So I read in a New York Times Article this morning that the NYC Marathon is raising its registration fees about 17 dollars per entry.  That’s about a 10% increase.  The New York City marathon is a non-profit organization who says they are just trying to break even this year with the entry fee increases.  I guess the entry fees received from participants who apply, but do not get awarded a race number in the lottery system, doesn’t generate enough revenue to cover the cost of them NOT being able to run the race.  The Disney marathon in Orlando also increased their entry fees by 20 dollars this year.  If it’s a poor economy, wouldn’t they decrease race entry fees to entice more price conscious runners to participate?

Nope.  So far this year, marathon and half-marathon races are seeing record race entrants in places like Miami, Houston, and Phoenix, but race promoters are gaining less revenue. One problem is that race entries do not cover the cost of putting on a race; a large portion of the revenue comes from corporate sponsors.   For instance, the NYC Marathon’s race sponsor through 2010 is the embattled Dutch financial services company ING (who sponsor a number of other large races).  Poor preforming or bankrupt corporate sponsors don’t seem to bring in very solid revenue to race promoters.  Weird.

But race promoters are also saying their expensives have gone up.  I had a phrase when I had just returned home from Iraq and was trying to finish separating from the Army, while also applying to grade schools and find a job.  When people would ask me to hang out or do something for them I would say to myself, “Everyone just wants a piece of me.”  I have found in these poor economic times everyone seems to want a piece of us, the consumers.  Gas prices are rising because OPEC isn’t getting enough revenue from our decreased consumption.  Universities are increasing tuition because they aren’t getting the alumni donations they were used to.  Sports players still demand lucrative contracts so  sports ticket prices have had to increase to cover the loss of the amount of fans at games.  When times get tough, everyone wants a piece.  Possibly vendors and service providers now want a piece of marathon promoters.  Why are they going after marathon’s?  Because the amount of race entrants seems to be recession proof.

Why are marathons recession proof?  Well first off, the only cost to a participant is running shoes and an entry fee.  Possibly more people are goal driven in poor economic times.  I imagine a lot of people have more time to train now that they do not have jobs or are working less because the economy is slow.  What a perfect time to attain that goal you’ve always wanted to do.  Marathon runners usually have high annual household income so they aren’t as price sensitive.  I may look further into whether or not marathons are recession proof.  The allure of accomplishing difficult goals will always be demanded.  Plus, it impresses people at job interviews when you put on your resume “marathon running” under interests.  However, in one interview I had the interviewer begin to talk about his extensive marathon running and training.  But when my PR was a good bit faster than his was he kind of got “over” the interview.  I guess it’s like the Army, you always want to be able to out run those you are in charge of.

Let’s pull this country out of its economic slump one marathon mile at a time!  Yes, we ran!