Iditarod to increase race fees, cut prize money
Published Tuesday, June 3, 2008
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Stumble It!ANCHORAGE — Iditarod officials say they’re raising the entry fee for the famed sled dog race and will likely lower the total purse for finishers.
Because of rising costs, race officials are also capping the number of teams at 100.
They say the entry fee was $3,000 this year and will rise to $4,000 next year.
The race purse is projected to drop from $900,000 this year to $660,000 next year.
The rising cost of fuel has played a role because the trail committee pays for snowmachines and small planes to support mushers and their teams.
Organizers say concerns about fuel prices, insurance and potential costs of maintaining the Iditarod air force are largely what led to the changes.
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Wow, that's a Huskey entry fee!
I don't like hearing boards of non-profit organizations complain about money when they are approving budgets which pay top dollar salaries to executives (who in this case only work part of the year).
2006 Salaries (from 990 form filed to IRS, see it at www.guidestar.org)
Stan Hooley, Exec. Director-$108,690
Greg Bill, Development- $126,689
Donald Patterson, Finance Director-$84,615
Chas St. George, Public Relations-$78,091
And the RACE DIRECTOR, the job which really does all the work, Joanne Potts, only made $58,947.
Also note, they paid $55,541 in fees to credit card companies in 2006. Why not stop taking credit cards?
Instead of setting all the variables why don’t they just set the maximum number of participants, auction off the right to race, and use that revenue plus the revenue from the sponsors to fund the purse. There would be more variability but this would also increase attention by fans (and thus sponsers, and thus purse size). Of course they would still need to sets the percentages of the purse amongst the winners.
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