With Grant’s Tomb Criterium now complete, our long range planning is shifting to the Orchard Beach Criterium and the Bear Mountain Classic Road Race. And for that latter race we are facing a serious pricing conundrum. Longtime readers of the Journal may remember our first State of the Sport piece from three years ago focused on the Bear Mountain Classic when we asked ‘Are Bike Races Broken?’ The challenge then is the challenge now: the Bear Mountain Classic is incredibly expensive to host in its current format. So in this Journal entry, part of our Race Director Diaries Series, we take a look at the budgeting and pricing challenges for the Bear Mountain Classic.

How Much Does the Bear Mountain Classic Cost to Run?

In round numbers? $35,000. Yes, thirty five thousand dollars (for reference this is multiples more than the Club’s Central Park events). How does the bill for one day of riding bikes in circles in Harriman State Park match the median annual personal income in the United States? Well, the expense structure hasn’t gotten any better since we first summarized them in ‘Are Bike Races Broken?’ In round numbers:

Motos ($8,000): with four fields on course at any given time the race requires more than a dozen USAC officials on motos. The motos are responsible for everything from enforcing the yellow lane rule to tending to any crashed riders. And they do an excellent job, keeping in touch with the finish line crew from start to finish. But with transit too and from the race, mileage during the day adds up quickly and USAC just (rightfully) increased the fee per mile these motos receive, pushing our cost of moto officials higher.

Police ($5,500): while road-use permits are greatly eased by the fact that the event takes place entirely within Harriman State Park, since the roads are open to traffic we are required to have State Troopers at all major intersections. And with ten odd hours of racing, the bill for these officers adds up quickly.

Insurance ($4,000): insurance is one of the expenses that continues to trend higher. Quite simply the cost of insuring bike races continues to climb and USAC, who plays a vital role in coordinating insurance coverage, has little choice but to pass this onto to the race organizers. As a result for a race like Bear Mountain we pay both an upfront permit cost to USAC as well as $4.00 for every participant to cover insurance (this was $3.75 per rider just a short while ago). We also carry a sizeable burden in vehicle insurance costs, but we include that in the motos line item ($85 per moto for the first 5, then $50 per moto thereafter). If you’re curious how all of the event organizer fees breakdown, head over to the USAC Schedule of Fees.

Medical support ($3,000): due to the somewhat remote location of the Bear Mountain Classic we maintain on-site medical coverage throughout the race day. We hope they remain stationary throughout the race day, but even if they do the total bill runs just under $3,000 to have medical coverage on site for our riders.

Prizes ($3,500): CRCA eliminated prize money for non-elite fields a few years back (our own survey work supported this outcome) but the club still typically pays equal $1,000 prize pools for the Elite Women and Elite Mens fields (sometimes more for this for a prestigious race like the Dave Jordan Central Park Classic). Tack on another $500 for the stuffed Bear trophies that go to the winner of every field and $1,000 for winners and KOM jerseys (more on that front to be announced soon) and we’re at $3,500 in prices.

Neutral Support ($2,000): SRAM neutral support also serves an important role at the Bear Mountain Classic, absolving the Club from the complex task of coordinating volunteer follow-vehicles and the associated paperwork. But three SRAM vehicles do not come cheap, ticking in at roughly $2,000 for the day of coverage.

Parks ($2,000): as part of our permit with New York State Parks we also pay a percentage of event revenue directly to Parks - thankfully this is one of the few expenses that is largely variable based on turnout. But it still adds up to a chunk of change.

These are some of the larger expense line items, but there are a plethora of other expenses as well. From USAC officials at the finish line to race staff to vehicle rentals, the results service, and race numbers. Smash all of these together in a blender and we’re looking somewhere around $35,000 all in to host the Bear Mountain Classic.

How Much Should the Bear Mountain Classic Cost to Ride?

Herein lies the conundrum: with a largely fixed cost structure we have a good sense for how much the Bear Mountain Classic costs to run. But predicting the revenue side of the equation is very difficult. Thankfully as a not-for-profit volunteer run organization CRCA doesn’t have to run the race with a focus on profit maximization (and CRCA benefits from A LOT of free labor including from myself and the rest of the CRCA Board).

Instead the CRCA Open Race schedule is structured to minimize the risk of a financial loss with a goal of moderate profitability that is invested back into the Club’s membership programs - keeping the cost of the CRCA Club Series in Central Park as low as possible while continuing to offer a comprehensive and completely FREE coaching program to all members, as well as all of the Club’s other programming. There is a reason the cost of CRCA Membership hasn’t increased in several years, at a time when the entire cost structure of hosting races continues to increase - it’s because we have been able to balance the budget with a combination of modest profits on open racing and sponsor partnerships throughout the schedule.

So with that goal - modest profits that get reinvested in the club while minimizing the risk of a financial disaster - in mind, and the costs known, we map out a budget for an event like Bear Mountain Classic with two key variables on the revenue side: the average registration fee paid and the total number of participants

Predicting the Total Number of Participants is Hard

Budgeting starts with predicting the number of participants. The hard part of this phase is that final racer registration has ranged from 692 to 440 in the past four years alone: