In short:
"... We are faced with rising costs across the board. Subsequently, we have raised member pricing by $1 in the early and late registration periods, and non-member pricing by a little more. In our half-marathon series and Grete's Great Gallop, events which have grown in scope and expense, prices have increased to $25 for members in the early registration period with additional increases for the late periods and for non-members."
So, to put in perspective, prices for the Manhattan Half:
| Members | Jr/Sr Members | Non-Members | |
| On or before January 9 | $17 | $9 | $30 |
| January 10-23** | $22 | $15 | $35 |
| Event Day** | $25 | $20 | $40 |
Prices for the Brooklyn Half:
| Members* | Jr/Sr Members* | Non-Members | |
| On or before May 7 | $25 | $10 | $40 |
| May 8- 21** | $30 | $15 | $45 |
| Event day** | $35 | $20 | $50 |
One can look at it in a couple of ways. First the logistics of pulling off a half-marathon, especially when you have to close the roads, are daunting. And with New York state and NYC both suffering budget-wise, one would think that the support from those entities has to be reduced.
Also, sponsorship money is probably down. And still, $25 for a decent half marathon with relatively few frils -- that's a good bargain.
On the flip side: Runners in the halfs who register early have to pay 47 percent more. And when you look at the potential extra fees (and the inevitable procrastination by runners), it's likely you've just shelled out extra race fees this year that could go to a pair of running shoes.
(BTW, if you're not a member, and you run a lot of races: Why aren't you signing up?)
3 comments:
With race caps, and races filling up early, I wonder if they are losing money because people have to sign up in the early registration periods. That might explain some of the increase also?
The City is drastically increasing fees across the board: Parks, Health Dept, DEP, NYPD, etc.
And don't forget that NYRR, a non-profit organization, pays Mary W over $350K/year, donates money to USATF professional teams (umm, not related to NYC), and last year hosted a professional track meet in California with paid pacemakers.
I'm all for paying what's necessary to have weekly races in Central Park, but maybe it's time for NYRR to be a leaner operation (it's CEO's salary) and less of a benefactor to American running pros.
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