kny wrote:
I would surmise that the only value pros provide to WTC is Kona. A Kona without a quality pro field no longer has an NBC 2 hour program and the eyes of millions of Sat afternoon college football watchers.What makes you so sure about that statement? It's been made a few times now, but is there real truth behind it?
The NBC broadcast only focuses on a couple of the male and female pros, with the rest of the time focusing on various special interest stories. Remove the dozen or so pros and you're still left with a grueling endurance event, that will still have elite amatures pushing hard for top place. It's entirely possible that having it an amature event would bolster the image, after all the Olympics used to be about amature competition, and the NCAA still consists of unpayed athletes--and both of those get plenty of attention. Part of the alure for Kona/Ironman has been that amatures can participate.
My 2cents: Team Hoyt has done more for the sport than all pros combined.