I think there’s a third group that I definitely belong to. I’m not a tri lifer and not a bucket lister either. I like to do a variety of endurance stuff and one year that might mean tri/ IM and another, it might not.
IMO, take IM out of the equation and folks like me start to question whether their money/time is better spent in another venture. People like myself aren’t afraid to spend on the big events but do like value.
This is where tri and particularly IM might lose its battle. I value a tough event and a great experience but I fear that demographic is getting older. Once the tri lifers and endurance lifers get too old, I’m unsure where the new crop of athletes will come from to sustain any one brand for long enough?
Dan has upset a few people as well. some bloke talking about his “mate” who doesnt own a bike and I assume cant swim and signing up to IMUK. I sopped short of callign his “mate” a fuckign idiot but went close
and yet in over 12 months no one has twigged him yet I’ve had a couple friend requests but ignored them
If he can win the big one, I’m guessing he needs a promotion. The Duke of Kona? I haven’t watched any of his vlogs for ages. Are they any good, or just introspective PR blah? I preferred the dark horse ‘Balboa’ Sanders to the PR savvy Sanders.
Or revenues are generated from elsewhere… football equivalent (FWIW), the percentage of revenue from match tickets is very small… the majority comes from TV revenue, merchandise, and then other sponsorship arrangements…
WTC needs to find ways of replicating this model (as best it can)
A starting point, IMHO, is to make the prize pots sufficiently large that it attracts athletes who aren’t treating it as a bit of post ‘real career’ fun like ex pro cyclists and swimmers are currently doing…get ‘current’ athletes involved in their prime, and that makes it MUCH more attractive to TV than it currently is… self fulfilling prophecy then.
Totally agree, revenue is not primarily entry fees - it’s the fees from the hosting venues.
I don’t think Ironman is as broken as some people think, is it expensive? £600-£700 for an event you do once per year, not really. I think their target market have something like £5K disposable income for their hobbies although I can’t recall where I heard that figure.
It’s not broken, it still returns a profit of around 8%, it’s just that it was purchased at an inflated price, and struggles to make a sufficient return for its investors. I think that there are opportunities to create a higher return, unfortunately it will probably make it much less interesting for more experienced triathletes… but we can always look elsewhere for our kicks
Maybe that’s not such a bad thing - experiences triathletes can develop the sport outside of the rigidity of a global brand?
I mean, one obvious challenge is the club scene in running and cycling can be amazing - I don’t know a triathlete who has the time for club commitments, virtually every Ironman triathlete I know trains alone. Online/social media could be used where “bricks and mortar” clubs can’t.
I don’t think an event that takes 8 hours to run and is a bit of a procession for much of that time is ever going to be a big draw for TV audiences. The BBC coverage of ITU racing is primarily because the athletes are racing for Team GB and it all builds towards the Olympics, which they cover.
Triathlon is primarily a participation sport and a minority one at that. A lot of people who do the sport have very limited interest in the pro scene, so beyond marvelling at the insanity of the distances involved, I doubt if there would ever be enough interest from casual sports viewers to give the TV audiences required to command the advertising revenues that would give the TV rights any real value.
Ironman is boring, even ITU is boring. Kona is on in the background for me usually, with “chat” being the real focus . real TV is usually also still on and you go away, come back, nothing has changed. The tour de france is mind numbing for much of it also in that respect. Maybe a highlights package could work if done well, like pro cycling. An hour show on the big races, could attract viewers but only in the UK if Brits were dominating…but probably would still be too long and boring for mainstream. Without the Brownlees we would not be watching ITU on the BBC even. The old world cup used to be put on at silly o’clock on C4 or C5
Now the channel 4 fringe sports are things like it/tag whatever you want to call it! How they’re gonna sell advertisers for a thing which requires no equipment at all I don’t get at all!
. real TV is usually also still on and you go away, come back, nothing has changed. The tour de france is mind numbing for much of it also in that respect. Maybe a highlights package could work if done well, like pro cycling. An hour show on the big races, could attract viewers but only in the UK if Brits were dominating…but probably would still be too long and boring for mainstream. Without the Brownlees we would not be watching ITU on the BBC even. The old world cup used to be put on at silly o’clock on C4 or C5