94.7 Entry fees

[Jase619]

Your 94.7 entry fee doesn't pay for the goodie bag. It's contents are determined by how much free stuff sponsors feels like handing out, and for whatever reasons sponsors haven't felt like handing out tons of free stuff for many, many years now. (and most other races as well)

 

It does pay for the privilege to have open roads for cycling for one day in the year, to have medics available if something goes wrong etc and whatever is left goes towards charity.

 

I wonder in what decade are we going to be able to put the goodie bag moans behind us?

 

Not in this one

[scotty]

When I entered , which was on the last day , there were  "only " 21000 entries .

Is this not about 9000 down on previous years ??

People speaking with their wallets maybe ?

If there were 30 000 entrants last year then something is amiss if only 18376 made it across the finish line. 

[GhostSixFour]

Your 94.7 entry fee doesn't pay for the goodie bag. It's contents are determined by how much free stuff sponsors feels like handing out, and for whatever reasons sponsors haven't felt like handing out tons of free stuff for many, many years now. (and most other races as well)

 

It does pay for the privilege to have open roads for cycling for one day in the year, to have medics available if something goes wrong etc and whatever is left goes towards charity.

 

I wonder in what decade are we going to be able to put the goodie bag moans behind us?

 

Whether we pay for it or not is irrelevant, as a nicely stocked goody bag takes the sting out of the entry price. Which is what my post was about.

[Skubarra]

Whether we pay for it or not is irrelevant, as a nicely stocked goody bag takes the sting out of the entry price. Which is what my post was about.

 

Until the day the nicely stocked goodies you expect to find in the goodie bag magically appear out of thin air for free, I would respectfully disagree that what you pay or not is irrelevant.

[Jase619]

 

Whether we pay for it or not is irrelevant, as a nicely stocked goody bag takes the sting out of the entry price. Which is what my post was about.

 

Just saying, you are talking about price of entry a lot when discussing the goodie bag. If it doesn't matter than surely those two things can't be used to justify the other? 

 

Not really sure if deciding whether to do a race based on the perceived exorbitant price of the entry should be swayed by whether the free things you are getting is in your opinion worthwhile or "cheap".

 

But to each his own

[Jase619]

Until the day the nicely stocked goodies you expect to find in the goodie bag magically appear out of thin air for free, I would respectfully disagree that what you pay or not is irrelevant.

 

Agreed, it's easy to say that sponsors should give better things in the goodie bag, but if their cost of advertising outweighs the return, why should they?

 

I'm all for a well stocked goodie bag(who doesn't like free things), but to me and I am guessing quite a few people, it's an added benefit not related to what I paid or will pay for a race entry in future.

[Krisvst1]

I know that nobody is forcing me to enter and that I do not have to pay if I feel its overpriced, but who else feels that R 650.00 to enter the 94.7 is just pushing it too far?

If a family of two or three members want to enter you will have to fork out far over R 1000.00 just to enter. Not to mention the travelling to and from the event.

 

Not only myself, but quite a few of my friends (strong VA and VB) riders will skip the 94.7 for 2019. Its time the organisers start taking note - someone is making alot of money. For all practical reasons this race should be more affordable to enter than other races "big" races??

 

Cyclists should start voicing their concerns regarding entry fees and also the hassle of getting hold of your number during the week before the race.

 

Most of us needs to be at work and cannot take time out for picking up numbers.

 

Road racing in SA needs to wake up, else the numbers at races will continue going down.

[love2fly]

The well stocked goodie bag disappeared years ago. I would rather get no goodie bag anyway, its all garbage.

[bored girl]

After almost 2 years in Germany all I can say is: I miss SA's racing. Yes, I now earn Euros so the 32 of those that I paid for 947 does not seem too outrageous. But SA has an incredibly well developed racing scene. I think one can find hen's teeth more often than a race in my region of  Germany. And when you do, it's upwards of 40eu for a +/- 40km of MTB. They do include a small goodie. I got a nice mini thermos at one of the races. However, water tables - often do not include still or even tap water, only sparkling. Or a sparkling sports drink. The terrain is incredibly hard (understandable when you can see the Alps in the distance on a clear day). I often have to get off my bike and push it. It could be because I am also quite unfit but I am trying to paint a picture. And then on the other hand there is hardly any technical sections. Riding through a forest is lovely but race organisers in SA make an effort. The ups are really hard and the downs are really boring.  I used to complain about prices and routes and so on as well. Until you no longer can do a race or 2 on any given weekend you might also not know what you have had. 

All I want to say is: if the 947 entry fee won't leave you hungry, if you love cycling, if you love racing, if you live in JHB, you just have to do it! Because one day it might no longer be there and then you will know what you have missed out on.

I skipped a year, after 9 in a row I decided that it was too expensive for someone with hardly any income and missed out on 2017s race. I am sorry I did. But we are so crazy that we go back to SA and make sure to include races in our stay. 2nd year in a row we will be doing 947 on our SA holiday. 

[Frosty]

I know that nobody is forcing me to enter and that I do not have to pay if I feel its overpriced, but who else feels that R 650.00 to enter the 94.7 is just pushing it too far?

If a family of two or three members want to enter you will have to fork out far over R 1000.00 just to enter. Not to mention the travelling to and from the event.

 

Not only myself, but quite a few of my friends (strong VA and VB) riders will skip the 94.7 for 2019. Its time the organisers start taking note - someone is making alot of money. For all practical reasons this race should be more affordable to enter than other races "big" races??

