The long time coming part is certainly true.

It does make me wonder about the outstanding lawsuit pending in Missouri state court and how that's being handled in the transaction.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

Wow, I didn't think Rock and Roll marathons could possibly suck any worse, but with Wanda "anything is possible"

And announced also, or the same announcement?, that they purchased Competitor Group as well.

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Brandon Marsh - Website | @BrandonMarshTX | RokaSports | 1stEndurance | ATC Bikeshop |

A big deal for sure.


Indeed a big deal in the world of endurance sports and the endurance sports race/event business.

A bit of a game-changer, actually.

Wanda, clearly wants to really be THE player in the world of mass participation endurance sports races/events globally. They now own a number of the key assets to do this.

If you thought "IRONMAN" was some quirky, ultra-long triathlon in Hawaii, you are long ago mistaken!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Yup, I posted about it last night but everyone was sleeping

I don't think we'll see a huge impact in the US but oversees I think they have the potential for huge growth in the series. RnR is a good brand to have under the umbrella and while huge mass size events are not for everyone they do motivate a lot of people to get outside and run

DW is staying in a buying mood with good pick ups in Africa, Asia and NZ/Australia to go along with the Ironman and European cycling purchases they already made.

No matter your opinion on big corporations owning athletic events you can't deny they get people to participate and more people doing triathlons, running races, cycling events is not a bad thing

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Boots
Fleet Feet Rochester, NY
Fleet Feet Buffalo, NY
YellowJacket Racing, Rochester, NY

I don't think we'll see a huge impact in the US but oversees I think they have the potential for huge growth in the series.

Boots,

Indeed. In North America right now, running, cycling and triathlon, the core mass participation endurance sports are all flat or down. There is a bit of growth in Europe, but the real story is in Asia, where the growth right now is extraordinary! It's where things were at in North America, maybe 15 - 20 years ago!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

What has Wanda done to increase participation in endurance events other than buy events that were already doing well? Wouldn't the number of Asians participating in endurance sports have grown greatly in coming years without Wanda's involvement?

i wrote my own little ditty on the home page. big changes afoot.

not that anybody cares, but i called this shot 7 months ago ;-)

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

So are they going to start suing people who call their races "marathons"?

maybe, maybe not.

Did WTC have the resources to add a bunch of events in the same year to the Ironman Portfolio in China/Asia

RnR could very well have 12 races in just China in the next few years.

Say what you will but people sign up for branded events, both Ironman and RnR prove that.

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Boots
Fleet Feet Rochester, NY
Fleet Feet Buffalo, NY
YellowJacket Racing, Rochester, NY

This is the first thing I thought of when I saw the thread 🙂.

Say what you will but people sign up for branded events, both Ironman and RnR prove that.


Boots,

Agreed. It's part of the ongoing maturation and growth of the endurance sports events business.

At one time ALL races/events were independent ones now you have larger conglomerates of with branded events and series.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Maybe while they're busy working on world dominance, they can build their own registration system and dump Active.com.

Nah, they'll just buy Active to make even more money on all those things you didn't want to buy.

They just re-upped with Active. Not gonna happen.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

Active.com (part of Active network) is sitting in a private equity portfolio, you never know. If Active was willing to part out their sports and endurance vertical it could happen if Wanda put the right price on it.

So transitioning from a half marathon to a half iron or full marathon to full iron is a big leap for people.

Seems like there needs to be some stepping stones - I.e short tris - Sprints and Olys.

Maybe while they're busy working on world dominance, they can build their own registration system and dump Active.com.

What's interesting here is that Rock-n-Roll has their "own" registration system - RaceIt!

Also, as Dan Empfield points out in his article, IRONMAN/Wanda in addition to the event side of the business with the Rock-n-Roll run races also, now has media and magazines under their control, such as Triathlete, Velonews and other titles! It will be interesting to see that they do with those.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

In related news, 20 Kona slots will be awarded at every Chinese RnR marathon to those that "race" in the most colorful tutus.

Call this shot: "Triathlon has peaked and is fading in the US, and will peak then fade by 2027 Worldwide". Glad to have been a part of the history. By 2030, people will say, "Triathlon, what was that again?"

Chinese ponzi scheme/real estate developer/endurance sports behemoth is hitting a wall in its entertainment business. Over-levered conglomerates with no coherent business strategy do not end well. I wonder how long before they sell WTC?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-18/beijing-confidential-chinese-firm-s-hollywood-expansion-blocked

I was going to bring this up as well. It's hard to know just how deep Wanda's pockets are and what assets they'll prioritize in the event of a liquidity crunch.

It seems like the athletic assets are an outlier to the greater emphasis on entertainment businesses. It also would seem to be less integrated into the whole. I would like to see WTC return to US ownership and get away from this emphasis on overseas growth, but it probably is unrealistic to think any of this will make a difference to the experience of the US race consumer. If Wanda sells, it probably will just go back to a PE firm at a loss.

Did the RnR deal close already?

Does this mean someone can get an M-Dot tattoo with a 13.1 on it?

I'd make that pink.......if I didn't think it was gonna happen.