NYC Marathon price!

Itziger · 29-12-2013 8:49pm #1

Just registered there on the New York Runners site and was seriously thinking of going for the 'guaranteed' entry for time ( My 2013 Half time just does it by 2 seconds).

347$$$$$$ WTF?

I decided there was no way I was paying that to run a bleeding marathon. On principle. Is this what people pay for that race?

I know it's expensive to run anyway, what with flight and hotel but Christ that's an abusive price for any race.

pistol_75 · 29-12-2013 10:32pm

Itziger wrote: »

Just registered there on the New York Runners site and was seriously thinking of going for the 'guaranteed' entry for time ( My 2013 Half time just does it by 2 seconds).

347$$$$$$ WTF?

I decided there was no way I was paying that to run a bleeding marathon. On principle. Is this what people pay for that race?

I know it's expensive to run anyway, what with flight and hotel but Christ that's an abusive price for any race.

Was going to enter the lottery weeks ago till I noticed the price. Didn't bother after that. It's outrageous compared to most other big city marathons

Outkast_IRE · 29-12-2013 10:35pm

Is it to cover what I imagine to be very large security costs in comparison to other marathons ?

yaboya1 · 29-12-2013 11:46pm

$255 if you live in the US. We're being discriminated against! Still robbery though.

RacoonQueen · 30-12-2013 12:09am

pistol_75 wrote: »

Was going to enter the lottery weeks ago till I noticed the price. Didn't bother after that. It's outrageous compared to most other big city marathons

Same as me. No chance I'm entering at that price unless I win the lotto. Much more expesive than when I entered in 09 I think.

average_runner · 30-12-2013 7:27am

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Same as me. No chance I'm entering at that price unless I win the lotto. Much more expesive than when I entered in 09 I think.

I ran this in nov and had a stinker of a race due to sickness. But still the best experience of any race I did. While its expensive it was definitely worth it. Its a one off thing. Surface very hard on the legs. Crowd is amazing but the setup after the finish is annoying.

tHE vAGGABOND · 30-12-2013 1:27pm

A case of supply and demand too, they will still "fill" the lottery at that price. I

robinph · 30-12-2013 3:32pm

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

Is it to cover what I imagine to be very large security costs in comparison to other marathons ?

Nah, it's because people are daft enough to pay whatever they ask for.

The costs for NY are not 100 times greater than for London by any stretch of the imagination and I suspect they have been charging daft prices like that for years. I believe that Boston is quite high on the price as well when compared to London.

... goes off to have a look at the prices ->

Chicago - $200
Boston - $225
New York - $347
London - £28
Berlin - €46
Tokyo - y12,000 ~ €80

Which makes it look as if the US ones maybe are more expensive so maybe it is due to security... but then you have the Washington DC Marine Corps marathon which was $92 for entry a couple of years ago and if security was the issue then it doesn't get any more sensitive than running up and down the Washington Mall.

NY, Boston and Chicago are just taking advantage of their position as majors and ripping people off.

average_runner · 30-12-2013 3:47pm

robinph wrote: »

Nah, it's because people are daft enough to pay whatever they ask for.

The costs for NY are not 100 times greater than for London by any stretch of the imagination and I suspect they have been charging daft prices like that for years. I believe that Boston is quite high on the price as well when compared to London.

... goes off to have a look at the prices ->

Chicago - $200
Boston - $225
New York - $347
London - £28
Berlin - €46
Tokyo - y12,000 ~ €80

Which makes it look as if the US ones maybe are more expensive so maybe it is due to security... but then you have the Washington DC Marine Corps marathon which was $92 for entry a couple of years ago and if security was the issue then it doesn't get any more sensitive than running up and down the Washington Mall.

NY, Boston and Chicago are just taking advantage of their position as majors and ripping people off.

Berlin gone up by alot too

menoscemo · 30-12-2013 4:53pm

robinph wrote: »

Nah, it's because people are daft enough to pay whatever they ask for.

The costs for NY are not 100 times greater than for London by any stretch of the imagination and I suspect they have been charging daft prices like that for years. I believe that Boston is quite high on the price as well when compared to London.

... goes off to have a look at the prices ->

Chicago - $200
Boston - $225
New York - $347
London - £28
Berlin - €46
Tokyo - y12,000 ~ €80

Which makes it look as if the US ones maybe are more expensive so maybe it is due to security... but then you have the Washington DC Marine Corps marathon which was $92 for entry a couple of years ago and if security was the issue then it doesn't get any more sensitive than running up and down the Washington Mall.

NY, Boston and Chicago are just taking advantage of their position as majors and ripping people off.

