Pro vs. Amateur

[Brad Taylor]

Having read all the information and reports posted on the blog and forum about the Wasatch Back, I have a few generic questions concerning amateur vs. professional status in regards to entry fees.

For instance, who pays for the BYU team's entry fee into the Relay?  I assume they each have to pay their own way or they could forfeit their NCAA eligibility.  Or is the University allowed to enter a team and then field it with whomever they like?

Also, on the Fast Running Blog/St. George Running teams, there was at least one high school runner.  Does the sponsor help with any of the costs of entry?  Is it donated by the relay in order to encourage the team to participate?  Or do you each foot your own portion of the bill?  If there is any financial assistance, can it only be applied to the professional runners or can the amateur runners runners benefit as well?

[Paul Petersen]

I can't speak for BYU, but the FRB teams were comped by my business (Marathon GIS). I am a sponsor for Ragnar and get free teams, and I donated my teams to FRB/St. Geo RC in exchange for advertising. I believe gas was picked up by another sponsor, so the only team member expenses were getting to Logan and back from Park City, plus food.

There is nothing "professional" about this. It is simply getting sponsors. Many "slow" teams with "recreational" runners do this too, and some teams are even outfitted with full apparel by sponsors, plus free entry, gas, and lodging. But this certain does not make them professionals, but merely people good at market. You become a "professional" runner when you accept money from a race. So a HS or college runner has nothing to fear by wearing a sponsor singlet or receiving comp entries. But winning and accepting $1000 at a marathon is a completely different story.

Typically, the winner of a Ragnar relay will get a free entry to next years' relay, so there is that too. It would not surprise me if BYU got comped, simply for their consistent high-quality over the last 5 years (they have run every year the relay has existed). But I do not know Ragnar's policy on merit-based comps.

[Steve Morrin]

I can't speak for either one of the teams, but I ran on the winning corporate team, Corporate Chaos and I'm a high school runner. The company that we ran for paid for all of the fees. There's a difference between being on a team being sponsored or whatever else, then you taking money or being individually sponsored.

[Brad Taylor]

These replies are jogging my memory and it is making more sense to me.  When I was younger, I played on an AAU basketball team that had a sponsor.  I assume they paid our way into some of the tournaments because they never asked us for any of the entry fees.  If you are only participating and not getting any monetary gain out of it, there doesn't appear to be any sort of conflict of interest.   Thanks for the clarification.