Posted by Leon Mattics on January 18, 2010 at 19:52:31:
In Reply to: Re: Cost of Races in Mobile posted by Brent Ward on January 18, 2010 at 18:05:12:
For one thing they do not have the expenses for police we face in Mobile. Notice that Saraland puts on a quality run for I believe is not more than $12 or $13. Battle of Mobile Bay is $15. That is why I am suggesting that Mobile runners support races that are outside of Mobile city. Notice that Senior Bowl raised it's entry from $12 to $15 this year, partly I'm guessing, because of the cost of police.
It is important to realize that most of the races in Mobile are not Pacer Races but are only produced by the Pacers or the Little Red Hen. As such the Pacers or the Little Red Hen do not have a lot of say on what the entry fee will be but it is set by the organization putting on the race.
As far as the ATR goes, the cost of invited runners is wasted unless they can break the magical 28:00 mark. I don't know if it is still true, but for many years the ATR had more sub 28 finishes than any 10K road race and that did give the race a great deal of prestige. Now the invited runners jog(for them) the first 6 miles in a pack and then have a 1/4 mile race, useless to us. My own opinion would be to reduce the prize money but give big bonuses to winning runners breaking (say)27:50 and for women, the equivalent time. Then if the invited runners do not want to come and run, it is no loss to us. Perhaps a bonus of $10000 for the winner breaking(say)27:50 would give more publicity to the race than the invited runners themselves.