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Clay Richard Gasway
King of all Mediocrity
Master of the Absurd - King of all Polls
Kansas Native
Tweets Me
IMTX this year will be interesting since it has moved to April. Wetsuit swim, should be cooler and less humid. Bike course will be absofuckinglutly boring as it is 2 loops on a tollroad.
Clay Richard Gasway
King of all Mediocrity
Master of the Absurd - King of all Polls
Kansas Native
Tweets Me
Clay Richard Gasway
King of all Mediocrity
Clay Richard Gasway
King of all Mediocrity
I think it's fine to move from July to May, logistically, but it doesn't seem like a coincidence that they're trying to kill off Wildflower two weeks earlier.
I know none of this is new or shocking, but what's the end game? The end game sucks.
Clay Richard Gasway
King of all Mediocrity
@neil5young Wildflower is awesome! And I'm hoping with the 35th anniversary year, it's a big party and more people do it. I'll be there and I know @EmilyCocks will be there.
I bet @Martin is the only one who even remembers Cam, god I'm old.
That is awesome.
If you assume that many of the people doing this are one-and-done (maybe two and maybe one 70.3 and one 140.6) at the full distance, then you have to realize that your total accessible market is fixed and likely (definitely) shrinking because of your business practices.
So, you then have to assume a few things to make sense of this. 1) The margins on IM registration are much, much higher than short course registrations. 2) They know the TAM is shrinking and don't care because of Asia.
If those two things are true then short course racing is going to either die and/or get much more expensive, and triathlon in the US has peaked without a way (or a care) to come back. I question the growth strategy in the Asian market because it looks too much like golf and we all know how that's going. If you don't know how the golf industry is doing, just Google "Nike golf clubs".
Sorry for the long post but I was planning out my races for next year and have no plans on doing a 140.6, would like to do a 70.3 and would love to race 4-6 Olys or Intls. Totally doable, but the number of options is reduced every year for that type of schedule. Every year.
From an event production model: there is very little on the financial side differentiating a sprint from an Olympic distance race. A lot of that comes from police requirements these days; your average cop needs to be given four hours of double OT to be at an intersection, whether he's there for 15 minutes or the full 4 hours. You have to book in four hour increments.
So generally, yes, WTC does a very good job of negotiating these agreements so that many of those services are donated, or they receive them at a significant discount versus the remainder of the marketplace. That's the power of the brand versus other event producers.
Speaking generally, I think their long-term model looks something like this:
140.6s owned and operated by WTC (this is true for the most part in North America)
70.3s are licensed events produced by local RD (exception of those taking place at 140.6 venues)
Local RD uses their other sprints/Olympics to lever up to the 70.3 event that they manage.
A good example of that these days? Delmo in New Jersey. I don't think you'll see producers smaller than him in the next 5 years or so.
The advantage of that model is that, if you're the "chosen one" RD that gets to put on that 70.3, you might be able to leverage that in negotiations for your other races. Whether that means they'll actually pass on some of those savings to consumers is another story.
All of this is predicated on the notion that volunteers are not considered employees under wage and hour statutes, which is going to wind up going to trial in the case of Competitor Group.
Bike Crash Free Since August 4th, 2014
Kevin Brydges
You're the rig guy? You don't look like you worked on rigs....
Clay Richard Gasway
King of all Mediocrity
I hate the way that they promote themselves (they claim a lot of charitable work but don't actually grant money), but the Hartford Marathon Foundation here in CT does a very good job of that. The head of it (aka the RD) does very well for herself, taking home $165K a year.
Bike Crash Free Since August 4th, 2014
Clay Richard Gasway
King of all Mediocrity