This is like an independent contractor going to NASDAQ and saying they are essential the valuation of Amazon.....no, Employees servicing the customers affect the valuation of Amazon....an independent contractor is totally replaceable.

If PTO wants a deal they should just front the money and make an offer.

No one cares which pro won....one year Mark Allen beats Dave Scott and he is the new hero, then Mark Allen does not show up and Welchie is that year's hero. Peter Reid wins and he's the hero and everyone forgets about Van Lierde, DeBoom beats Reid and everyone forgets about Reid, Crowie beats Stadler and everyone forgets about Stadler's miracle 4:18 bike ride, Macca beats Crowie and he's suddenly the smartest fox....Crowie retires and no one cares, we have Frodo and Frodo gets injured and everyone forgets about him and its all about Lange....who then starts crying on the side of the QueenK and suddenly Frodo is back to hero status.

It really does not matter who wins...we just need any winner and the show will go on. No one actually cares who wins (well I kind of do, but WTC does not care if my eyeballs watch Kona....they care that I submit my visa card number to enter the local race).

It really does not matter who wins...//

Your analogy falls apart because each and every person you named, would have been in the PTO. No one you know would be winning the race if the PTO boycotted, it would be Dylan Klebold winning, and you would be thinking that name sounds familiar?


I agree though, they are not doing themselves any favors, this is not how business deals like this get done. And there are several others seriously making offers, this is not going to embolden them towards the pros if it continues...

My point is that it does not matter who wins. Remember when Mark Allen retired in 1995. 1996 comes along and Hellriegel comes out of T2 again in first place as he did in 1995. Meanwhile the guy who arrived at T2 with him sits in the penalty box at T2....then that guy runs a 2:42, clocks an 8:04 day and blows away Mark's times.

Luc "Who?"

Luc Van Lierde

Who is that guy?

Oh he was second last year at Nice. Lessing beat him.

Who cares about Nice, where did this guy come from?

Well he won ITU World's in Cleveland a few weeks ago?

OK we have a new champion who is faster than Mark. Now everyone forgets Mark and its all about Luc and Thomas, and a Canadian kid Peter Reid. We could have all the top 100 pros join PTO and have a bunch of people that no one heard of who go slower than Sergio Marques (our demoted Kona age group winner) and the race would be just fine without any of the pros from last year.

Would they? The PTO is not an athlete's association. It is an event promoter.

Every time a Pro signs their name to a letter, they detract from their brand. This is a combatant letter that is not remotely near a "good faith" negotiation. I'm sure Wang Jianlian has an asking price for an honest buyer, and PTO isn't it. If Moritz wanted to sink 30% of his net worth in an acquisition, he could do it sans PTO illusion.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

The aim is probably to try to force any deal to include PTO on favorable terms. If it's a $1B deal and PTO can get 10% for $80M then there is good ROI in paying off the pros for a year or two.

I pity any of the pros that think the PTO is about them....or that it will be funded for very long after any transaction (or clear lack of a transaction).

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Every pro sport on the planet is about exploiting pro athletes, putting them through a meet grinder, using them to jack up value of leagues and sports franchises and then spitting them out at the other end (they retire, get cut, get injured....whatever).

Kids in high school and their parents sign them up to get on the meat grinder converyor belt. Most have false hope of professional glory and just burn out and never make it to pro. Of those that make it to pro an ANY sport, few have more than journeyman existence and leave pretty poor. You're much better off going to school and getting an accounting or engineering degree and your lifetime earnings will surpass most superstars in most professional sports (not all superstars in all sports).

Triathlon pros are SUPPOSED to be used for the sport, just like basketball pros get used. The difference is the amount of earnings, but that's just proportional to some degree on the intake in the sport and "how little" owners/leagues can pay. They will pay the least they can to maximize the goals of their organization. The only reason pro soccer, football and baseball players can make so much is because of TV money and owners who have gigantic egos who want to beat the team down the interstate. This does not exist in triathlon. There is one "franchise owner" who has a monopoly on paying pros what they want because no one cares about any other long distance event in their sport other than Kona (and kudos to the owners who have built up that myth over the last 40+ years or so).