NICA high school mtb racing - thinking about pulling the plug

[peanutgallery]

So.....

Signed the boy up for the local NICA team over the summer, inaugural season for the state (PA ). Went to register him this week for the first race this weekend and found out the cost was $50 for entry fee plus a parking fee. Explain that? Found it a little odd

All about developing youth in cycling, but I find the entry fee a little steep due to the fact that the course is being held on the private property of the series promoter and there is no prize list. Beginning to think that the NICA concept isn't sustainable. Noticed that the local regional series does a great job for youth development at a much cheaper price.

Anyone else doing NICA with their kid? Interested in your feedback

FWIW, the owner of our local brew pub has agreed to charge the promoter for parking the next time he shows, LBS is in on the scheme too:)

[KF9YR]

My daughter just started her third year of NICA racing here in AZ.

The race fees here are $250 for 5 races so it's the same price. None of our races are held on private property but they have a lot of equipment that they set up / tear down, insurance, etc.

In AZ there are 2 divisions and around 400 kids that participate. This will be the first year for middle school races and they anticipate 150 kids to race next weekend.

In AZ they provide medals for the first 5 places in each class (freshman, sophomore, JV, Varsity) Boys and Girls. The Boys have large team and small team divisions for Freshman, Sophomore, JV. There are trophies for 1,2,3 large team and small team.

My daughter had never raced before her first NICA race. She had ridden road bikes, MTB and Tandem with me but wasn't really interested in racing until she saw the first year of AZ NICA while she was in 8th grade and thought it looked fun. She likes the camaraderie more than the competition.

Her very first race she had her front wheel bumped at the start and went down. Another girl couldn't avoid her and ran her over. She jumped up, mounted her bike and rode off right away. She wound up passing 10 or 11 girls and finished 6th. Her best place that year was 5th so she did get one podium.

In the offseason she rode a lot and had 3 wins, one 2nd and one 3rd to take the Sophomore Championship. She mounted her medals and State Champion Jersey in shadow boxes and put them up in her bedroom. This year she had knee pains and between doctors, MRI and waiting for appointments she only rode 10-12 times from Jan-Jul (remember we live in Phoenix and winter is primo MTB season here).

She did get an all-clear to ride in July so she started practicing for her first year of Varsity racing. Her FTP and hill climbing times haven't caught up to last year yet but her descending skills have really improved. It makes me really nervous to follow her now. Last weekend we had our first race up in Flagstaff. She came in 2nd to last but had lots of fun. She would have been last if not for a competitor's flat.

I can't put a price on how much fun I've had. I took the first aid classes and background check so I could become a ride leader. I've been able to ride with her every practice, take her and her friends all over the state to pre-ride the courses, ride with her the first two off seasons and introduce her to a sport I love and she can do the rest of her life. She has learned how to dig deep and ride through pain, get up from a fall, grit out stitches, falls, scrapes, bumps and bruises. She has an impressive variety of scars on her shins but refuses to wear leg protection as she is proud of them.

I bought a camper so we can camp out with the team at every race. She's on her third MTB and third Road bike. I've donated money to her team every year. I consider all the money a bargain compared to the memories I get to share with her. I wouldn't be less proud of her if she finished last in every single race.

Have your son race in the first race and see if he likes it. You may change your mind about the sustainability of NICA after you see how much fun these kids have.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[peanutgallery]

Took the boy yesterday and the positives are the turnout was pretty high for middle school boys, girls and high school boys. Amazing to see a field of 30 girls in 7th grade toeing the line. Lots of smiles. USAC is definitely missing the boat by tying their fortunes to geezer racing

Negatives, lots and lots of rules and the cost. Each parent of those 30 7th grade girls paid 50 to enter the race plus parking...for a 4.5 mile race.

Organizers will burn lots of energy being referees

All in all I'll give it B due to the strong under 18 turnout on a nice day. Due to the cost I wonder what this looks like at the end of the season

[Mikej]

We have this - several of my teammates are coaches / organizers and several have children involved. It Is run by the same entity that runs our state mtb race. I understand it is to get kids involved in riding / racing, however, we ALREADY have the largest MTB series in the USA, with age groups and classes set up by USAC. So, why don't they just go to the MTB races and race in their age groups? It was explained this way to me -"we are not trying to develop race caliber kids, we already have that in the state private series, this is to get kids interested.". Our team backs a high school (affluent area) with several other teams and combined actually have more resources than said teams.?. Also, the classes seem to be odd, for instance, my son is a senior, races Cat2 Sport but the Varsity guys race Cat1 JR so my son wouldn't be able to ride V, only JV. Plus, we do 15 other MTB races a summer. We also have a team fee of like $90 on top of the entry and other race costs, such as hotels and gas. I would have to pay this personally since our high school would not. I would then have a 1 kid team. I already had a 1 kid team. To me the biggest down side is races are held in the far reaches of the state, in the same places as the state series against the same kids my son already races, some over 5 hrs away, and there are no Dad races.....

[malcolm]

Sports must be expensive. When my daughter was playing lacrosse the season was $350-400 with a $50-100 community fee depending on which community you live in on top of that. The games are all played on community fields which unless I'm mistaken at least the ones in my community were at least in part paid for with my tax dollars.

I suspect organizing and arranging teams, practices and events is more expensive than you would think.

[Mikej]

Sports must be expensive. When my daughter was playing lacrosse the season was $350-400 with a $50-100 community fee depending on which community you live in on top of that. The games are all played on community fields which unless I'm mistaken at least the ones in my community were at least in part paid for with my tax dollars.

