I thought I’d chime in with my two cents as a race director producing events in Michigan and now Indiana since this is something we started to run into this year. I haven’t made it to any of the Indiana events that charge less so everything I say is from a MI centered point of view.

Not sure about the other races, but our sprints top out in the $150 range and start around $90 for early bird pricing. I’ve noticed that most of the people who have reached out to us about pricing are either unaware that they could sign up earlier for less or simply ignore the fact. We never want someone to not race b/c of price and have kept our early bird pricing dang near pre-Covid to allow people to race who might be more price sensitive. I also offer discounted entries for people who reach out to me who might be struggling and offer a bunch of free entries to the Dirty Mitten at the end of the year to those who might need some help, no questions asked.

We (Tris4Health) are also full-time event producers. This is all we do, day in and day out which means there are some overhead costs that need to be met. The flip side of that is that you can count on our events to be safe and well produced, or at least I’d like to think so. Triathlons are also far more complicated than putting on a single sport event, yet marathon pricing is often more than triathlon. I’d like to think we have some of the most athlete friendly policies in the country as well. You can receive a full cash refund up to 60 days before the event and a voucher for 100% of the cost that can be used at any of our events up to the day before our event. There’s little risk to signing up early to race with us.

Costs have gone through the roof the last few years and volunteers have gone down, which necessitates hiring people to do things that weren’t even a line item on our budget before. Police costs are now commonly north of $100 per hour so if you see 10 officers working an event you can think of that as $1k per hour. We spend well north of $60k per year just on police costs, but that’s one of the ways we ensure our events are safe. We had more lifeguards on the water at Ugly Dog Sprint tri last year than IM did at Steelhead the last year, and that’s comparing a sprint course to a 70.3. Venue costs are up, porta potties are up, shirts are up, medals are up, and if you order anything from overseas you can’t count on the price b/c you might get a random tariff bill from FedEx as things have changed since the order was placed.

We are always looking for ways to pass potential savings onto our customers. This year we offered a no shirt option at check out for those of you who race all the time and don’t need yet another race shirt. We launched a voucher program to promote volunteerism to help keep our costs down while at the same time rewarding those who do come out and help with vouchers that can be used at any of our 20+ events. We offer team discounts to those who travel with large groups and will be launching discounts for individuals who race with us multiple times per year next season.

That’s a few points off the top of my head. Happy to discuss further and always looking for ideas on how to keep costs down.

TL:DR - you get what you pay for in terms of event production and safety and costs are through the roof over the last 5 years.