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London Marathon: Why not just increase the entry fee?
Every year we get the same bellyaching and moaning about the London Marathon and who has and hasn't got in on the ballot.
The real problem is that it's far too cheap to enter. Compare it with New York or Chicago or Berlin. None of these are below £100.
At around £30, London is way too cheap. As a result it attracts too many people who just want a Chateau Lafite event for a Lambrusco price. Why not just make it more expensive, to weed out the cheapskates?
If it's around £300 for a charity gold bond place, why not make that the minimum entry price for all? We would then see how many people really want to do it, rather than just trying to get something for nothing.
We could do away with the ballot and all the months of uncertainty, and would ensure that places go to those who deserve them i.e. the ones willing to put their money where their mouth is.
The real problem is that it's far too cheap to enter. Compare it with New York or Chicago or Berlin. None of these are below £100.
At around £30, London is way too cheap. As a result it attracts too many people who just want a Chateau Lafite event for a Lambrusco price. Why not just make it more expensive, to weed out the cheapskates?
If it's around £300 for a charity gold bond place, why not make that the minimum entry price for all? We would then see how many people really want to do it, rather than just trying to get something for nothing.
We could do away with the ballot and all the months of uncertainty, and would ensure that places go to those who deserve them i.e. the ones willing to put their money where their mouth is.
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Comments
You'd just get more triathletes asking questions about how useful their cross-training will be.
Bad, bad idea. Running is an inclusive sport; it's not about exclusivity.
Why would that be a good idea? Clubs already get places as acknowledgement of their commitment. Unless you want the clubs to give those up, freeing up more ballot spaces?True, but then they're not as over-subscribed as London, plus it is still more expensive even at the bottom price.
I think London would sell out whatever the price, and they do what they can. If you're a good club runner you can probably get in with a GFA time, if you've got money or don't mind doing the fundraising then you can easily get in with a charity spot for £1,200 then for the rest there's the ballot.
Maybe by splitting the ballot entry into a few price bands they could raise a bit more money for charity and help to thin out the demand. At the end of the day the entry price is a tiny proportion of what doing the LM actually costs (unless you live nearby) you've got to travel, stay over etc so most people would swallow quite a bit more for the entry place.
a little less than the unattached.
London is way too cheap for a mass-participation event. LM have good reason to put their
fees up in line with the others. They should be charging £50. If people are not happy with
that, then its their choice of entering and paying the price or go elsewhere. Even if London
charges £100, people will still prepare to pay.
I'll be controversial.
Make it unavailable for anyone NOT running for charity.
Give the charity places out for the £30 with a suggested minimum fund raise target of £300.
I believe that the charities pay around £350 for their tickets anyway. A friend of mine was told he should raise £1500 but there's no legal obligation and they would be happy if he raised at least £600.
Have the elite - have the GFA and club runners - then scrap the ballot - make all the other places for charities BUT make sure the charity amounts are reasonable and not the huge amounts of money they are at the minute.
( I am definitely in the camp of those who think that London is about the charities. If there were no charity runners then it would be just another race like all the others. 'real' runners can do plenty of marathons all around the country so why not just give up the pretence and make London the charity one)
I'd pay more but what about those who can't afford it? It seems unfair that those with lower disposable income are excluded from what could be a life-changing event. The answer to the over-subscription is not to raise prices significantly. I'd like to know a bit more about the ballot process though i.e. whether any preliminary checks are done, expected times etc etc
I think I might run the course in reverse before the start and find a flat course to try to get a GFA time for 2013 as that is in my control.
Great North Run have raised their prices from £30 to now £45. Thats over-subscribed.
So if London wanted to raised theirs, the demand will still be there, just London will gain
more income which will help its own charity. Not a question of fairness. If you want to enter,
you agree to paying if successful.
London needs to remain a mix of elite, club runners, those wanting to run for their own
purpose and charity. Maybe LM would have a reduced fee if you raise for your own charity.
I would like to see more places given to those running for smaller and local charities who
are struggling trying to get money.
