Price Of Triathlons For Juniors!!
Rob Hill
Posts: 6
in General Chat
Hi All,
Im 15 years old and love competing in triathlons but I am am getting sick and tired of having to pay full price for most of the triathlons I enter. Do you think that non earning juniors in full time education should have to pay the same price as working adults?
People that i have already discused this with say that I should only enter the smaller triathlons but most of the sprint triathlons I find are at least £50 or £60 as well!! The cheapest I can find are about £35 but I still think it should be less for non-earning students. I feel very lucky that I get a nice amount of pocket money but it still takes me months to save up for some of the triathlons and that is if I dont spend it on anything else! What about other juniors who don't get as much pocket money as me, or none at all?
I don't know how many juniors will be reading this but even if you are not a junior I hope you can see the point that I am trying to get accross, please tell me what your views are about this,
Im sorry if you don't agree but thanks for taking the time to read this anyway,
Rob
Im 15 years old and love competing in triathlons but I am am getting sick and tired of having to pay full price for most of the triathlons I enter. Do you think that non earning juniors in full time education should have to pay the same price as working adults?
People that i have already discused this with say that I should only enter the smaller triathlons but most of the sprint triathlons I find are at least £50 or £60 as well!! The cheapest I can find are about £35 but I still think it should be less for non-earning students. I feel very lucky that I get a nice amount of pocket money but it still takes me months to save up for some of the triathlons and that is if I dont spend it on anything else! What about other juniors who don't get as much pocket money as me, or none at all?
I don't know how many juniors will be reading this but even if you are not a junior I hope you can see the point that I am trying to get accross, please tell me what your views are about this,
Im sorry if you don't agree but thanks for taking the time to read this anyway,
Rob
0
Comments
I agree that races can be very expensive. I have just entered IM Austria for next year and it cost me about £240 !!
I suppose the counter argument is that these races are very expensive to organise and there are certain things that have to be paid for. Our sport has always been rightly proud of treating everyone as an equal - including race fees!
If it's any consolation, I'm in my mid 30's with a fairly well paid job..and I still struggle to pay £50 a race!!
You are right and i fully agree with what you are saying (wow, £240 for a triathlon!!). However, Triathlon is (as i'm sure you know) the fastest growing sport at the moment, and so many people I know, of my age, would love to take part in a lot of the races but are so put off by the price, you would hope that there might be more of an incentive for juniors to get into this great sport, especially with so little juniors entering many of the races and with the London 2012 Olympics (for example) just around the corner!
Maybe race entry should be lower for junior racers, but then should it also be lower for those on low income etc. Where is the line drawn ?
Personally, I think there should be a junior race entry fee.
well there's my 2p worth (or 1p if i claim to be under 18 [;)])
Ah, the "cost of racing" thread in a subtly different form.
If there were to be a junior entry fee, then adult competitors would be subsidising it. (Assuming the junior entry fee is below cost.)
The way around this might be to have a junior race in parallel, ie expand the event and use the fact that the fixed costs are already covered to permit entry at marginal cost to juniors.
I wouldn't like to see reduced entry fees for the unemployed unless it were subsidised by government or some sports body, as otherwise again, full price paying competitors would be subsidising that cost.
On the other hand, there are lots of events that don't cost £35 to enter - have you tried looking for smaller local events? Yes, the Windsor / Eton events are £50 or £60 and that's unfortunate, but close to me there are duathlons for £2, so there's a whole spectrum available!
And I suppose if you're good then there's always sponsorship, lottery funding etc. to apply for.
On balance though, the juniors are the future of our sport both in our national teams and at punter level. Pricing them out of the sport is detrimental to our future success and to our health as a species...
Andy