UnhappyCustomer wrote:
The other poster's response was spot on. If you define success as bringing in a higher caliber pro field, building dependent relationships with all the local charities and creating a bunch of community youth programs then I absolutely agree she was beyond successful. However, as a local runner participating in the marathon and other races I don't care how many Kenyans or US olympians line up on the chalk. I also absolutely would love for the race to go down to a more manageable size of 20-25k. I guarantee you if just these two items were actioned NYRR could manage to decrease race registration fees significantly. If they got rid of their pet programs that would give them further savings. It's coming down to basic math most of the time. We're not talking about curing cancer or a fortune 500 super complex corporation with subsidiaries all over the world.
As a businesswoman, she's done great. She successful gauged the revenue and growth opportunity for the club and implemented changes accordingly. This sort of change is very familiar to me. I work at a large bank which was a partnership then went public. From the outside it always looks like a huge success (and it is for the shareholders and high ranking managers $), but it's a very different story for the stakeholders. Those who are around for the changes understand very clearly how they get screwed.
I'm thinking you don't understand economics of this. You want to reduce field size and somehow that could cut registration fees? And you want to cut out the very grass roots stuff that you think running is all about?
I dunno man - It just seems to me you are constructing some kind of fantasyland that doesn't make any sense, logically or financially.
Fixed costs are huge on an event in NYC with 25,000 people (the bkln half). You need to cover the fixed costs. You get a sponsor - maybe that gets you $100k. You need a big field to cover your breakeven point.
In that sense, a 25,000 person NYCM with no elite division would probably cost $400 per person - sponsors would flee and the smaller field wouldn't cover the fixed expenses at $250 per.
I'm not privy to NYRR #s, but I doubt you are making much sense here.