I suspect organizing and arranging teams, practices and events is more expensive than you would think.

I agree, but it always seems somebody makes quite a bit of money from it, especially with volunteers pulling work duty.

[unterhausen]

yeah, sports promoting has become a big business. People expect to make a living from it. The races being held here in Central PA are almost all promoted by people from far away. Putting on a small local event isn't really possible because of the requirements that the forest service puts on a promoter. Just the insurance puts a pretty big damper on things. And the way I ride mtb, insurance is a good idea, face planting in a rock garden is a dangerous thing.

[vqdriver]

hrm. on a per participant basis, these things can feel expensive. on the organizer's side, they have to keep it as accessible as possible. that's a tough balance to find. i felt the same thing when signing up the kids for ayso until i became a ref and saw some of the behind-the-scenes stuff, also done by volunteers. there's work going into it, for sure.
is it 100% going to costs? doubt it. but i don't think anyone does that stuff to get rich.

[benb]

If Lacrosse is $350-400 then $250 for a 5 race MTB season seems OK. Setup costs are pretty expensive and they're not getting the town to fund the course unlike say building a new football field. (One of the biggest town debates where I live in the last 5 years... new turf football/soccer/lacrosse setup was very very expensive.)

I think the only thing that could be wrong is if the kids doing MTB are getting gouged compared to the kids playing ball sports.

It's an interesting thing to complain about since MTB has equipment & consumable costs orders of magnitude more expensive then high school sports.

Probably depends on the town/school district/whatever's ideas about using taxes to pay for sports. I'm not really that on board with it since it is non essential and benefits a relatively small slice of the student body. (And there are bigger fish to fry most places.) Activity fees work.

Sounds expensive though.. my kid is not in school yet. Fall T-ball was going to be $80. He does gymnastics once a week and that's similarly priced. Way less than this stuff.

Somebody making a living off it seems pretty standard for most sports.

[unterhausen]

we just spent quite a bit of money to renovate the high school football field here in town. If I was dictator, I would get rid of the football team at the high school and the local pro team as well, but that's not going to happen. Too bad the NCAA didn't give the pro team the death penalty, that would have been a real boost to Penn State. The town lets the high school shut down a batch of streets all around the field, that's really great when the pro team has a game here and there is lots of traffic from people coming in for that. Somehow there is always money for football. I don't know if the team has an activity fee or not, probably paid for by boosters if they do.

[carpediemracing]

Locally I think it costs more to join a Junior racing league. However the business model is based on soccer, and with soccer it's a huge, unsanctioned mess of leagues. There are different leagues that aren't necessarily associated with one another. A father told me he'd spend $1600-1800 on the fall league, similar amount for a spring league, and a third similarly priced amount for a summer one. This didn't include shoes, for example, or whatever else parents pay for with soccer.

Compared to that, even with the cost of a bike in there, bike racing seems pretty reasonably priced.

Granted, soccer as a sport is a bit different from bike racing, but from a parent point of view, I don't know if it's that different.

The local soccer fields were gifted to the town. No such luck with a crit circuit, although if you paved a ring around the soccer fields it'd be probably a 1-1.5 km loop. It'd be killer, actually, with consistently strong winds.

[ofcounsel]

Locally I think it costs more to join a Junior racing league. However the business model is based on soccer, and with soccer it's a huge, unsanctioned mess of leagues. There are different leagues that aren't necessarily associated with one another. A father told me he'd spend $1600-1800 on the fall league, similar amount for a spring league, and a third similarly priced amount for a summer one. This didn't include shoes, for example, or whatever else parents pay for with soccer.

Compared to that, even with the cost of a bike in there, bike racing seems pretty reasonably priced.

Granted, soccer as a sport is a bit different from bike racing, but from a parent point of view, I don't know if it's that different.

The local soccer fields were gifted to the town. No such luck with a crit circuit, although if you paved a ring around the soccer fields it'd be probably a 1-1.5 km loop. It'd be killer, actually, with consistently strong winds.

My son is on a year-round club soccer team. All-in, including uniforms, shoes and tournaments, it's about $2500 per year. My understand is that is on the inexpensive side for most clubs.

[gomango]

My son is on a year-round club soccer team. All-in, including uniforms, shoes and tournaments, it's about $2500 per year. My understand is that is on the inexpensive side for most clubs.

That's correct.

Our son just finished up a $7,000 season.

That's all in with club fees, tourney fees and the obligatory travel expenses.

Ultra crazy competitive at the tippy top.

Time for a new plan for U.S. club soccer. One that lets our inner city kids get a word in edge wise......

This system is unsustainable. imho

[echelon_john]

Wow. Makes ski racing seem like a bargain, which is hard to do!


That's correct.

Our son just finished up a $7,000 season.

That's all in with club fees, tourney fees and the obligatory travel expenses.

Ultra crazy competitive at the tippy top.

Time for a new plan for U.S. club soccer. One that lets our inner city kids get a word in edge wise......

This system is unsustainable. imho

[ofcounsel]

That's correct.

Our son just finished up a $7,000 season.

That's all in with club fees, tourney fees and the obligatory travel expenses.


Wow!!! Not looking forward to that.

[unterhausen]

now I'm glad my kids were mediocre at sports. Karate and gymnastics were bad enough. Never got them interested in cycling, unfortunately