i have a good friend who went pro in tennis, cracked the top 100 and even the top 50...he was still barely scraping by and tennis is way more popular than triathlon and has much more money. Golf/Running/cycling/bass fishing is the same way, gosh that is how life works, the top 1% in their respective fields make the big bucks.
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Either your friend is an idiot with money or he wasn't as high as you say he was, or your example is from 25 years ago in tennis.
Currently there are 262 players on the ATP Tour that have made $50k in 2014 as of this week (and one of bigger purses has still not even been given out, US Open).
Why is it possible that so many in Tennis can "scrape by"? Because of TV and advertising. There are a TON of ATP tourneys broadcast on ESPN in the summer and every major is broadcast live.
Until LC triathlon figures out a way to make it marketable to some type of TV/media market (online programming), it's going to be a sport where only 30 triathletes live off just racing (and sponsors), and the rest will have to hustle 2-3 other jobs or be a full time in something else and race on the side.
Triathlon is no where near tennis or golf, those are terrible examples.
ETA: Again this shouldn't be about WTC, this should be about LC triathlon as a whole. And maybe the reason why everyone is hating on WTC is because LC triathlon simply is "dead" in terms of bringing in more money, and so WTC is their last island of hope to "make it". But I'd love to see more innovation from pros and the industry.
Should we go to a multi lapped venues for all pro races? 15 miles loops where they come by the crowds every 45 mins? 5 10k loops on the run to showcase their talents in front of crowds?
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@brooksdoughtie
USAT-L2,Y&J; USAC-L2
http://www.aomultisport.com