The entry fee, I believe, for the 2009 race has been raised to $4000 - with it being brought up again another $1000 in 2010. What are your thoughts of this action by the ITC?
Its been reported that the purse is coming down another couple hundred thousand dollars. I think we should revisit this topic. What are your thoughts? I still believe that the committee really needs to actively pursue new race sponsors for this coming season.
With the field getting bigger I'm not surprised that the fee is getting bigger also, it takes a lot of money to run a huge race such as the Iditarod but thankfully there's a lot of volunteers. It's not too fair to the ones who can't afford it, I'm glad some people like the Seppala Grant are allowing rookies to run by giving them a big check - gotta be qualified (money tight, rookie), file for it and get picked by a panel of judges though. Mitch Seavey donated 10k to the Seppala Grant from his AAS winnings which was so sweet of him. The Iditarod is the dream race for a lot of mushers. Things always get pricier as years go by, shucks! Iditarod is huge, the most popular sled dog race in the world so I guess they raise the prices. Sigh. But I'll always be a fan and a dreamer :biggrin
As I was saying before, it seems to me that they should maybe focus on underwriting more of their costs with corporate sponsors. The only difficulty would be FINDING more sponsors though! Its a tough spot the ITC is at right now - and I think its good we're discussing the different paths they can potentially take the Iditarod race for the future.
Kristen! i missed you!
anyway yeah I actually do agree with you, I think that the entry fee should be the last thing to change, i wonder what the best approach would be.. that is if they didnt raise the cost any
The Iditarod is becoming a rich man's race. I personally do not agree with the entry fee raises. If they need to make the field smaller, then why not have a quota on the number of entries??
The Iditarod is really becoming about money. I do not agree with the way it is being run now, so I doubt that I will run it when I am old enough. I will probably focus on more down to earth races.
I do know they use it as a means to "slim down" the field of mushers who participate - but do you think incorporating bigger sponsors to help cover more costs would be a better avenue to follow? Being that the field of mushers probably can't ever grow past 100, you would think that they wouldn't make the majority of their money via the entry fees. It's hard to tell how much of the overhead the sponsors cover.
its kinda a pain cause by the time i have the option to run it its gonna be in 5 digits. I mean i can understand the need for it do to the raise in cost in... everything... but they have to keep in mind mushers are... mushers... to put it politely... we spend all our money on our dogs and dont have a ton left over, if it gets to high mushers will likely have trouble making the payment. I just dont hope the fact of money takes over mushing
I'm really not sure what my feeling are on this. I can see the point somewhat but I personally think there are a lot of politics going on with the Iditarod Trail Committee. I don't know what direction the Iditarod is headed. I still plan to run it eventually and it's still a great race but it's also getting so commercialized...More and more I find myself thinking about trying to shoot for the Yukon Quest.
I wonder if there will be any other major distance races organized. I could see that happening if the Iditarod becomes even harder to get into.
Alice