cathcam

I've had some insight into sponsorship deals for pro's and negotiated some. The endemic sponsors are for the most part a cartel. They only pay the true Champions anything like what they are worth, everyone else gets paid as little as possible. Most of the sponsors benchmark themselves against their peers. We are paying x because you can only get X from their competition. It's often the case that they'll start high, negotiate in "good faith" and have budget restrictions when it comes to getting the pro signed. By which time the pro's have often lost the chance to go elsewhere.

It's also my observation that the endemic companies hold all the cards. They have the time and the lawyers to make things complicated, more complicated than the athletes have either the knowledge, time or contacts to deal with. The endemic companies know that few athletes who approach them are worth investing in, after all, if they were, the companies would have been going after the athletes. So, they get treated to the annual we'll give you this for blogging and tweeting, and you have to sign a contract... of and we'll pay minimally for coverage, magazine articles, photoshoots and results.

If none of them break ranks on compensation packages, no one else has to. There are obviously exceptions, and some great people in the sport work hard to cut the best deal for pro's; sponsor teams etc.

The real trick in my opinion, for the B-level pro's, that is the ones that don't win two or more BIG races per season, is to learn business and negotiating skills; to develop a contract that you ask the companies to sign, including absolutely NO use of your image without payment(which is hard to enforce is some countries); and most importantly to get out and work with national and local non-endemic companies. To do this the pro HAS to work out what their value is, what that can do for the company, and what they can ask for in exchange. For example, its well worth it to ask to be put on payroll and medical insurance in the USA, even if you settle for a zero salary. While this wouldn't fly with a small company, companies over 50-employees are likely to consider it if you provide the value back.

That value is unlikely to come from a few hours a month blogging, tweeting and posting product endorsements online. You need to find a company that the athlete can actually work with. Do motivational stuff, do health classes; offer to show up and lead training days; actually ask for a job you can do remotely, ask for help with training for the job. Approaching the endemic companies with these requests is a waste of time, go after non-endemic. Take the USAT Stats on triathletes; hustle the owner or the "marketing director" yeah it takes time, it takes practice and you have to get over rejection. I eluded to some of this in my TBI blog http://www.triathlonbusinessintl.com/professional-triathlete-local-hero.html

FYI I fixed it for Kristen. She stayed at my place on Thursday night, and we got her a homestay for the rest of her trip. Not sure whats going on with Ironman though, I received a request from Heather Fuhr to consider a homestay back in August, completed the usual word questionnaire, sent it back... never heard a thing.

Corinne Abraham is staying with me for a month, and I only have a 2-bed house downtown (I guess "only" is an understatement for downtown), but heard from Kristen that Ironman no longer doing homestays for 70.3 ? WTF! Get paid nothing; buy own flights; no homestay provided, not even a list of people to contact? Resorting to begging on forums...

Sounds like an easy negotiation for a Pro Union...

KellyO. I worked corporate America before racing pro. I had to do crap I didn't want to do. Sorry, not sorry every job has BS. But, it's part of it. As was pointed out to me on a private email trail...the check writer can expect 'more'. I think that there should be somewhat of an industry expectation, but until there's a group there won't be.

You are of course right... we've discussed too many times. The issue here is that TBI as an organized body, instead of whining about pro's, could have put forward a code of conduct for race organizers and sponsors and asked members to adhere. If they'd done that, there would have been something to discuss, at least as it relates to TBI RD's, sponsors, marketing, suppliers, retailers etc. Then you, and potentially I, would have had something to discuss with them, and if the majority of US pro's didn;t agree, would have given them something to rally around.

But they didn't. 5-years on, all I hear are the same old excuses and reasons why Pro's can't make money, can't make a living and generally are not good people. We hear the same people make the same claims; the same people say the pro's should organize. At least my 42-years working in big companies, and as an Executive Director at two of the worlds biggest companies, tells me the problem isn't the pro's... sure, they need some hep, some advice, some guidance.... but the real problems is the people who make the pro's look bad and then jump on their train as soon as they make it.

Kelly had it EXACTLY right when she said in http://trstriathlon.com/takeaways-tbi-conference-future-triathlon/ "For whatever reason, people are able to understand that Gwen or Sarah True can be inspiring and can motivate someone to try triathlon. People are also able to understand that someone’s random friend doing a triathlon can be inspiring on an individual level. Yet, they can not extrapolate anything in between."

Thats because for the most part, the business people in TBI get a free ride at either end, in the middle they have to do something. Thats the problem, not the pro's who are by-and-large working their asses off to win races.

Ryan, Woah.... hold on a minute hoss... Did you think to actually contact Richard and ask him about attending TBI, especially when he didn't show up?

Richard and I exchanged emails and discussed this on the phone, in the lead up to TBI. I was willing to advocate getting him a speaking slot, or participation in a panel, as I did with Sara Gross.

