Does race size matter?

[rt-pam]

Do you think races are simply getting too big? With so many race chasing sponsorship dollars, do you think there is enough to go around, or are the large races gobbling up the available money, leaving little or nothing for smaller races? Will the end result be that the small to mid-size races will end up having to abandon the field?

[carlsniffen]

It occurs to me that the problem of races becoming too big may be more a problem for the large metro areas. In Southern Oregon and other smaller, more rural areas, it is still possible to find lots of races ranging in size from a few dozen to a few hundred. If you want a real throwback experience (tongue depressors for finish line cards, hand read times, etc.), they are still out there. Many of these races provide a fine experience, and a welcome change of pace from the mega race/expo experience.
Carl

[Sean Ryan]

I do not think that the biggest problem in the road race industry is the growing disparity in size between the mega-events and the also-rans. This is only symptomatic of a larger problem.

The larger problem is the glaring absence of a business mindset, the unwillingness to charge our participants market prices, and the consequential underspending on advertising and promotion.

Because of the limited budget that the vast majority of road races deal with, they all pursue what marketing textbooks call "secondary demand." That is to say, they spend the majority of their ad dollars going after existing runners rather than trying to create new ones. They advertise where the runners already dwell in publications like Runner's World, or in smaller, regional runner/triathlete focused publications, or on websites that cater to runners (coolrunning, marathonguide.com). In short, they are all competing for a larger share of the same pie instead of trying to grow the size of the pie.

Nobody has enough funds to spend a lot of dollars on "primary demand," on promoting the sport of running in general through wider, mainstream publications. I have never seen an ad in USA Today that said, "Get up. Go Running." This situation persists, at least in part, due to the lack of a well-funded, powerful and cohesive trade association. Instead, we have a highly fragmented collection of underfunded organizations that, like the races they represent, have different agendas and do their own things. RRM, RUSA, RRCA, USATF, RRIC, etc. Who has the ad dollars or the responsibility to stimulate primary demand and create more runners?

The caveat here is the increasing collective focus on bringing kids into the sport. Hopefully these efforts will pay off not just in terms of reducing childhood obesity but creating a growing populace of runners for the future.

A problem that flows out of the lack of spending on primary demand advertising is that only sponsors with a strong desire to attract the narrow target audience of established runners are willing to put money into the industry. Moreover, the money they put in is not really impressive when compared with other more mainstream sports. Golf, tennis and even bowling would sneer at the sponsorship dollars that this industry commands. We simply don't deliver enough "impressions" to justify those big dollars. I would venture to guess that more than half of the sponsorship dollars that flow into this industry are viewed in the corporate boardrooms as charity, not as promotional investments.

Until the road race industry changes dramatically, this situation will persist and probably worsen.

After three full years in the business, that's my ten-cent MBA analysis.

[pstewart]

I have heard some frustration on the part of local clubs and event management firms about the impact that the bigger events - that are now becoming "Festivals" with multiple events such as a marathon, half marathon, and 5k, etc. - are having on the week in and week out events. The big events do create a bit of a "herd mentality" in that everyone wants to be part of them. This makes life difficult for the smaller and midsized events. There does seem to be a rush on the part of most larger events to grow, grow, grow. I'm sure this is because more runners bring in more sponsor dollars, registration income, justifies municipal support, etc. and it separates the event from other events in the area.

I hope some of the event mangement companies and clubs will pick up on this thread. I'd like to hear what they have to say.

[jferstle]

I agree with Sean's commentary that the lack of a business plan is one of the major issues in road racing. This is not a new issue. Since the initial running boom the field of road racing has been a mix of real businesses, cause driven events, and "hobby" events. Many in the road running community have urged running clubs and others who conduct and market events to treat them as the businesses they are and plow the profits back into the running community, not have them all siphoned off into other causes. Running is a very attractive product in the fitness/event marketplace. It is so because many entrepreneurs in the running business have created products that appeal to the masses and to corporations. Fitness is a big industry and running occupies an important niche within that business. It's up to event directors and running club directors to make the most of their businesses.

[Trailrunnerdude]

Do you think races are simply getting too big? With so many race chasing sponsorship dollars, do you think there is enough to go around, or are the large races gobbling up the available money, leaving little or nothing for smaller races? Will the end result be that the small to mid-size races will end up having to abandon the field?



This question is actually quite astute. There are some 'smaller' races that have to evaluate which time of the year they want to stage their race each year because either a 'bigger' race is drawing a lot of potential runners away from them, or a new race is begun with a lot of backing from an event company with big sponsors. I think it's time for race directors to coordinate when they want to have their races. One possible solution is to band together in a "race championship series" so that they stagger themselves appropriately. This way, they can build excitment for all of their respective races by offering prizes if people participate in most of the races in the series, they can share advertising costs, and they can build a coalition to gain political influence to smooth out the permitting process.

[HI-TEK Racing]

On a local level here in Connecticut, we have seen an explosion of new races each year and the schedule is ovefilled with events each weekend. Combine this with the fact that you can easily drive to NYC, RI or MA depending on where in CT you live and find even more race options.

Several years back, one of the local race directors held a race director's meeting one evening each year. In addition to socializing and networking, it was designed to try and discuss scheduling and avoid conflicts with each other. Many cooperated but still many others did not. Currently there are some who simply schedule their events without any regard to other race dates. There are others still who have no clue what they're doing and schedule their new races without any regard or consideration as to what events have been taking place. I have seen more and more non-runners jumping into race directing to hold a fundraising event.

Bottom line to all this is that although we tried the cooperation approach, it is a tough road, and we are generally forced to accept the fact that no date is "protected" and there will be conflicts no matter how hard we try to avoid them.

[Trailrunnerdude]

I have seen more and more non-runners jumping into race directing to hold a fundraising event.

I've noticed this as well. It's often someone who knows someone from another race that does well and thinks they can achieve the same success. Many of these races are done as cheaply as possible without much regard for the athletes or the sport. I've also seen some of these 'newcomers' end the races they start after a short while because of low turn-out/fundraising so, hopefully there will be a more general 'shake-out.'