An Unbelievable Opportunity...
Monday, November 17, 2014
Not in that that Disney is holding Star Wars themed runs at all... a quick look at the runDisney event calendar shows that they're offering a variety of themed races over the next year (and here I thought all they did was the January marathon weekend.) Though I am a little surprised at how little hoopla seems to have been made about the Star Wars runs... then again, clearly someone heard about these races, since they all sold out within a very short time of registration opening.
No, what I find incredible is what an obvious cash grab this is for Disney... let's take a look at the prices:
- Kids races (including a diaper dash) - $20 (not too outrageous)
- 5k - $70 ($22.58 per mile!)
- 10k - $105 ($16.94 per mile!)
- half marathon - $195 (the best "deal" at a mere $14.89 per mile!)
- Rebel Challenge (run both the 10k and the half - for only $320!)
- And, as with most races, all of these prices go up as race day gets closer...
So let's say we have a hypothetical runner who brings along a tyke for the kids race and does every adult race in an effort to get all the shirts and medals, and also wants to add all the commemorative items to his or her trove of Star Wars collectibles... right from the outset this individual is looking at a price tag of around $600, before any travel expenses.
It's probably clear from my username that I enjoy Star Wars, though I don't consider myself to be a hard-core fan... it's quite possible I won't even see Episode VII in a movie theater, since I typically wait for movies to hit DVD/Blu Ray and then watch them in comfort at home. And clearly Disney has hit on a winning combination - I don't know what the registration cutoffs were, but I suspect it's safe to say that Disney is pulling in hundreds of thousands of dollars from this event. One area where George Lucas was a genius was in asking for the merchandising rights when he was cutting the original deal for the first Star Wars movie - as time has shown, Star Wars fans will spend all sorts of money to have Star Wars branded stuff.
That also seems to be true of runners these days... I've always been a little bit frustrated by the steep costs of tri's and du's but chalked that up to "that's just the way it is." Increasingly though it's becoming apparent that folks will pay crazy prices for all sorts of events, the most obvious example being obstacle races, where the fee for a 3 mile-ish course is rarely below $75. Of course, in interests of full disclosure, I've been known to pay a hefty fee a time or two myself, but I guess this makes me appreciate even more the lower-priced trail races and snowshoe races I do... I'm pretty sure you could do the entire WMAC Dion snowshoe series for less than the cost of the Star Wars 10k.
JMH
