It is Getting Too Expensive to Race
by Sedrik Vomir on April 7th, 2008
I read this post, on Decline today, about how expensive the race entry fees are at the Sea Otter Classic (aka the Sea Beaver - love that one Mark). Anyways, Mark brings up this point I have argued in the past many times and this year its completely out of control, $90 to race the 3 minute Downhill course! (and I thought $45 was a lot to race!)… now for my rant, cause I am pissed I didnt register before all the absurd “late fees” - $15 and $25 for a late fee, WTF!
I have been going to the Sea Otter Classic as far back as when it cost me about $40 to race. Each year the cost to race increases. I remember when I met the guys at Evomo, as a spectator or racer you didn’t even need a wristband to get into the event. The next year the SOC implemented a daily fee just to get into the festival/marketplace area, where the vendors are, food, bikes and products. A fee! You mean i have to pay the organizers of the SOC for a wristband to get into an area that these companies already pay thousands of dollars to be at so they can sell me some cool new stuff for my bike, so now I have to pay dollars to get into this event? Yup.
Granted, as racer you got 2 wristbands for “free” or to say - they are included with your entry fee for racing. Well thats good that I only have one friend. Well then comes the year after that nonsense and they decided that racers only get 1 wristband to gain access to the marketplace area so then I had to pony up $30 for a 4 day wristband for my girlfriend.
On another point of view I know when I talk to the guys here at Evomo about this, they go nuts. As long as they have been racing and having a booth at the Otter they see the fees for everything going up year after year including booth space. For a small start up like Evomo, this is an awesome event, but expensive, almost more expensive than the Interbike Industry trade show which is a non-public event.
Its really hard to promote a clothing line, or any product, to the public at an event that is already hitting everyone up at the gate with essentially an “access fee”. People have just paid $10 to get it in or maybe they plunked down the $90 to race and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they are less inclined to make additional purchases be it a cool new zip up hoodie from Evomo or tires from Kenda. That, honestly, hurts the companies like us who are out their to make it big and be successful and in the case of Evomo, as honestly and reasonably as possible.
The SOC is got to be the biggest cycling event/festival in the world (at least the USA) and now that race fees are clearly on their way to being $100 a pop and wrist bands are $10 a day or $30 for all 4 days, we are all being slowly pushed out of this sport, a sport that is struggling to grow. Haven’t you noticed how fat and out of shape Americans are? I mean, shouldn’t we be encouraging people to be active, not charging them to do it?
I get the feeling this is a lot like a successful band on tour. Its like when you got to see a band like Soundgarden for $25 bucks (back in 1998) and grab a t-shirt for $18 or $20 one weekend, but then as soon as they get big and start touring tickets are at least $75 and t-shirts are at least $30 but mostly $40. SHIT! What gives, all of sudden you make it big and people want to see you more so you (the label - ie. Corporate) decide to increase all the prices by 300%!?
All I know is that to race the 6 races I want to this season will cost me about $300 in race fees and thats before the “late fees”. Oh and thats not including travel expenses like hotel, gas (at almost $4 a gallon) and food. So at $11.75 an hour which is what I make, I need to work 25.5 hours to pay for my race fees which really ends up being more like 32 hours, because of all the fees (taxes) I have to pay out of my pay check to the Government which whom is apparently spending it all on bullets to kill Iraqies and hookers and blow if you work in Washington.
So I pretty much blow almost a weeks paycheck on race fees, which is my decision. All I am saying is each year the fees for everything in life and at the Sea Otter, go up and my wages don’t.
Seriously whats with the fees these days and when am I going to get a raise?
ps. Megan Fox is still hot and I would pay another $11 to watch her in a movie with robots that battle each other.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
I think it is worth it to watch the big air guys break them selves off and check out the umbrella girls,
booya baby, kill it!!!!!!
April 7th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
I’m only going because Brett and The Ninja aka Michael Takahashi are going. Otherwise, I would be at home spending some quality time with my bikes….oh yeah, my wife too.
April 8th, 2008 at 6:28 am
Sedrik I totally agree with you. I paid $92 (without a coupon it would’ve been $107) to race Sea Otter. If I knew 2 weeks prior to registering it would’ve been $65?????!!!!
April 8th, 2008 at 7:02 am
Talk about waste of time, two years ago I drove all the way out there to only race for 5 minutes. At five minutes I sheared off the end of my peddle and had to one leg it all the way back to the venue. That sucked. What didn’t suck was the pictures with all the girls.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:59 am
Glad I registered early… it was 65.00 and then a mandatory 10.00 license fee which I can get reimbursed when I show up and show them my annual usa cycling license… but had to come out of pocket 75 clams! Dude, 90 is ridiculous! But we’re going to have a blast! Just have to sell lots of evomo shirts, hats, and hoodies!!!
April 10th, 2008 at 7:27 am
Im with you Sedrik $90 is silly for 90 seconds of glory. I have also had the most mechanical failures out at SOC, mostly due to wet sandy conditons. Throw repairs into the mix and you really have some expense’s.
April 11th, 2008 at 8:32 am
Dudes, that is crazy! I agree, race fees right now are stupid. Over here, an U16 DAY license is £35, (about $70) and they expect kids who are still in school, and probably not in jobs, to pay this every few weeks!?!?!!
Seriously, mtb authorities need to get their heads screwed on right…