was def gravel before gravel was grãvël. No way I would have paid more than $50 for an event like that at that time. Had to confirm my participation years via the results. Cool they still have all of them in the site. I did the 36 mi versions. This was the bike I built for one year, single speed 29er, converted to 1x7 old Shimano RSX, and I did switch to rigid fork before the event, I think this is just the only pic I have and surprised I even found it 
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Love it. There were many Frankenbikes, as I recall. I will also be overworked middle aged dad-ing my way into the 36 this year. I think I used my 'cross bike last time, around the same time as when you last rode it? Which basically worked fine, apart from the minor problem of no way in hell did I have the core strength or endurance to hold that position comfortably for the length of the event. So this year I’m taking a whatever you want to call it rigid road bike- shaped object with 650bs, 2,1" tires and appropriate stack and reach for long non-race rides (and ironically probably coming into it with better core strength). There will be a race up there somewhere.
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I remember to good old days of gravel, doing Almonzo in 2014/15. Entry fee was the cost of mailing a post card in for registration!
Our local MTB series is still a fairly good deal. ~$35 per race.
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Come checkout the hollo gravel classic in August. Postcard registration and free.
Thanks for the invite, but I don’t think I am fitting that into my race schedule. The MN MTB series has Mankato the week before and Tioga the week after. A races are Cheq 40 and CX nats.