Home Chat General Chat

Price Of Triathlons For Juniors!!

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

Comments

  • SamutriSamutri Posts: 143
    Hi Rob - good to see you getting into this fabulous sport!

    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!!
  • Thanks,



    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!







  • LuckyLucky Posts: 137
    This is my first year in Tri, and I'm going to have spent somewhere around 150 UKP for race entry and to join British Triathlon (worth it for the car sticker I enjoyed putting on my rear window after completing my first race)



    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.
  • Thanks, and you are right there is a problem with where the line should be drawn, I think it would be nice to have a reduced fee for junior entry, but, from what you have said, i can see how it might be quite difficult.



  • md6md6 Posts: 969
    I agree that there should be a Junior fee, and don't agree that those on lower incomes should get a reduced entry fee as I'm sure that the other participants would have to cough up more to cover the difference (and probably because it wouldn't benefit me). That said, I would be interested to know the cost of insurance for minors in the sport and if there are extra marshalling requirements if juniors are involved in the event. I have a suspicion that there may be additional cost etc for that, which does need to be paid for, but if there isn't (and hopefully someone else on here would know) then i think juniors should get reduced fees. I think that this is the case for some running events already.

    well there's my 2p worth (or 1p if i claim to be under 18 [;)])
  • jon_gjon_g Posts: 318
    soory if this is a controversial answer, but why cant you get a weekend job to pay for your sport? i started working when i was 15 and i paid for all my own stuff with the money i earned
  • BritspinBritspin Posts: 1,655
    Weekend job? most races being at....the weekend, slight prob there. Mind you you get get the training in on a paper round, run/bike anyway!
  • nivaghnivagh Posts: 595

    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...
  • I feel there should definitely be a cheaper entry for juniors. If we want triathlon to continue to develop then we shouldn't be putting off youngsters who will be the future of the sport. Perhaps there should be more subsidy from British Triathlon or a greater number of junior races that are run alongside the adult events to keep costs down. It was always cheaper membership and green fees when I was a junior playing golf and the same with match fees and club membership for rugby and football.
  • Just saving a am a young triathlete and i got asked to leave my job as i often couldnt work on saturdays as i had races or training.



    Andy

Sign In or Register to comment.