GMAN19030 wrote:
texafornia wrote:
Glad you asked. Because pros are your sport's representatives/advertisements while age groupers are your customers. Ironman loses money on the pros as a loss-leader (only $800 for all the triathlons they want and also paid prize money) for advertising to attract age groupers ($600 per race and no prize money). As reps of the company, you configure the pros they way you want the customers to be. This is why all sports do equal numbers at the top - it drives signups at the bottom.
Let's say you're a computer company and you want more African Americans to buy your products. Obvious step one is you put more African Americans in your ads. The pros are part the ad campaign for Ironman. If you want more women to sign up for your events, you put more women in your ad than there are currently in your (lacking) customer profile. It's marketing 101.
Do you really think the pros are advertisements to attract AG'ers? Go to an Ironman branded race and poll 100 random AG'ers and ask them two questions:
1) Did today's professional field have any impact on your decision to race today?
If you got one response of "Yes" I'd be absolutely astonished.
2) Did the presence of the professional triathlete have any influence on you starting the sport?
That will have more of a mixed response. Folks that have been around the sport for 20 years probably were more influenced by the professionals than the current crop of newcomers... because at one point pros did actually matter to the sport. You will also have some folks that were inspired by the Kona broadcast but probably more about the human interest stories than the professionals. All that said, the vast majority of people in the sport were introduced to it by a friend, co-worker, or family member. You are way overestimating the professional's sphere of influence... which is probably a sphere the size of a ping pong ball.
I 100% disagree with your first paragraph. I do agree with your second paragraph but you don't need pros to do that.
You don't think that pros are used to attract AGs? Who gets half the media coverage at Kona?
Open any triathlon magazine and any website and tell me who is in the ads. I see Potts, Crowie, Rinnie, Macca. Mentioned by name, too. If you happen to see a non-pro, they
look like a pro and their real name isn't mentioned. So yeah, not only do companies think of them as ads, they
are ads to get people to buy whatever. Basically every spot is used on their kit, bike, and sometimes car for ads. They aren't just part of the ad, the ad is built around them with the font and the lettering fit around their faces. They are paid to race in X company's gear and X company's races with appearance fees. Maybe some AGs don't know who they are, but enough do and enough spend enough money based on their pro image for it make a huge difference.
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