Pizza Race Brought in $72,000 in Revenue, Final Expenses Being Tallied

This year’s 10th annual brought in $72,000 in revenue for the , with final calculations on the cost being tallied.

DWC Executive Director Sherry Cronin briefed DWC board members Monday evening about the fiscal impact of the annual race. She said almost 2,500 runners came from 12 states, including from almost across New Jersey to run for a slice of pizza.

Cronin said the race met the target of returning at least $7,500 back to the DWC’s operating budget. In response to resident Julie Diddell, Cronin said the race costs approximately $56,000 to stage annually, with the final receipts from the 2011 race being tallied by her office.

“You never know until you all of the bills,” Cronin said to board members on the final take for the DWC.

The race serves as the downtown agency’s major summer promotion and also raises funds for the DWC to spend on a variety of promotional activities in the downtown. The DWC’s primary revenue source is a tax levied on all property and business owners within the confines of the special improvement district. The SID – which was set by the Town Council in the 1990s – encompasses most of the downtown business district.

In response to a question from Diddell, Cronin said the costs of the race include the race organizer, the race timers, the pizza, shirts and hats and the cost of temporary labor the DWC hires to assist with carrying pizza and picking up garbage during the course of the event.

Diddell also questioned the race clean-up and if any town funds are spent on the race. Cronin said the DWC pays the Police Department for use of police officers the night of the race and also pays the Department of Public Works for any assistance the night of the race.

Cronin said in recent years, the DPW provides equipment to the DWC for clean-up and then picks up the garbage following the race, along with providing recycling assistance.

An analysis of the race, completed by Sarah Hoffman, the DWC’s summer intern, for board members, showed that 65-percent of the runners came from outside of Westfield, with four-percent coming from outside of New Jersey.

“It proves that we pull from a large area,” Cronin said of Hoffman’s analysis.

According to Hoffman’s analysis 885 runners came from Westfield, which is 35-percent of those who ran the race. She wrote that runners came from over 240 municipalities in New Jersey. There are 566 incorporated municipalities in the state. Hoffman wrote in her July 22 memo to the board that 58.7-percent of the runners came from the 21 towns in Union County.

Hoffman wrote that most of the out-of-state runners came from New York and Pennsylvania. Other states represented in the race were Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Ohio, New Hampshire, Washington, California, Georgia, South Carolina and New Mexico.

Cronin told the board that while the DWC has not conducted a survey of runners from non-bordering states, her office believes the runners were already visiting the area for other reasons and decided to run the race. She does not know if the runners specifically traveled to Westfield to run the race.

All five New York City boroughs were represented in the race, including runners who specified the Queens neighborhoods of Flushing, Astoria and Glendale as a residence. Runners also came from the Westchester County communities of New Rochelle and Ossining, the Long Island communities of Malverne, Ronkonkoma and Long Beach, the Rockland County hamlets of Nanuet and Pearl River and the Orange County village of Warwick.

A total of 50 runners hailed from the Empire State.

The 11 Pennsylvania runners came from North Wales, Easton, Allentown, Newtown, Garnet Valley, Glenside and Saylorsburg.

According to Hoffman’s memo, 48-percent, or 1,174 runners were men, while 52-percent or 1,315 runners were women.  Hoffman wrote that 644 runners were between the ages of four and 25, 752 were between 26 and 40, 880 were between 41 and 55 and 210 were between 56 and 83.

“We have more older people running,” Cronin said to the board on Monday. “We also have a lot of young people running.”

A total of 363 runners did not complete the race.

Cronin said to accommodate the new ages, the race organizers put together a new set of age categories for the race.

Cronin said that that there were a few snags in the race. She noted that the hats did not come in to her office in time to distribute to the runners. She said the hat company will be mailing the hats out to all runners. Cronin said the hat company is paying the shipping cost since they were responsible for the hats not making it to Westfield in time for the race.

Cronin and DWC board member Alan DeRose, who founded the Pizza Race, a decade ago, both touted that this year’s race went off well, despite the hot humid day. They both said that residents along the course set up water stands for runners and turned hoses and sprinklers on to cool down the runners.

Cronin said she heard of several Pizza Race parties being held at homes along the race route. 

“I did not receive one phone call complaining about the event,” Cronin said to the board.