It depends what role you think Richard is taking in the short term and start-up of the PTU. I've known Richard since he was a Pro in the UK, and was delighted to put my name forward to help when he reached out. Richard isn't trying to be a leader. He is NOT trying to be Jimmy Hoffa... my way or the concrete boots. He is spending time to try to correlate a group of individuals and find out what needs to be done. In our discussions, he wasn't prepared to come to TBI as he didn't have an agreed set of objectives to go after.

As for using John Cobb as an illustration of whats wrong with Pro's... he said his best investment was just paying party girls to show up at races and have fun as a way of gaining interest in his brand.

I would have preferred it not to have been called a union. But we've had PROTA and that didn't achieve much, run by athletes, for athletes... at least in this instance Rich has been giving time as a non-athlete to make sure that there is a collective agreement on the problems and priorities.

You may know what you want solved, and by staying away, you may, or may not get what you want. One of the things the PTU needs to do is to agree a policy on how they are going to act, how transparent they are going to be, how they'll organize and communicate. Again, if you are not part of that discussion, you can't complain about the outcome.

Mark Cathcart, PTU Advisor.

from my time as Chairman of the UK triathlon club Tri-Force and observing athletes for 5-years...

There are 4-types of Ironman(that is someone who has completed at least 1-Ironman)
1. Someone who is single
2. Someone who wants to be single
3. Someone who will be single
4. Someone in a new relationship

Having to always be a brand instead of a person, and needing to always be "on." Playing with small children before a race? Ugh, God, they're sticky and probably sick."

Interestingly, notice how everyone was fawning over Greg Bennett wearing a suit... instead of showing up like a pro triathlete, dressed as a sandwich board aka NASCAR driver covered in logos?

I would assert there are two reasons for this. One Greg Bennett can afford to wear nice clothes following his successful short course career, and two. he recognizes he is now his own brand. Witness Andy Potts in the panel session at TBI 2-years ago, the only participant that was a professional triathlete, and also the only person dressed like a NASCAR driver. When the TBI Illuminati speak or participate in panels, do they wear the race kit, t-shirts and logos of their events?

The whole point of the local hero idea was to build a virtuous circle around the local pro's. Create and environment where the pro's could prosper and the local media would be interested. The tipping point comes when you can get the local media, local TV channels get interested it becomes easier to get local sponsors; the more of these pro's we can get to be really recognized locally, the more chance we have of getting the sport really recognized at the national level and so it goes as @scottwigleyfit says thats how other sports made it big.

My original article was almost twice the length as the version we submitted to TRS, it was more like a manifesto than an article.

Ha, I just got through reading some entries from my April 2004 blog, around that time it wasn't clear that a new US Male triathlete was going to make the  Olympics, his name? Andy Potts...

So yep, it's fair to say this isn't a new problem.

Jennifer Post said:

And yes, I realize I am not a selector so as you point out it doesn't really matter but I still am allowed my opinion as a fan.

I'm not a selector either, but I've been here before. While a fellow club member was selected for the 2000 Olympic triathlon event, I watched frustratingly while a friend was denied a spot in similar circumstances.

It's worth noting that Triathlon Australia totally blew selecting both Michelle Jones and Emma Snowsill for the 2004 Olympics as well, instead they went for a favorite an then emerging youngster.

When it came around to the 2012 Olympics I had a female pro home staying with me for 18-months, she was a solid selection, and in 2012 got a top-10 slot at the 70.3 Worlds after she was totally overlooked(our opinion) for Olympic selection.

Governing bodies march to the beat of a different drum when it comes to selection, it's not about the individual athlete.  As for Tommy speaking out and being so public about Katies selection, he might want to check with Simon Wilson, Husband of Andrea Whitcombe from the UK, she never got selected in the end, they gave the slot to an up and coming triathlete, Jodie Swallow.

No,  it really comes down to if you think Gwen is invincible.  If you do,  do what you like with the other two selections. 

ITU triathlon despite what you assert,  hasn't been a genuine individual sport since Leanda cave won the world's in 2002. Since then it's become more and more about teams for the big Olympic tri countries,  and unless you are a selector,  what you think,  doesn't matter. Team managers,  selectors in many countries have been selecting domestiques for key races since then. 

The fact that the US is late to the party,  and didn't have  real contender for the 2012 Olympics, and Laura Bennett was a place rather than a win for 2008, doesn't mean USAT can select likes it's 2004 all over again.

If you look at the potential podium candidates for the Olympics and compare to the test event,  you'll get a very different list. While I'm not arguing the Americans have a chance for 3 podium places,  only an amateur whose job didn't depend on it would actually plan for that. 

World domination is best left to the Donald,  he is the only person who thinks that crushing the opposition is both a good thing,  and possible.. 

I have nothing for/against any of the USA team members, all of whom could have a spot... sadly it doesn't work like that, ask Jodie Swallow for example about the British 2004 selection process and the debacle that ensued.