That's great. Did you get a copy of the show(s) to listen to.
Those old blues arraignments were really cool.
Those old blues arraignments were really cool.
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Re: Its official: Ironman brand sold to China’s Wanda Group for $650 million [J-rod]
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Re: Its official: Ironman brand sold to China’s Wanda Group for $650 million [kny]
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kny wrote:
sinkinswimmer wrote:
1300 finishers in Muskoka. 1600 in Vichy and Japan. Less than a thousand in the Netherlands. It will be interesting to see if these races survive, particularly as the old reliable races like Placid, Tremblant and Frankfort are slow to sell out (if at all). I have no idea what the break even point is for an ironman, but I suspect it is above 1600. When you are trying to grow a business, you are willing to give up profit for volume growth. But there comes a time in the mature business cycle where the business stops growing, and the focus becomes profit margins. In that world, if races are not really profitable, they are not going to survive. So I predict races are going to start folding...not en mass, just a few of lower "performing" events. Fees are going to go up. And everyone will blame the new owners even though it is just a function of a normal business cycle. Yup. PE got out at the right time.Breakeven point is well fewer than 1600.
For the past 8 years every decision made by WTC has been with an eye on this eventual sale, so every decision has been based on maximizing their value. Thus, the dramatic rise in entry fees, the rapid growth in number of events, the selling of Kona slots to charity for $30K each, the creation of 70.3 series and 70.3 WC to emulate Kona, even the creation of 5150 to try the same thing at short course. Folks bemoan that WTC is now a Chinese entity, however for the past 8 years the athletes have been used to get WTC to the point where the numbers looked optimal for a sale. Now that WTC has a financially stable owner who presumably is not looking to flip it in a few years, the prognosis is good for some decisions to be made that are made based on it being good for the athlete or the sport rather than the balance sheet. Or, maybe I'm an optimist.
Earlier this year, Dalian Wanda acquired Infront Sports (http://www.infrontsports.com/), a Swiss marketing firm whose CEO has completed 15 Ironman races...probably more than most folks on ST. In the announcement of the acquisition (http://www.infrontsports.com/...ia-from-bridgepoint/) the article notes that: "in the active lifestyle & endurance segment the company collaborates with the World Marathon Majors and the iconic Ironman endurance events amongst other properties."
So now the two companies are under the same ownership and I expect to see more direct cooperation between the two leading to good things. Yeah, I'm an optimist also.