 

Cyclists should start voicing their concerns regarding entry fees and also the hassle of getting hold of your number during the week before the race.

 

Most of us needs to be at work and cannot take time out for picking up numbers.

 

Road racing in SA needs to wake up, else the numbers at races will continue going down.

There was an informal meeting for organizers with CSA in August. One of the items of concern was the dwindling numbers at most events, as CSA gets a rider levy for every person. Less participants equals less income. Not all organizers were present, which is typical of the “us vs them” attitude that exists currently. Some organizers do it as part of their income, while others do it for the love of the sport.

 

It seems there is another follow up meeting planned for the week before the 947 - our race director was at the previous meeting, and plans to be at the next one.

 

As cyclists ourselves, we know some frustrations cyclists feel when faced with, like mid-week number collections and high costs to enter events.

 

One of our concerns, as an organizer, was the amount of events in the same province on the same weekend. For the first time in years, we had to apply for 2020 calendar applications like it used to be more than a decade back.

[Dicky DQ]

The price for the short version is even more ridiculous, when taken into account that you don't even get a goody bag - no matter how cheap the goody bag has gotten.

 

Which is something that the inflation calcs didn't take into account - when this was started, the goody bags overflowed with real actual products, lots of them. Now, its silly little samples that are just chucked in at random. Not even any real discount vouchers anymore.

Damn, still a mention about a goodie bag, why? There is never anything in them anyway. Soon someone will be moaning about the water tables/face stuffing tables. Dam there is even a thread here now moaning about the total lack of water tables in a race. Go figure.

 

My feeling is, if you want to entry fees to drop don't insist on all the bells and whistles. 

 

Drop the goodie bag, drop the feed stations (it is only 100 ish km), drop the feel for you participation medals and any number of other nice to haves and then the pricing could drop significantly.

 

But then see the outcry damned if you do damned if you don't.

[GhostSixFour]

Until the day the nicely stocked goodies you expect to find in the goodie bag magically appear out of thin air for free, I would respectfully disagree that what you pay or not is irrelevant.

 

If you think about it, the organisers aren't paying for the items in the goody bag are they? It's marketing opportunity for the sponsors. So the price of the event shouldn't be influenced by it. Barring my comments in the reply to the last post.

 

All I'm saying is that if the organisers went and negotiated with sponsors to get better stuff in there, less people would be complaining about the price. It's really a win-win there, sponsors get more exposure, the organisers have happier customers, and the racers feel they get better value for money.

 

 

 

 

Just saying, you are talking about price of entry a lot when discussing the goodie bag. If it doesn't matter than surely those two things can't be used to justify the other? 

 

Not really sure if deciding whether to do a race based on the perceived exorbitant price of the entry should be swayed by whether the free things you are getting is in your opinion worthwhile or "cheap".

 

But to each his own

 

 

Are you saying you wouldn't be happier if you got better stuff in the bag when paying R500 odd for a race?

 

Damn, still a mention about a goodie bag, why? There is never anything in them anyway. Soon someone will be moaning about the water tables/face stuffing tables. Dam there is even a thread here now moaning about the total lack of water tables in a race. Go figure.

 

My feeling is, if you want to entry fees to drop don't insist on all the bells and whistles. 

 

Drop the goodie bag, drop the feed stations (it is only 100 ish km), drop the feel for you participation medals and any number of other nice to haves and then the pricing could drop significantly.

 

But then see the outcry damned if you do damned if you don't.

 

I'm almost willing to bet that the race would be even more expensive if they dropped the goody bag. The sponsors and the exposure is subsidizing it to a certain extent.

[scotty]

If you want goodie bags or other "freebee's" , do something like Kremertart or Meals on Wheels. 

[Krisvst1]

They can keep the crappy medals, its worthless when all finishers gets one. All we want is just a bit of fairness in pricing. How do they justify R650 per rider?

Why not get more riders willing to enter or can afford to enter and thus also increasing exposure to the sponsors?

Please dont miss the point, we dont want to ride for free and we also dont want goodie bags filled to the brimm.

All we want is affordable entry fees that seems fair....

[Vetplant]

I truly expect this upcoming event to be jammed packed with 20 000+ riders given that the main barrier to 947 entry seems to be the exorbitant entry fee:

 

http://www.cycleevents.co.za/road-events/bsss-november-sportive-2019/?fbclid=IwAR26DXY9QEXhdP2dMNPA0BhkZQEBRqjf8HptnxLl3Oh4ZgBcQaNmMy2pHZo

 

R200 entry fee for a 92km race,  a third of the price of a 947 entry.

Nice rolling terrain and lekker racing.

Plus there is pannekoek and vetkoek for sale before and after...

 

So who is coming?

[scotty]

I truly expect this upcoming event to be jammed packed with 20 000+ riders given that the main barrier to 947 entry seems to be the exorbitant entry fee:

 

http://www.cycleevents.co.za/road-events/bsss-november-sportive-2019/?fbclid=IwAR26DXY9QEXhdP2dMNPA0BhkZQEBRqjf8HptnxLl3Oh4ZgBcQaNmMy2pHZo

 

R200 entry fee for a 92km race,  a third of the price of a 947 entry.

Nice rolling terrain and lekker racing.

Plus there is pannekoek and vetkoek for sale before and after...

 

So who is coming?

What about the goodie bag ?