The ballot system is straightforward. Ballot opens on line in April until 100,000 or so apply for
roughly 20,000 places. Each applicant supplies name, address, date of birth. LM ask for
estimated finishing time and completed marathon time. They don't check these, it just gives
them a rough idea. In September they choose who's in and out. Probably done by computer.
In the good old days when you had to make a effort of getting a paper form, use a pen to fill it in
and walk to a postbox to post your form. Then LM get a club to spend a weekend following
instructions to go through each form and pick who's in and out.
I fully understand the charity argument for london, but to make it charity only turn it into a procession of men in suspenders and scooby do`s. The elite really take London seriously, just look at how Paula has attacked it, world record no less (forget about that silly pacemaker rule)
I`m a decent club runner and London will always stand out as the running event to aim for. Yes there are other British Marathons around and some really great ones such as Edinburgh, but there is just something about London.
Where I'm coming from with the charity angle is not necessarily fancy dress. Lots of people just wear printed t-shirts.
Keep the elite and club but just scrap the ballot.
If you want to run it that badly, run for charity and donate the £300 yourself. If you cant afford the £300 then raise it through friends and family.
There are plenty of people who get in through the ballot and then still get sponsors but the pressure is off to raise huge amounts and you can concentrate on the training (which is hard enough)
I felt that London was the only marathon that the majority of couch potatoes had heard of and therefore would support. I also liked being part of a team and the support that the charity gave me. However I only raised between £1k and £1.5k time whereas we all know how much a normal GB place would expect.
I have done a few races that where everyone had to raise money for the chairty -the amounts were much smaller - 300-450 and everyone was in the same boat. The entry fee was 50 approx from memory and everyone competing took it very seriously indeed and in fact there were a great amount of people who did it every year raising plenty of cash for the charity year after year without the pressure of 2K or so to raise. I thought it was an excellent idea.
Having done London and many other marathons - I agree with everyone who says that it is NOT the best one out there by a long chalk. BUt it is still one of the best known and for that reason people will continue to be attracted to it.
I much confess to losing sympathy with the 'woe is me I didn't get in' crowd though.
Not exactly sure what your point is GA. The title suggest one thing but the content does not seem to justify why the entry fee should be increased.
£51M was raised last year by VLM. Increasing entry to £50 and everyone raising £300 would not get to that figure
For the rest there are club places or the ballot - you'll get in eventually if you really want to - and then the charity places which if they cost the charities £300 a pop are probably more about making the event commercially viable than any desire to raise money for good causes.
Indeed. If I was race director there are only really small 'tweaks' that I would consider implementing, namely:
- straighten out GFA requirements
- consider priority in ballot for those who haven't previously been lucky enough in previous ballots
- change date of ballot entry to lessen the 'ooh, that looks like fun' impulse element.
I've been thinking about someone's suggestion of having a minimum qualification requirement of something like completion of a half marathon, something I've suggested myself in the past. On the one hand, I'd wonder whether this might discourage first timers who could well go on - like myself - to use the marathon as a route to discovering running as a serious hobby. On the other hand, if someone is serious about doing the marathon then they shouldn't feel too put out to enter and train for any number of half marathons before they apply for the full distance. So maybe I'd consider this as well.
For those that worthy souls who are willing to take the time to raise money for charity then the bond place system works fine.
For those that excel within their chosen sport the GFA system is there to reward you.
For those that are looking for a life changing experience ... London?? really?? ... the fact you have to join the ballot with the rest of us 'can't be a*rsed'ers' just proves there's more important things in life than VLM* (*FLM, BLM, MLM or whatever corporate giant is jumping on the bandwaggon this year*) ... support a local marathon, run an ultra marathon, run the Himalayas ... anywhere other than Limehouse and the Isle of Dogs!
ps
No I didn't get in ... again!
The buses are cleaner than they used to be!
Phil It was me that suggested completing a HM as a requirement. One of my reasons for suggesting this is it would completely remove the impulse element.
On the second highlighted part. When I started running to get fit I stated I would never run a marathon. As I built up it became a goal and I completed my first mara Sep 2009. I then joined this forum, long story short, I had no idea what GFA was, but have since qualified to run VLM next year as a GFA entry.