State of the sport (in smaller communities)

So this tends to grind my gears...

Small community sport scene is really suffering. I would use our dear Manitoba/Winnipeg scene as an example even if it may upset some people. This is the only scene I have a real insight at the moment so I can't really comment anything else.

Some seem to think that you can buy sporting events, but in smaller communities like Winnipeg's, it just doesn't work that way. Well at least not at a reasonable cost. Or actually the reasonable cost varies between individuals. The problem is, that in smaller communities, the willing payers' group isn't enough to make things roll. Since there is no way to make sport consumerism happen in Manitoba, there needs to be volunteers to keep racing scene going. Or you could buy sport events, but the cost would be something completely different than current $10-20 entry fees.

If things seem rosy to you, there are minimum standards set for all the organizers to meet. This again is all good, as long as there would be organizers to meet these standards. I was just wondering where the organizers will come from since breaking even will be extremely difficult. Standards will effectively block all the hopes of organizing long loop races under MCA. It almost seems that those, who laid out these standards, have never organized a road race. Maybe there hasn't been any input from the people who have organized road races. Just saying...

Well see what happens...

I should add that the other smaller cycling communities are facing the same issues. Many of those have even greater challenges with increase in traffic and more difficult permit processes etc. While the external factors are making race organizing more difficult, the internal factors are adding to the issue. Finding volunteers must be more or less a global challenge and if consumers are not willing to pay enough to hire course marshalls etc. the challenge might become a problem.