Discresionarly dollars

[JamesM]

This sport of ours is vary much focused around road races that require entry fees.

How much do you think people will cut back or forgo their race entries this next year?
Will they keep running to stay fit, doing fewer races in the year, or just seek out the least costly ones?
Will they cut out the week end 5K's and put all their entry money into one or two marathons instead?

Participating in road races is a form of entertainment, it's just fun, but it costs money. For most people the money spent comes from their discretionary dollars.

With belts tightening and discretionary dollars evaporating do folks think this will have a large impact on race numbers this year?

The part B to this question:
Is the current road racing calendar in your part of the country over saturated with races to the point that they are lucky if they break even?

Do we have an over supply of events?

[Trailrunnerdude]

James, happy new year.

Question A:
I don't think most runners will cut back on the local races they enter. For some destination races in which large numbers of runners come from out of town and purchase airplane tickets and stay in hotels, there could be a decrease of those runners.

Also, while it is true that a race is entertainment, it isn't only fun. It's also competition and it's part of a lifestyle that some folks find hard to part with. So, while the money that runners spend on race registrations can be considered 'discretionary' this does not necessarily mean that entering a race is a luxury for many folks.

Question B:
In some areas and times of the year it is true that there are a lot of races for runners to choose from. However, if even under these circumstances, if races are managed properly they can do better than break even. Eventually, there is going to be a shake-out in some parts of the country and races that don't yield the anticipated revenue are either going to go away or be taken over by new management.

[hillrunr]

I have seen both of these topics come up on running sites recently (actually, I started the second one on my site).

Based on what I've seen, people are being more resilient than I expected with their race planning. Of course, the point was raised to me privately that this was a pretty affluent crowd that may have more savings to fall back on and, as a result, be less affected. My observation is that a few are scaling back on their "destination" race plans and opting for local events but few are scaling back on their local race plans.

As for the oversaturation of events, I actually started a topic on my site titled "Oversaturation of Wisconsin marathons". I'm sure events like Sean Ryan's will not be affected but the most alarming thing I saw was a weekend with three inaugural marathons, preceded by a two marathon (one inaugural) weekend and followed by another two marathon weekend. I'm quite sure that, at least in the Wisconsin marathon scene, we will see a thinning of the crowd in 2010. I don't know if the thinning will be significant or just a couple of the inaugural events becoming one-and-done events but I'm quite sure there will be fewer marathons in Wisconsin in 2010 than in 2009.