In the context of the overall expense structure prize pools don't come close to the biggest line item (insurance and police/race vehicles are generally some of the biggest expenses) but we're still talking about nearly $10,000 in prizes that go to non-championship fields during the course of the CRCA season.

Dollars (9,205 of them) and (common) Sense

So eliminating non-championship prize pools from the CRCA calendar, as supported by 81% of survey respondents, frees up $10,000 in the CRCA budget. This seems like a no brainer. Whether you're focused on the sustainability of categorized racing and want to re-invest those funds in the sport or just think amateur sports shouldn't feature cash prize pools I think there are a plethora of justifications for allocating those funds elsewhere.

Indeed that $10,000 could more than cover the entire annual budget of the Century Road Club Development Foundation, the nonprofit U23 program that is attempting to grow amateur-level youth cycling in New York City (full disclosure: I volunteer my time with CRCDF).

Reinvestment Starts here

To some (including approximately 19% of survey respondents) eliminating amateur prize pools may sound dramatic but I would argue that it's the only means to find the resources to reinvest in the sport at a time when the sport desperately needs reinvigoration. In a perfect world this sort of reinvestment would help return the sport to growth and help draw the sort of cash sponsorship that makes investing in prize pools and other amenities feasible. So with that in mind here is how I would spend the money saved by eliminating non-championship field prize money:

Strengthen the sport by making event promotion economically sustainable: as I touch on shortly, race promotion at the grassroots level is largely a labor of love. Which is a kind way of saying that the pay sucks. For CRCA Board Members and race directors there isn't even any cash compensation - it's an entirely volunteer gig. Which in my view has contributed to a high rate of turnover, poor transfer of institutional knowledge and at times a surprising amount of instability for an organization that has been around since 1898. First and foremost it's time to change this - to ensure race directors and organizers are well enough compensated to keep putting on the races we love. In the long-run providing additional economic incentive for race organizers is important if we want to keep the best race directors not just in the sport but innovating. And by keeping the best race directors in the sport not only will there be more high quality events available to racers but those events will be better equipped to chase sponsorship dollars that can be used to grow the events beyond what is possible on registration fees alone. For CRCA this may mean introducing paid roles while for other races this may mean race directors make a bit more profit on their labor of love. In the long run it's worth it. Reinvest in the sport with juniors fields and race clinics: race time costs money (police/medical/staff) which can make it hard to include small junior fields or race clinics in race schedules. But if we want to fix the age gap detailed in The Demographics of Cycling then races need to offer both junior / U23 fields and we need to provide skills sessions to ease new racers into the sport. In New York City CRCA has done a great job with this (including in particular the Women's New Racer Clinic) by not just offering these opportunities but also making the juniors fields completely free. It's time for other race directors to take the savings from eliminating prize pools and invest it in free junior fields, skills clinics and other offerings targeted at new riders. Improve the race experience: I think this comes part and parcel with compensating and retaining the best promoters but it's time to move past 'tradition' when it comes to prize pools, field structures and race directing more broadly. A lesson I have taken from the realm of gravel grinding is that it's time to focus on providing the best customer experience possible. Easy event registration and check-in, races that run on schedule, basic rider amenities are no longer optional for races to be successful - they are the bare minimum. I also think this extends to being thoughtful on non-cash prizes - for example even if non-championship cash prizes are eliminated, race directors could still offer Bikereg vouchers for free entry to future events which helps promote loyalty to race directors/series.

Notice that I didn't include 'lower registration fees' in that list. With or without prize pools each race has to determine it's value proposition. In New York City we have seen time and time again that racers will turn out in droves for the races with the best value proposition - which in my experience has far more to do with the race and the organization around it than simple math around registration fees and prize pools. With no prize pools certain races may have to cut registration fees to attract riders but I consider the three investments cited above to be far higher priorities for the health of the sport.

Unfortunately returning again to the example of CRCA I worry that the $10,000 freed up from eliminating non-championship prize pools may not be enough to move the needle on all three of those investments...

Why it May Not Be Enough

Focusing on CRCA, the reality is that with a nearly 20-race calendar $10,000 of savings on non-championship field prize pools only goes so far. As a result, for some events I think it is time to eliminate prize pools altogether - championship and non-championship alike.

As I have experienced the sport of cycling there are essentially two categories of races. On the high-end there are impressive, big budget affairs like Gateway Cup in Saint Louis or Intelligentsia Cup in Chicago. I absolutely love these races and have traveled halfway across the country to participate in them (#999milestoGateway).

But here in New York City, on the local level, the cycling community survives and thrives on something altogether different. I have often called it grassroots racing but for the sake of this discussion we could also call it amateur racing. This is the sort of racing that requires getting up at 4:30AM to do a few loops in Central Park, or bombing out of the office in the afternoon to go ride on an abandoned airfield in Brooklyn with a handful of friends and family representing the only spectators.

These races benefit from a few businesses that sponsor cycling on a local level (Lucarelli & Castaldi chief among them) but registration fees are the primary revenue driver and in terms of workload they rely on the dedication of a small number of individuals that sustain the sport in New York City. Whether it's the CRCA Board of Directors, Charlie in Brooklyn and his crew, the Rockleigh Crit team or the Kissena crew, to call out just a few, so much of the local race calendar exists only through the unpaid or underpaid efforts of a small number of passionate individuals. Not only are these individuals not getting any younger but turnover in some of their ranks - the CRCA Board of Directors in particular - is extremely high and great promoters like Aki Sato have 'retired' altogether.

While categorized racing in the United States is fragile at just every level it is this amateur level that concerns me most given it is the foundation of what remains a participation driven sport in the United States. Without clubs like CRCA and Kissena drawing in new riders, providing educational sessions and race opportunities, the sport as we know it in New York City would no longer exist. So for these grassroots races where sponsorship is marginal at best and prize pools have to be funded on the back of race registration fees and underpaid (in the case of CRCA - unpaid) staff I think it's time to end prize pools altogether and instead focus all possible resources in those three investments cited above to guarantee that we're driving the sport back to a more sustainable place (where prize pools are eventually feasible).

Expanding on this point consider the breakdown of racers at Grant's Tomb in the pie chart below - 86% of participants were in non-championship fields. If that race benefited from cash sponsorship I would have zero issue with paying out cash prize pools for the championship fields. But before we pay out championship prize pools for a very small portion of race participants let's ensure that the of individuals that have kept a race like Grant's Tomb alive are being compensated, however modestly, for their time and that investments in junior racing, race clinics and the like are being made.