London is only £28 for GFA and (I think) a limited number of club places.
The vast majority of places are sold to charities and tour companies and cost them £hundreds.

RayCun · 30-12-2013 5:47pm

menoscemo wrote: »

London is only £28 for GFA and (I think) a limited number of club places.

Lottery places too, afaik

Gavlor · 30-12-2013 6:08pm

Berlin is €104 iirc

robinph · 30-12-2013 7:12pm

menoscemo wrote: »

London is only £28 for GFA and (I think) a limited number of club places.
The vast majority of places are sold to charities and tour companies and cost them £hundreds.

The cost to the charities is a completely separate topic and how many places the charities get isn't entirely clear. For a runner to run in London it is either £28 for a GFA place, or £28 for a ballot place, or £28(?) for a Championship entry, or £28 for a club entry.

Alternatively you can go around shaking a bucket and get a free entry through a charity. It's still the cheapest major to enter any way you look at it.

robinph · 30-12-2013 7:14pm

Gavlor wrote: »

Berlin is €104 iirc

Probably does work out at that once you add on the extras, the €46 was just the basic entry price I found but I did see there was then a list of other things that you'd probably want to be adding on.

menoscemo · 30-12-2013 7:54pm

robinph wrote: »

The cost to the charities is a completely separate topic and how many places the charities get isn't entirely clear. For a runner to run in London it is either £28 for a GFA place, or £28 for a ballot place, or £28(?) for a Championship entry, or £28 for a club entry.

Alternatively you can go around shaking a bucket and get a free entry through a charity. It's still the cheapest major to enter any way you look at it.

Yeah, I was just making the point that London probably takes in close to as much money in total as the New York Marathon (you said that the cost of organising New York is not 100 times more than London).

'Runners' paying £28 per entry (who would be a vast minority of entrants) are probably making a loss for the race organisers but they make up their income elsewhere.

average_runner · 30-12-2013 7:58pm

When u do new york u treat it as a holiday. The savings you make on running gear and clothes makes up for the cost. London cant do that.

robinph · 30-12-2013 8:10pm

menoscemo wrote: »

Yeah, I was just making the point that London probably takes in close to as much money in total as the New York Marathon (you said that the cost of organising New York is not 100 times more than London).

'Runners' paying £28 per entry (who would be a vast minority of entrants) are probably making a loss for the race organisers but they make up their income elsewhere.

Sorry, I grabbed the wrong end of the stick.

It's only in the couple of hundred range that charities are paying I believe from the C4 documentary a while ago. Don't NY and Boston flog off places to charity and tour operators as well though?

RacoonQueen · 30-12-2013 9:11pm

robinph wrote: »

Probably does work out at that once you add on the extras, the €46 was just the basic entry price I found but I did see there was then a list of other things that you'd probably want to be adding on.

Berlin went up to $90 this year.

NYC went up a couple of years ago and they stated that they police were now charging them and this was the reason for the raise in price. Still crazy prices though and raging now I didn't do it a few years ago.

Chicago and Boston pretty 'cheap' compared to New York.

robinph · 30-12-2013 9:57pm

https://www.virginlondonmarathon.com/raising-money/raising-money/golden-and-silver-bonds/

13,000 of the 39,000(?) places go to charities in London.
There will be a few thousand GFA and club places, but the rest are ballot.
Not quite clear on the exact charity pricing from that page but looks like it's £1500 for five places each year for a golden bond charity, and £300 for the silver bond place every five years for the other charities. So basically £300 quid per charity place, just depends on if the charity got on the golden list or not for how many they can get.

ecoli · 31-12-2013 10:24am

The NYRR do a fair bit for running and youth programs in the area and alot of the money generated goes back into the local running scene however the board are very well paid for their efforts with Wittenberg making north of $500,000 a year as CEO as well as a hugely impressive property portfolio

robinph · 31-12-2013 10:43am

Page 18 shows the London Marathon employees approximate wages:
http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Accounts/Ends13/0000283813_AC_20120930_E_C.pdf

1 person getting something between £240k and £250k, but only 24 employees, they do seem pretty well paid though.

They seem to be getting £1.5 million in "donations" from people who are unsuccessful in the ballot, which is about 50,000 + generous people without a place... but they do get a "free" top.

menoscemo · 31-12-2013 12:34pm

robinph wrote: »

They seem to be getting £1.5 million in "donations" from people who are unsuccessful in the ballot, which is about 50,000 + generous people without a place... but they do get a "free" top.

It's actually a free jacket

I thought the money was going to their nominated charities if you missed out. Are you saying it goes to London Marathon itself?

belcarra · 31-12-2013 4:27pm

menoscemo wrote: »

It's actually a free jacket I thought the money was going to their nominated charities if you missed out. Are you saying it goes to London Marathon itself?

I did the same as you last year Meno. I was full sure it was going to charity if unsuccessful in the ballot. Although it may have been you that told me that...where do I register with you for a refund??:o

Itziger · 31-12-2013 4:54pm

Folks, my original point stands (for me anyway!) I don't care where the money is going, ok, that's not true, I'd prefer to see it going to a good cause but even then I refuse to pay 345 or more - there's an extra or two - to enter a goddamn marathon.

I swear I'm not known as a tight arse. Tonight's wine and grub would prove that.

belcarra · 31-12-2013 5:00pm

NYC was by a distance the best experience marathon I have done so far. Not yet got to do Berlin or London but it was a good bit better than Chicago, which itself was very good. I agree the cost involved is extremely high but to be honest if I got the opportunity to do it again in a couple of years time I would!
As Average_Runner mentioned, you'd be better off treating it as part of a big holiday to the US - I'm sure most women would manage to get rid of $350 over the course of 3-4hrs in the shops over there! (Just imagine RQ with 4 hrs in a shop selling shiny new runners!!)

vinny1313 · 02-01-2014 7:00pm

I signed up to enter the lottery, but when I saw the price I stopped. I'm sure I could have found a way of justifying it, but my gut reaction was just 'no way'. Last time I was in New York I felt it was a bit of a rip-off in general, so I that obviously contributed. I'm entering the Marine Corps lottery next month instead (which is free).

belcarra · 02-01-2014 9:15pm

vinny1313 wrote: »

I signed up to enter the lottery, but when I saw the price I stopped. I'm sure I could have found a way of justifying it, but my gut reaction was just 'no way'. Last time I was in New York I felt it was a bit of a rip-off in general, so I that obviously contributed. I'm entering the Marine Corps lottery next month instead (which is free).

Marine corps is good but not in the same league as New York! Best of luck in the lottery anyways, Active totally messed up registration for it this year.

vinny1313 · 03-01-2014 5:24pm

belcarra wrote: »

Marine corps is good but not in the same league as New York! Best of luck in the lottery anyways, Active totally messed up registration for it this year.

I guess that's why new york is the price it is. If the demand is that big you can charge what you like!

Funnily enough I spoke to quite a few American runners when I over there for the Miami marathon in 2012 and I heard more negatives than positives about New York, the Marine Corps seemed to be well thought off though. I did read about the registration issue for 2013, hopefully (for their sake) the lottery sorts it out. The week earlier also suits me better and if it doesn't work out there's always Dublin or Frankfurt.

Krusty_Clown · 03-01-2014 5:40pm

I did NY a couple of years back, when it wasn't quite so expensive and it was truly an amazing experience. I'm not sure that the start line of any other marathon has had quite the same impact as NY (or the post-race finish for any marathon been quite as crap!). It's a race for the bucket-list, rather than one to do for a PB attempt. If you want to run a PB, go to Frankfurt, London, or somewhere closer and cheaper. If you want to experience NYC marathon, then do NYC marathon. No point giving out about the price on an Irish forum; just don't do it, or give out to them directly.

belcarra · 03-01-2014 6:39pm

vinny1313 wrote: »

I guess that's why new york is the price it is. If the demand is that big you can charge what you like!

Funnily enough I spoke to quite a few American runners when I over there for the Miami marathon in 2012 and I heard more negatives than positives about New York, the Marine Corps seemed to be well thought off though. I did read about the registration issue for 2013, hopefully (for their sake) the lottery sorts it out. The week earlier also suits me better and if it doesn't work out there's always Dublin or Frankfurt.

I found a huge amount of runners in MCM had very poor race etiquette with them veering across your path and generally being very annoying. I never saw it as prevalent in any other marathon I've done and very much taking it handy as well rather than going for a PB.
Being the marathon that it is, it's overly patriotic but on the flip side there were some very moving memorials dotted along the course in remembrance of dead Marines. Don't expect to see many foreigners either as I'd estimate 95% are yanks.

mcsplash · 11-03-2014 9:05am

Entered the lottery for NYC Marathon as a once in a lifetime marathon to do. Don't know how people justify the entry fee and won't be overly disappointed if I don't get a place. Crazy fee to ask of international athletes already paying a fortune to get and stay there. And people raised eye brows at a small hike in Dublin last year??? There does seem to be a general increase in prices with the recent sudden uptake of running.