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parkrun thread

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Meep Meep Oct 2024 6:42pm, 20 Oct 2024 119 posts	Quote Pin Meep Meep Host of the "With Me Now" parkrun podcast has suspicions that parkrun is skint in the most recent episode. I think I said the same thing a while back. I don't think this thing is going to last another two years. They put a boy in charge.
Metro_Nome Oct 2024 6:44pm, 20 Oct 2024 7,733 posts	Quote Pin Metro_Nome What do you think not lasting looks like? I can’t imagine it just spotting
Metro_Nome Oct 2024 6:44pm, 20 Oct 2024 7,734 posts	Quote Pin Metro_Nome Stopping!
stevieg Oct 2024 6:53pm, 20 Oct 2024 245 posts	Quote Pin stevieg How much does the average parkrun need to actually spend once they're up and running? Occasional replacing of scanning gear and cones? I always think it's the set of volunteers not being available that is the main threat, especially the ones that ludicrously want 30 odd.
stevieg Oct 2024 6:56pm, 20 Oct 2024 246 posts	Quote Pin stevieg Windsor Wool wrote:OMG that Battersea number. Was anyone there? Would love to hear what it was like! I was "debating" with some woman on a fb group who was adamant that people should give these new events time to get going and they'll naturally grow at a sensible rate. That might be ok logic at some places, but Battersea Park was always going to be utterly rammed very early on and it was criminally naive to think they'd have gentle incremental number increases. The big problem is if 1,100 or so is just the tip of the iceberg and this will monster up over future weeks. Just as well they're not using the Sri Chimnoy narrower start line. Imagine the carnage.
stevieg Oct 2024 7:00pm, 20 Oct 2024 247 posts	Quote Pin stevieg Meep Meep wrote:Meep Meep wrote:Battersea parkrun started today after a very, very long time in the making. Looks like a launch that was kept very quiet. 269 people. I wonder how much that is going to increase in the next few weeks. Called it. The talk has always been that Battersea would get very big very quickly. I saw talk on social media yesterday that the event is currently on a trial period and there will be a review in 6 months or less. I don't know if that's true or not but it sounds credible. It did seem a slightly curious place to shoehorn in a parkrun. The park is already an absolute sport haven as it is with really regular races held there too. For those of us who use BP as our "fast" 5k venue, it is attractive to know it's on every week, and not at £25 like with Runthrough, but if it swells to say 1,500 - 2,000 it's getting silly.
Meep Meep Oct 2024 7:01pm, 20 Oct 2024 120 posts	Quote Pin Meep Meep The mechanism of failure I fear is financial. If they can't balance the books what follows is staff layoffs, and it will be difficult to continue to generate income and and provide essential support. Then the choice comes as to whether or not they sell to someone like PepsiCo, or close. Without the website and central support the volunteer teams can't deliver what we know as "Parkrun".
57.5 Degrees of Pain Oct 2024 7:32pm, 20 Oct 2024 23,812 posts	Quote Pin 57.5 Degrees of Pain Meep Meep wrote:The mechanism of failure I fear is financial. If they can't balance the books what follows is staff layoffs, and it will be difficult to continue to generate income and and provide essential support. Then the choice comes as to whether or not they sell to someone like PepsiCo, or close. Without the website and central support the volunteer teams can't deliver what we know as "Parkrun". They are still recruiting, though most of the staff are now quite young. It'll be interesting to see if they can actually fulfill their stated desire to get away from sponsorship completely.
Metro_Nome Oct 2024 7:40pm, 20 Oct 2024 7,735 posts	Quote Pin Metro_Nome The amount of merchandise pushing is certainly quite spectacular. Within a couple of hours of doing my milestone run I had not one but two different emails trying to get me to hit milestone merch (which I did to be fair)
Cerrertonia Oct 2024 7:40pm, 20 Oct 2024 22,132 posts	Quote Pin Cerrertonia Would seem strange to be doing things like launching a magazine and continuing to start operations in new countries if they were skint. The annual report is due in November, so we'll see the figures in a couple of weeks, but last year, annual income and expenditure pretty much balanced out at £7.3 million and they had £3 million in the bank. You've made a few jibes about the CEO's age @Meep Meep but 40 really doesn't seem young to be head of what is actually quite a small non-profit organisation in terms of revenue and employee numbers.