How high can marathon entry fees get?

My hometown marathon is charging $130 four months out...and it goes up as race day gets closer. I think that's too much, but it's still cheaper than traveling to an out of town race.

It depends on who is organising it at least in the UK. If a race is organised by a local running club it can be anything fro £8 to £20 ($12 to $30) irrespective of distance. However due to lots races becoming difficult to organise, with lack of volunteers and more rules to comply with, they are getting handed to professional event companies who are in it for profit. So now we're seeing half marathons charging £40 ($60). If you consider that the running club could break even charging half that and gave out better goodies with less sponsorship then you get an idea of how much money is being made.

However if people don't volunteer to run races then that is what happens.

I notice that every time I travel abroad for a race it costs a lot more than in the UK. Our biggest race the London Marathon is £28 ($40) which is brilliant value compared to the other major marathons and they should be applauded for it.

Hello Newman wrote:

My hometown marathon is charging $130 four months out...and it goes up as race day gets closer. I think that's too much, but it's still cheaper than traveling to an out of town race.

Cities no longer just issue permits for a small fee and send you on your way. They recognize running events as possibly providing large streams of money to their bottom line. Not only are the permits expensive, but safety service is mandatory. A cop on every corner for a Sunday morning marathon is not cheap. It seems to me that cities shouldn't profit from a charitable event.

Greasy Palm Guy wrote:

Hello Newman wrote:

My hometown marathon is charging $130 four months out...and it goes up as race day gets closer. I think that's too much, but it's still cheaper than traveling to an out of town race.

Cities no longer just issue permits for a small fee and send you on your way. They recognize running events as possibly providing large streams of money to their bottom line. Not only are the permits expensive, but safety service is mandatory. A cop on every corner for a Sunday morning marathon is not cheap. It seems to me that cities shouldn't profit from a charitable event.

This. City permits and police are our running club's single largest expense. It's gotten ridiculous.

And that's if they'll issue a permit at all. They tell us no more often than yes. Dealing with municipalities has become our biggest challenge.

FormerAllAmerican wrote:

Started running bandit when the prices went above $20.

Come bandit one of my races, I'll point you out over the loud speaker, have one of my volunteers go hold your hand up high so everyone could see you....

You'd piss your pants out of embarrassment! Happens every time.

Boston is $180.00 for 2016 they shut down 7 towns ?? Seems fair couldn't picture paying over 200 that will be the cut off.

Municipal fees are also just reflecting supply and demand. Municipalities charge more now because people want to hold a lot more races, they have a lot more people running, and they are on the course for longer. If they didn't charge a lot, then their roads would be closed every weekend, often for races put on by people who don't know what they're doing.

I'm not especially concerned about marathon fees. The way I look at it, I'm devoting an entire season to one event. It's a couple hundred hours of training during the buildup, and I'm wrecked afterward. In light of those non-monetary costs, I'm okay with dropping a couple of hundred on the event itself.

What bothers me is the cost of shorter races. Fifty bucks for a 5k is absurd.

Bring it you filthy rat wrote:

FormerAllAmerican wrote:

Started running bandit when the prices went above $20.

Come bandit one of my races, I'll point you out over the loud speaker, have one of my volunteers go hold your hand up high so everyone could see you....

You'd piss your pants out of embarrassment! Happens every time.

Before I'd piss my pants, I whip my d!ck out and rub it all over your face

As high as the organizers want so..... 100000000000000000000000000000 $

Bring it you filthy rat wrote:

FormerAllAmerican wrote:

Started running bandit when the prices went above $20.

Come bandit one of my races, I'll point you out over the loud speaker, have one of my volunteers go hold your hand up high so everyone could see you....

You'd piss your pants out of embarrassment! Happens every time.

Hit him with snowball in the face instead.

My favorite race when I was in high school/college was a 20K in December. It was $10, weather was usually pretty good, not overcrowded, food and drinks afterwards. Nice! You can't really get stuff like that now, but good for the organizers for finding an untapped market and getting money out of it.

FormerAllAmerican wrote:

Started running bandit when the prices went above $20.

But then I wouldn't get a T-shirt and a medal.

