I noticed there were nearly 300 in the senior mens race alone at the GM XC opener at Heaton Park http://www.race-results.co.uk/results/2010/maccls1.pdf so if anything numbers were up. There was a parkrun there in the morning. I suppose the obvious thing was to run both!

FB - parkrun will always stay 5k run in parks pure and simple. Anything more interesting just takes too much time and effort every week from the volunteers organising the event.

But there are plenty of club organised races that only charge enough to cover race costs. I can't imagine who wants to pay £40 to shuffle along in a "Great" Run.