Business plan
June 30, 2018 § 7 Comments
Here’s the USAC bike racing value proposition:
Day of the week: Saturday/Sunday
Wake up time: 5:00 AM
Departure time: 7:00 AM
Drive time: 1.5 hours
Entry fee: $40.00 (“service fee” if you pre-reg, late fee if you sign up day-of)
Drive time: 2-3 hours on LA freeway weekend traffic
Return time: 3:00/4:00 PM
Gas: $20.00
Lunch: $20.00
For all this you get:
45 minutes of bike racing
END
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Cycling in the South Bay 
Such a deal!
Next up: Antique bridge in Brooklyn for sale!
It’s a terrible product that USAC genuinely has no interest in promoting. That’s why it hasn’t changed in 50 years.
They are however, quite happy to promote Anschutz funding the Tour of California.
You would think that collapsing parameters by every conceivable measure would be an incentive to change. You would be wrong.
Value = fun rides, hard rides, sometimes competitive rides and almost always with people who I care to spend a lot of time.
After considering your argument, I’m wondering if USAC is simply a punching bag here. These are business decisions made by promoters trying to stay in business, not the USAC. But totally get it… races are disappearing and participation is plummeting. Frankly, I’d add another to your business proposition: the risk of crashing. However, isn’t this the same type of thing Disneyland visitors expect? Expensive tickets, overpriced and crappy food, super long lines, and traffic? I honestly don’t know what the answer is. Perhaps encouraging volume, nonrefundable discounts to clubs who prepay for X number of race entries (kudos to LaGrange!)? Reduce the number of races and making them longer? There are 3-4 race options for the Cat 3 geezer… why not reduce the number of options and make races longer in duration? Maybe sitting at the back of the peloton gives me too much time to think, LOL. See you at Thousand Oaks!
Your comment wound up in spam, just fished it out. Sorry! Kind of weird because there’s no profanity in it. I think the issue is: Not enough kids, too many old people with not enough time.