Yeah I got it :/

Not only that ..

* if you sign up for an Ironman between now and Jan 4th and fill out the form @ http://www.ironman.com/...n/commit-to-tri.aspx you could win a slot to Kona..
* If you sign up for the lifetime indoor tri you could win a slot to a Life time race or 2015 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship Zell am-See Kaprun

A company that has gone to extreme lengths to protects its brand is now partnering with a bigger brand that will benefit more. I think there is more to this.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

Lifetime is definitely an 800lb gorilla in the fitness world, and they LOVE to use the running/tri lifestyle to portray fitness for their branding.

I wouldn't be the least surprised if Lifetime is the one wearing the pants in this relationship.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is the beginning of the private equity company that owns Ironman, slowly transitioning out of the business and shifting ownership over to Lifetime.

I've said this same thing in another thread.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

hmmmm ... that would be an interesting thing to happen. However, to play devil's advocate I think Lifetime has exponentially increased it's involvement in race ownership/management this year. I hope it goes well but on the other hand I won't be surprised if we see some growing pains there. They've taken over I think 3 races maybe more in Miami and we don't have a lifetime gym anywhere near us that I know of. I

There is one in Boca that I have swam at on vacation.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Great minds think alike. :-)

It sure seems peculiar this relationship between Ironman and Lifetime.

A company that has gone to extreme lengths to protects its brand is now partnering with a bigger brand that will benefit more. I think there is more to this.

You could see it that way, and that would be a side benefit to this.

The other way to look at it, is a great reach outward to expose more people to the sport of triathlon!

Outside of the world of Ironman, and the Ironman events, I can tell you that, other events, sport admin people, coaches, and retailers, are starting to openly wonder about the world of flat growth in numbers in the sport of triathlon and what we (the collective we) can do about it.

There was a meeting here in Toronto recently that did draw together, Triathlon Ontario, some key retailers, coaches and event managers to talk about this. One program that was posited was a similar out-reach to gyms and fitness clubs exactly along the lines of what I see here!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I signed up. It's only a short drive from my place, so it can be part of my training day. I'll just come home and cycle for 3 hours on the trainer afterwards. I've done these indoor tris before and they can be a bit crazy in the pool if you have really slow swimmers mixed with faster swimmers. Good organization is the key. We'll see how it goes. This might be on my calendar every year, as long as I don't have to join another health club.

If this drives up participation rates I'm all for it. Just because someone's making a buck off it is no reason to sniff your nose at it.

Almost anything that gets the out of shape Americans to exercise is good.

-Robert

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"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." ~Anne Frank

I see the spin bikes use Shimano Pedals, but I'll bet they are SPD. I don't think I own a pair any longer. ;)

-Robert

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"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." ~Anne Frank

Curious to know which, in your opinion, is the bigger brand and why.

Messick discussed this in his Babbitville interview at Kona. Old news. According to Messick it is a way to build the base and get more newbs into the sport.

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"i’m the one guy who says don’t force the stupid people to be quiet — i want to know who the morons are." -- mark cuban

Exactly. There was another thread a few months back about a deeper partnership between WCT and Lifetime. Lifetime is a major player looking for growth and in the events space they are buying up companies. The recently acquired US road Sports who does the Michlob 13.1 series and GA publix marathon. I would not be surprised if this is yet another move towards acquiring WTC.

They tried to partner with our race in one of their markets, then came back after reviewing the books and offered to buy our race which was never an option. They noted that they like to own vs. partner and it would be easier for them to just pay x time revenue and then pay us a management fee. We walked away since we are a non-profit and this is a key asset in our race portfolio.

My bet is in a year or so Lifetime will own WTC.

What event?

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"Base training is bull shit" - desertdude

Hmm, publicly traded, consistent growth, profitable.

Ironman, recent recapitalization, suggesting they needed to take on debt to pay investors cash.

It might seem crazy to us, ironman is that huge outside the triathlon world. Hell I would be curious what segment of triathletes as a whole ever do an ironman or half ironman race. How many only do it once?

I know a lot of us tend to get tunnel visioned in the ironman world, but to the outside observer it is sort of a niche or even a bizarre extreme sport. Nothing wrong with that , we just tend to forget what other people think.

The real question is how you can't see that?

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

Lifetime has been doing this for a couple of years. I've done a few of the races -- good training sessions.

Right.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

But with ironman.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

Interesting. That's very much in line with the LTF philosophy...buy, then rebrand when it makes sense. But think of LTF as Nike...it's all about the swoosh. They don't tolerate other brands in the portfolio. They were taking supplements and rebranding them as LTF, fitness equipment. They wouldn't even licence 'spinning', so no spinning - it's LTF cycle. Same for various forms of aerobics, pilates, yoga (although they bought Johnny Kest to rebrand it), and it goes on and on and on....

That said, Ram is a ridiculously good businessperson. Ironman is a brand that is profitable in it's current incarnation, but might not be if 1) liability kicks in, 2) towns get sick of the IM act, 3) volunteers suddenly aren't volunteers but paid. It's the perfect model to leave the capital structure of WTC in place but capitalize on the cross-sell/appreciation of both brands. If there ever were a case for a structural partnership, this is it. I'd give it 1./3 buy, 1/3 partner, and 1/3 they dance but leave alone.

It should be noted that LTF has 2 attempts at getting into Tri themselves, and both cost lots of $$, one is sparsely attended, and the other is pro-only. They don't know how to draw an AG audience to a tri. The bigger question is why they would want to draw AG'ers to a tri, given it's marginally profitable. Hmmm.

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- I do all my own stunts

When will the announcement be made?

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STIndiana
America Multi-Sport, Inc.
America's Half June 10, 2017
USAT RD Century Club
http://www.americamultisport.com

Generally speaking they do a good job marketing their products, but I was disappointed to see the price increases for their MN Tri Series for 2015 and as well as my monthly club dues. Neither the races nor the club is becoming any "better", so it gets to the point where you start reconsidering doing their events or even paying their dues and looking at other options.

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"For those who understand, no explanation is necessary. For those who don't understand, no explanation is possible."

Playing devil's advocate, Ironman seems to have partnered up with EVERYONE. I don't see Lifetime branded lunchboxes, watches, toilet paper, etc. The value in the Ironman brand must be large, perhaps larger than the revenue potential from the multisport event side.

Life Time fitness is just another gym. Depending on which state you are in (e.g. Pennsylvania) there are not even locations. Why are they any different than Bally's, Golds, etc?