As I write this, the entire athleteReg office is working remotely and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. While remote work brings its own challenges, we are working as quickly as possible to address the needs of all of our users. In addition to working in the event registration industry, we are also participants and event directors. We have had events we were looking forward to participating in canceled and postponed. We share in your disappointment and know that we are in this together.
You don’t have to look hard to see that events are cancelling and postponing across North America. Generally speaking, most events in the next three to eight weeks or more, will see some sort of adjustment — whether that be cancellation, postponement, or shifting format to a virtual race.
Whether it is mandated by the government or governing body, or out of their own judgement, event directors are on high alert with coronavirus. Please keep that in mind when emailing or calling your local event organizers. They are trying to do everything they can to make sure that they can continue to put on events for you to attend for years to come.
Please support your event organizers by using patience and giving them time to figure this all out. To shed some light on what events, small to large, will have for sunk costs, here is a list of what some events have to place deposits or guarantees on (note: some of these are non-refundable):
- Event Permits (state, city, town, and/or governing body)
- Insurance (participant, event, venue, etc)
- Emergency Medical Services
- Police Detail
- Bibs, Chips, or other timing-related products
- Course Fencing, trusses, course tape, etc.
- T-shirts, medals, prizes
- Printed event signage
- Timing Services
- Venue fee(s)
- Portable Toilets
- Food services/Food trucks
- Beverage services
- Event Radio Services
- Neutral Support (cycling events)
- Volunteers (Yes. Sometimes this isn’t free)
- Marketing
- Hours, weeks, and months of work
- The list goes on…
While every event is unique, you can almost guarantee that each event you are signed up for has entered a contract, or ten, and has already spent money on the above before registration had opened to the public.
This is a very real crisis that our event organizers are dealing with, so please understand that their decision to cancel, postpone, or other, is not one they ever wanted to make. We have talked to many event directors who are concerned that if their event is canceled they may not be able to produce their event(s) in the future. Remember that they are doing everything they can to keep our sports alive in the future by focusing on how they can continue to put on events for you.
As athletes ourselves, we know how frustrating this has been, and we know that we can count on your support as we all weather this together.
We hope to see you out there once events are able to happen again.