Why should races offer prize money?!

You don't know USATF very well. It's not a true pro sports organization, it just can't be by its very nature. Nobody should rely on USATF to do anything more than pick US teams for international competitions and stage national championships from youth through masters levels. Maybe familiarize yourself with the Ted Stevens Act, for starters.

With there being multiple random road races every weekend in most major metro areas, offering even nominal prize money ($300/$200/$100 to overall $150/100/50 to masters) can make a race stand out and also signal that it will be a go-to race for the local fast runners.

If a race has some kind of prize money I'm much more confident I'll have competition, and even if not maybe I can make a little money on the race.

Offering prize money attracts better and deeper fields. This can and does increase general participation. It also gives a reason to cover the event from a media standpoint. The story of a race is, who won, what time, how did the race unfold. This becomes much less compelling when a 5k is won in 20 minutes or a marathon in 3:00.

If you are trying to put on a quality race, prize money should be considered as part of the marketing budget.

The same Ted Stevens Act that governs USA Swimming, USA Gymnastics, and USA Figure Skating? Those sports seem to have no problem pulling in MAJOR sponsor dollars, hiring effective professional public relations/communications talent, and getting their nattys on actual television in prime time. I am sure that Runnerspace and FloTrack reach similar mass audiences making the sport attractive to potential HUGE sponsors*.

I am being sarcastic about all of this because USATF (and TAC going wayyyyy back) is a terribly managed and very provincial organization lacking any semblance of a cohesive competition schedule, effective athlete development or advocacy plans, or a branding strategy (World's Best Track Team**). Want to witness hours of mind numbing grandstanding interspersed with useless conversations, self congratulatory excess, and ceaseless "kicking the can down the road" decision making? Join your association's next Zoom meeting or travel to the national convention. It's all about keeping Max at the helm with a comfortable salary, locals protecting their fiefdoms, and blocking anyone that wants to grow the sport and move it forward.

* Only if Nike, Inc. approves

** Based on tabulating medal counts over the past 50 years for sprint events and select field events. Typically not valid for running events over 800 meters.

To me, prize money at a race is equivalent to those nonproduct specific brand advertisements that big companies run. It’s not going to directly drive sales, but it reminds the general public that the company is nationwide and thus bigger (better) than its local competition.

For example, if your local half marathon all of a sudden started paying out five figure prize money, it will definitely draw some small number of elites or subelites looking to cash in, but the average joe doesn’t care about seeing these lower tier elite runners nor does the prize money incentivize anyone beside the elites to sign up. If you lower the prize money down to a few hundred or even a thousand, it’s the same effect but instead of the regional elites showing up, it’s just all the local/state fast guys and gals who were probably going to show up anyway. The prize money, alone, doesn’t drive people to show up.

However, if you are already putting on a large major metro marathon with more than ten thousand participants, you almost have to give out some prize money. The prize money may not actually drive anyone to sign up, but when you are putting on a large race people expect it. If joe moneybags owns a big business in town and he puts some sponsorship dollars into the race because the race organizer tells him this is the biggest race in the state and his junior associate wins the whole thing, he’s going to wonder just how big the race really is because, aren’t Kenyans supposed to win all the big races?

Over time the lack of prize money may push the whole race into a more amateur/local direction and eventually erode the spectacle that drives the mass of hobbyjoggers to sign up. Or maybe not. Maybe if State Farm never ran another commercial, they would still dominate over smaller insurance companies?

On a purely anecdotal level, our local half marathon paid $500 down to $100 for overall finishers for several years until 2017. There has been maybe 5% fewer people signing up but the race is in early March so the biggest driver of participation is weather. I run around a 77% to 80% age grade for most distances and our local Turkey trot is the only race I do for the prize and that’s so I can bring a pumpkin pie to Thanksgiving.

"This is a good question. Let me get it out there that races can not offer any prize money and be amazing community events. One of my running claims to fame is winning the Marine Corps Marathon which doesn't offer prize money."

It might come down to whether you're looking for an amazing community event or a professional race. MCM is a very healthy and popular event but if you live away from the DC area and want to watch it on something like USA Network, as you can do with Boston, you're out of luck. If you want to read a story about how the race went, maybe see the first ten finishers listed as soon as they finish, you're much more likely to see it from New York, Chicago, London, etc., than from a race like MCM. Do you want there to be a buzz here at LR about your upcoming race? Do you want Aussie Statman profiling your entrants once a day for a month or so beforehand?

On a smaller scale, do you want good athletes and fast finish times? Do you want the winner of your 10k to finish in 30 minutes or less or are you fine with a 34 minute winner? Personally, I've always believed that if bowlers and golfers can make money from their sports runners should be able to as well but that's just opinion. It does drive me crazy though to see a road race give tens of thousands of dollars to charities and a gift card to the first three finishers in various divisions.

Just spitballing some ideas:

RD could sell VIP bibs for $100 more than standard entry and give the VIPs good parking, restrooms and food near the start and a finish line tent with food, drinks, beer, normetecs, etc after the race. Give those perks away to elites/subelites. Use the extra revenue to fund the prize purse. If the race isn’t popular enough to draw people to pay for VIP, it’s probably not big enough to warrant prize money.

RD could buy insurance and then offer some huge prizes for breaking the world record or American record. Or just offer a prize for setting course record or state record.

Could also offer prize money by not giving out finisher medals. Just allow free download of finish line picture. Most people only care about the medal so they can post a social media photo anyway, just cut out the middleman.

Yep that one, though I've never seen their nationals on tv outside of Olympic years, must not be on the major channels. I mean, I can find WSL tour competitions on tv somewhere if I really want to look for them and they have "MAJOR sponsorship dollars" (though I'm guessing all of the above are MINOR even compared with MLS or PGA sponsorship income). I'm not defending USATF, only dispelling illusions people around here like to bring up. Want a road racing championship with real money and better broadcast quality? Follow the lead of WMM and come up with a USA Distance Tour or the like. The reality is it's going to take something organized outside the purview of USATF. USATF isn't going to magically and suddenly change its stripes over some angry message board and social media posts.

I don't know if they should but it is certainly in their best interest in most cases if they want their event to be high performance. There's also a trickle-down effect... I'm a sub-elite who may or may not win prize money depending on who shows up to a race. It's nice to win money, but I'd rather be do a race that is some combination of competitive (opportunity to race against those who are faster than me, depth of race) and that will enable me to run a fast time. So while having a big prize purse isn't likely to be relevant to me in a major race, the fact that it draws elites will make me more likely to sign up (which also cascades further down the line to more serious rec athletes).

In theory you could attract elites "organically" by having a fast course and knowledge that there will be a deep field based on past years, but realistically if there are other races with prize money they will probably do those, especially if there is some cost to them to travel to the race.