I can't speak for all of the other races, but Detroit...an elite field? Greg Meyer is from here, Michigan, and ran his debut in 1980, 2:13:07, still the record. If that's the record, and it is, where's the elite field that was lost here? Me confused Mr. Roy.

Precious Roy wrote:

Is it really such a bad problem to have? A lot of races have lost elite fields (Cleveland, Houston, LA, Detroit, Austin, etc.) from the days when marathons were not popular either as a participation sport or an elite event. Now that the sport is popular, there is also a lot of money going into professional development. Many of the major races have Olympic development programs that comp entries, provide housing/travel support and bonuses for getting a qualifier. Back in the day, you would be lucky if the race director would let you pitch a tent in his back yard.

"It depends whether it's a for-profit or non-profit organization hosting it."

Please explain. Just because it is non-profit doesn't mean someone isn't profiting. A lot of these non-profit pays their directors/presidents ENORMOUS salaries. Sure,,, a percent goes to charity, but what's the difference? At least the for-profits are honest about it. Non-profits that hide under charity... Just because you are non-profit doesn't mean you can gouge!

And the absolute worst is the for-profits that ask for volunteers and get them year after year. They'll have a small percent (or large because they can still pay themselves big time) and still ask for unpaid labour to PAD their pockets. You know who I'm talking about. Those big relays are the worst.

I wish I could remember how much I paid to enter the Jersey Shore Marathon in 1983. I'm guessing it was around $25. Using this calculator, I find out that in today's dollars, that equals $58.

http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/inflation-adjustment/

Can somebody give me some figures from back in the day? Let's run some price comparisons so that cost-of-living increases isn't what's causing the problem.

I paid $40 to run in the 1995 NYC Marathon and I have my entry form to prove it. Things have gone up tooooooooo much.

KudzuRunner wrote:

I wish I could remember how much I paid to enter the Jersey Shore Marathon in 1983. I'm guessing it was around $25. Using this calculator, I find out that in today's dollars, that equals $58.

http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/inflation-adjustment/

Can somebody give me some figures from back in the day? Let's run some price comparisons so that cost-of-living increases isn't what's causing the problem.

you pay too much no matter wha wrote:

"It depends whether it's a for-profit or non-profit organization hosting it."

Please explain. Just because it is non-profit doesn't mean someone isn't profiting. A lot of these non-profit pays their directors/presidents ENORMOUS salaries.

I hear this argument a lot, and I just don't buy it. Check out Guidestar: The EDs of organizations like the Houston Marathon and Twin Cities in Motion, major US non-profit marathons that are a tier below the World Marathon Majors (organizations with $4 million-$5 million of annual revenue) make solidly over $100,000 annually, sometimes around $150,000. Yes, that's good money, but it doesn't seem ridiculous to pay your Executive Director 3%-4% of gross revenue.

As others have noted, rising permitting/public safety costs are much more the culprit for rising race reg fees than employees' salaries. Hell, I know guys one year out of second-tier law schools who make more than anyone who works for a non-profit race other than top-tier employees at New York and Boston.

Howard Dean wrote:

triathonguru wrote:

I always get a chuckle when I hear runners complain about race fees. Try triathlons and then talk to me.

I\'d been thinking about entering some, but then I looked at the entry fees and laughed my way out of it. Is there a legitimate reason for the exorbitant pricing, or is that just what the market is willing to pay?

they have to have cops to close the ocean to boats

Sid Luft wrote:

not certain about the small, local marathons but Boston/Chicago/NYC could probably charge up to $400 and it would be completely full.

$40 - $45 for a local 5k is getting to be common around here.

bottom line: road racing is going to become much less popular due to excessive greed on the part of the race organizers.

Granted, part of the race fees go to charity but the other 85 percent is pocketed by somebody else.

the market will bottom out. The $40-50$ 5ks and 10ks will go away, unless they offer something unique, ie a prize purse, running through a unique place that no other races do, etc. These races will shut down due to unsustainable costts not covered by too few entrants, leaving only 5-10s in the 20-30$ range.

Same principle but higher numbers for longer races.