I agree, that if the pros want a pay out at an event, they need to perform outside of competition as well as in competition. If it's a full time job, then it needs to be a job, and not just training. Wen your an engineer, a large portion of your job has nothing to do with engineering. When your a doctor, you still need to have communication skills, interact with fellow doctors, employees, mind your budgets, etc. All jobs have ancillary tasks, and a successful professional athlete is no different. I think in mainstream sports, most athletes are missing out on a huge opportunity to promote themselves and increase their value. It's not like they have 20 year long careers... suck it up for 5-10 years, put yourself out there and mingle with you fans, the public. Many act as they they are somehow "above" all of that.

Ask any typical business owner, what do you spend most of your time doing... if your successful? Marketing! or marketing/sales related activities. If it's "operations" then long term, your not going to grow.

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TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com

Wonder what this will do to the local scene. I bet all those "down the roads races" will be a lot more popular now. I remember 2 years ago getting a nice 250 dollars once every two weeks or so because nobody bothered to show up.

This sport is being strangled. I just saw Tour de Gila is on the rocks, I don't know how endurance sport in the current is going to last.

You in Clermont?

I think the part of the argument about pros that everyone is forgetting, is that the industry makes a lot of money on people who strive for ultimately racing as a pro. Triathletes are deeply competitive, and we spend lots of money on specific races, travel, gear, coaching, etc to help us achieve our aspirations, which includes things like qualifying for Kona or even turning pro. Those people often spend more money than the BOP AGer who is just doing it for their health. Sure, those elite pre-pro athletes themselves aren't the reason those BOP athletes are singing up for races, but they are the ones racing more often and infusing more $$$ into the sport than the average athlete. On the other hand, watching those pro/elite athletes sure is inspirational and exciting for some.

A big money making part of this market comes from the people who strive for greatness. If there are no opportunities for greatness, or those opportunities keep dwindling, those upper tier athletes leave triathlon and seek out another sport with more opportunities. I've seen it a few times, elite and young pros leaving triathlon to compete in golf and crossfit because there are better opportunities for competition and success. I would hope most agree that Olympic distance non draft racing is a VERY important gateway into both half/full distance racing and ITU draft legal racing. Winning your local Oly distance race by 10 minutes does not quite give a budding pro the competition and experience that racing a lifetime race along side Gomez, Dye, Kaye, McLarty etc will even if you get your ass handed to you.

And to the asshats with the "get a job" responses - most pros do have day jobs. Only the highest tier really has the luxury of pursuing triathlon full time. And that's after racing professionally for years before they got to the level where they can quit their day job. Which is another reason why the olympic distance races are so important for the development of budding pros, especially those that do not come from a strong running background. You can get away with a little less training volume for an oly than a 70.3 and definitely a full, which is a good thing for those still working their day jobs.

I hope 2015 is a fluke and someone comes back with an olympic distance series for the pros next season. Otherwise once I'm done checking the boxes of things to accomplish as an amateur, I'm going to need to start working on my burpees.

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http://trainingwheelsrequired.wordpress.com
@KellyNCollier

It's not that they receive compensation *because* they spend a lot of money and perform well, it's that they spend a lot of money TO perform well because there are opportunities for compensation. Less prize money/opportunity means people spend less money on the things that sponsors are selling

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http://trainingwheelsrequired.wordpress.com
@KellyNCollier

You're assuming the money spent on pro's is somehow delivering a return on investment of age groupers buying their stuff, if the last year or two are any indication, apparently it isn't. Also the idea that the big spenders are pro's is laughable.

I'm conflicted, I used to think of this as not making any sense as obviously tons of companies make a killing off of the basketball or football players so many people watch, but maybe that's the difference, all people do is watch them. The biggest spenders I know that support basketball by buying tickets/merchandise probably don't remember the last time they made a layup, same with football and even throwing one. Maybe triathletes are less impacted by pro's because they're essentially doing the same thing, just slower.

At any rate, there is no law that says you get reimbursed for doing what you love. It's unfortunate but possibly it doesn't matter how well you market yourself, unless you're a Chrissie or Macca it is probably very hard to influence enough purchases to generate an ROI.

The only problem with your train of thought is that average joes out number elites by 1000-1. I'll let you figure out who spends more money.

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I *heart* weak, dumb ass people...

Not sure why it's always got to be an "us vs them" argument, I think the bottom line is that more participation and better competition is great for the sport/industry as a whole. Fewer pro races = fewer pros = fewer athletic individuals pursue triathlon in a competitive sense and choose to do something else, spend their money elsewhere. The BOP athletes doing it for their health are still going to be doing it for their health, and that's great. But having elites and an upper tier of highly competitive athletes spending $1000 on Aero Camp and all the fancy gear that goes with it is great for the sport and does not detract from the AGers who are in it for fun. Eliminating pro races in an entire segment of triathlon that feeds into long course racing and draft legal racing hinders the development of future pros who might go on to be Chrissies or Maccas, is a major detriment to a subset of the competitive triathlon population and is not adding a positive to the non competitive AGers, so how is this not a bad thing? It's cutting away from the total amount of participation in the sport, not exchanging one segment for another.

And we all know decreasing entry fees as a result of races not paying a prize purse is definitely not going to happen...

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http://trainingwheelsrequired.wordpress.com
@KellyNCollier

Everyone wants to get just a couple minutes faster, so they can PR. People drop absurd amounts of money on wheels and pointy helmets as a result. But without the pros there's no reference and the sport is much less competitive. It becomes a color run. So yes, the 1000 average joes combined spend more than the 1 pro, but they spend it because of the 1 pro. Everyone's chasing the guy in front of them, but in the end they're all chasing the pro.

Even Bassmaster has a pro division ;-)

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http://trainingwheelsrequired.wordpress.com
@KellyNCollier

The current industry trends do not support your position. Just look at the title of this thread.

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I *heart* weak, dumb ass people...