Perhaps, along with Townsville hosting 2024 world tri multi sport champs (duathlon, aquabike, cross-tri and long course Tri)
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Townsville! How did that happen? Not an obvious destination .
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Who knows!!!
Maybe they put the best bid in?? Plus having had all previous multisport champs in the N Hemisphere then there was some push to have one in the South to keep the Antipodeans happy.
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I hope it has the desired effect…
TA needs an injection of enthusiasm…
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Must’ve been some bid, Townsville is a bloody dump.
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Maybe so but most athletes competing don’t see far beyond where their bed is and the course itself. There are loads of race host towns/cities that I would call dumps but as long as the event is up to scratch then it’s no big deal.
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Still a dump 
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No skin off my back as I’m not going there…….
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I’ve been there, twice. It has an airport to leave, that’s the best you can say about it. It’s a military town, so you get everything that goes with that.
I remember when Port Mac lured IM away from Forster and all the press releases from them talked about Port Mac being a better location and difficult decisions etc.
That was complete and utter bollocks. An independent NSW MP called Rob Oakeshott was looking to secure his seat, so he managed to throw a shed load of money at IM to get the race there.
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But the head of AG Ops is…
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On a fully funded jolly no doubt? Who is that person these days - I’ve lost track
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will pm
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That surprises me. For the amount of funds going through a triathlon event, I would have thought there were pretty healthy fees going to the TO’s.
I reffed American football for years (have been inactive since just before covid) and that was £45 per game. I think it’s now £50. A double header (junior team followed by senior team) was always a good day with a double fee. There’s games all year (uni season is winter, senior and junior is summer), plus youth small-sided tournaments and women’s tournaments on Saturdays in the summer, and frequently the odd midweek or Saturday game during the uni season. I know some guys who are doing upwards of 75-100 games a year. So the income ratchets up. Some of the bigger UK clubs have even offered fees for qualified officials to operate their visual clocks for European games (I did that a few times). The officials fees are always paid by the home team (each official effectively acts as their own independent contractor).
Expenses are similar to what you described, but that comes from the central referee body not the home team (although the admin fee each team pays Bafra per game is partly used for expense payouts - the ops team try and minimise travel though to minimise expense payouts). £10 deductible if using public transport and mileage above 75 miles if driving. At least, that’s how it always was.
American football in the UK has way less money going through it than triathlon. The c£250-350 total fee due by the home team to the team of officials was largely the second biggest game day cost, behind the ambulance hire that was mandatory (I ran my uni team for 2 years a long time ago). So I can’t make sense of the fact you’re “paid” on a similar basis! You definitely deserve more. Especially given the time of day races are. I can now see why you’ve previously referred to your own motorhome! At least that solves the overnight accommodation issue!
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and now the campervan. Yes, it does save us having to get up at stupid o’clock as we can stay local to the event - quite often stay on the event location if possible.
I know some other countries have a much healthier fee structure than UK which makes it even more annoying.
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There really isnt a big amount of funds going through anything but the largest events, and most of the funds that are going through are already paid out.
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yep. the costs are high.
it is a small sport that has certainly punched above its weight for some time…but the infrastructure has grown beyond its sustainable revenue and resources…
at a local level, it does not have the pulling power or relationships in the community to support the small EOs and the lack of support/development from head office is now strikingly apparent…
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Anyone remember Banana Leisure near Reading from the 80s/90s? They used to seriously annoy the BTA by putting on independent tris, duathlons and 10Ks without BTA endorsement or insurance. I think they probably did more to encourage new participants to tri than the BTA did for a long time. Human Race seemed to do their own thing for a long time too, and built up a big following. I am sure the BTA tried to discourage members from participation in the Banana events, and they weren’t that keen on people doing WTC/Ironman either, and persisted in rigidly enforcing different rules about things like tri-bars and shifters for ages.
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For a brief time, BTA threatened athletes with expulsion if they raced in non sanctioned races
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