Improve Your Endurance Event Monetization

Move Beyond Registration Fees

As costs climb, race organizers face a simple truth: you can’t outpace inflation with entry fees alone. A winning strategy starts with fixing friction, then layering in add-ons that add genuine value to race participants.

The inflation squeeze is real for endurance event organizers

With rising inflation, costs for medals, shirts, security, and city services have surged, tightening margins that were already slim. Yet merely raising registration fees isn’t a sustainable answer. Race participants notice when prices jump too quickly. Push too far, and loyalty gives way to frustration.

As Paula Beebe, one of our resident endurance and CX experts on the haku team put it: 

“You can’t make up the revenue gap with fees alone. You have to remove friction first to successfully protect your revenue.” 

Put another way, efficiency and customer experience is a greater driver of endurance industry financial health than increasing registration prices. 

Think of your registration page as your storefront. If the door jams, customers walk away. And when race participants are juggling higher grocery bills and travel costs, they’ll choose essentials over entry fees every time. The challenge isn’t just price, it’s also ease. If signing up feels hard, your event becomes an easy cut. Meanwhile, once a participant has chosen to commit to your race, they may be willing to pay more for convenience or added perks.

Fix the leaks before you sell anything

You can’t fill a stream with a leaky sieve. Similarly, you can’t generate new revenue with a leaking sales funnel. Most organizers end up losing more money to friction and fatigue than to actual competitors. In truth, your event isn’t battling a similar race in other city. In a sense, it’s competing with the couch, the kids’ soccer schedule, and the allure of an unhurried weekend. So how do you compete?

Start with what’s broken.

Shorten registration forms. Every unnecessary field is a speed bump. Ask only what you’ll truly use.
Simplify account creation and recovery. Forgotten passwords kill conversions.
Don’t require an account to register. The option to create an account is valid, but forcing your participants to register can create unnecessary friction
Clarify error messages. Confusion is the enemy of confidence.
Prefill returning data like nationality or emergency contacts. Recognize returning racers and reduce repetition, while staying privacy-compliant.

In discussing this topic with Paula Beebe, she even went so far as to call conversion friction the “silent profit killer.” Every time a participant gives up midway, your marketing spend goes to waste. Unfortunately, aggressive upsells inside the registration process harm your would-be participants desire to complete the registration form. 

While your registration forms are like your storefront, they’re also a checkout line. So save your wider merchandising for later. When you stuff your form with ten different t-shirts, four training plans, three coasters, and a dozen different merchandise offers, your registration form feels cluttered and you can come off as desperate.

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t offer extras during registration. You should. But when you go overboard or offer all of your merchandise up front, it comes off as unprofessional and even desperate. 

Turn pre-event sales into experiences

Once your registration process runs smoothly, it’s time to think about how to add value — not clutter. The strongest pre-event revenue ideas give race participants something they actually want: convenience, personalization, or meaning.

In a recent webinar with haku, Hannah Sconzo, the director of marketing for Blistering Pace Race Management shared that we can divide these opportunities into three categories.

Merchandise-based products
Offer in-training shirts, limited drops, or thematic kits that create anticipation. One example might be: a “first half-marathon” kit which could include a training shirt, novelty bib, and a few energy gels. If these arrive a few weeks before the event, they become more than a sale. These merchandise items become part of the story your race participants tell themselves about the event.

That emotional connection matters. But so does restraint. Know your audience. Premium products have their place, but nickel-and-diming race participants for basics erodes trust fast. If your audience expects a T-shirt to come standard, don’t skip that. Instead offer a premium upgraded shirt that helps cover the costs of normal shirts as well.

Lasting experience-based offerings
Race participants will pay for time and comfort. For example, Chicago Marathon added race-day packet pickup, which serves as a perfect example of an experience based revenue source. While it was once forbidden for operational reasons, race-day pickup became a revenue stream when offered as a paid convenience. Race participants gladly pay a premium to skip the expo if they’re traveling or short on time.

You can extend that logic to flexible bib transfers, preferred start windows, or early access upgrades. All of these are optional perks that respect both runner and organizer.

More convenient experiences
Parking passes, mailing options, or shuttle services simplify logistics. Always frame these as optional services, not mandatory fees. The key principle is simple: optional, transparent, time-saving. Essentially, let people pay for extra convenience if they want to.

No one regrets paying to remove hassle. They regret being surprised by fees that weren’t clearly explained. Another warning here is that you should never make things deliberately more difficult for your participants. Don’t make the event difficult to reach so you can upcharge on services. Instead if the event is already in a remote or scenic location, make it easy to add-on event transportation. 

Timing is everything

What’s the most important part of humor? Timing. So too for great revenue ideas. Meanwhile, even the best idea falls flat if offered at the wrong moment. When you sell matters as much as what you sell. 

Instead of loading the checkout with every possible product, consider timing add-on reminders a few days after registration. Those messages will often perform better and feel friendlier to boot.

Also consider adding a targeted “last chance” campaign for race participants who haven’t picked up their bibs after the expo. This helps you convert logistical chaos into clean revenue while easing staff workload. Even better would be if you could automate that process with your event management software. 

Paula Beebe put this issue succinctly:

“Timing beats frequency. One smart reminder outperforms three generic blasts.”

And she’s right. Ultimately, all communication is a balancing act. Speak clearly, as often as needed, but don’t send a message where you don’t need one. The right offer at the right time builds trust. Too many messages just become noise.

Make it measurable, sustainable, and kind

Attempting to build new revenue streams without data is like running an obstacle course while blindfolded. When you add a new product or add-on, make sure you can easily track, test, and refine. If you can’t measure the results of your outreach or upsell attempts, you can’t work to make them more successful..

Here’s a few things to measure: 

• Track registration abandonment before and after simplifying forms.
  
  
• Measure take rates for each upsell.
  
  
• Calculate profit margins after factoring in fulfillment and volunteer hours.
  
  
• Collect feedback. Ask whether each product felt worth the cost and whether communication was timely.
  

Measuring isn’t just about dollars earned, though that’s part of it. One of the key reasons you measure is about respect and improving the participant experience. When you evaluate what truly benefits your participants, you stop chasing gimmicks and start building consistency. And when those racers see the benefits from buying your perks or merchandise, they respond with loyalty. 

When your registration, communications, and ecommerce data are connected, you can spot the patterns like what sells, when people drop off, and which audiences respond to which offers. Once you see those insights, you can replicate success instead of reinventing it each season. 

From funnel to finish line

Strong pre-event systems don’t just drive early revenue. They set the tone for the entire experience. When race participants trust your process, they are more likely to buy commemoratives, attend expo events, and bring family or friends to premium viewing areas. Every add-on they choose reinforces confidence that your event is organized, thoughtful, and worth returning to.

If you’re interested in learning more about how haku can help you refine registration, add smart ecommerce options, and unlock better insights across your events, set up a demo with us today.

Next week’s article will touch more on the experience people love to buy, and will explore how leading races turn event-day and post-race moments into sustainable, participant-approved revenue.

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