You're a politician? BAHAHA!!! That explains the narcissism.

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You're not very bright in addition to having become a total bore.

I know no one cares about watching me plod along. Doesn't make me sad for one second. Guess what? No one cares about the pros zinging around the course much either.

Who gets more air time during NBC's Kona broadcast... pros or AG interest stories? Rhetorical once again but thanks for playing.

What the hell would I be insanely jealous about? I'm very impressed by their unbelievable athletic ability but I'm hardly jealous about it. I'm certainly not jealous of their paychecks. I could buy and sell 99% of the professional triathletes on the planet. I'm jealous of Tom Brady. I'm certainly not jealous of any professional triathlete until they make $20 million/year and marry/bang Brazilian supermodels. ;-)

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

You got politician out of what I typed? Are your reading comprehension skills really that poor?

I, and many others, implore you to please stop posting or at least hand things over to a witty and competent individual. You just suck.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Let me make sure I understand.

I'm dumb and boring.
You "could buy and sell 99% of the professional triathletes on the planet."
You're definitely not jealous of them..

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Well to be fair politician from all he typed and the fact that his handle here is GMAN either means he's a huge giants fan or a fed.
But being able to buy and sell 99% of pros out there? Well if I was his supervisor I'd be checking his evidence seizures. ;)

That would explain the aggression, which is far outpacing his arguments.

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Individually and not collectively. I'm not that wealthy.

;-)

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

If you're unfavorable towards the ever-increasing power of the State, he would refered to as a "Tax-feeder", or if you're really on an anarchist jag, a "future Cheka of 'murica"
For those less cynical, he's a federal agent.

-bobo

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"What's good for me ain't necessarily good for the weak-minded."

We get it. You don't see value in pros. Marketing doesn't work on you. Great.

But it works on others. It works on the masses as a whole. There's a whole damn advertising industry built around the concept. Sponsors are part of that.

People may not race a particular race because of the pros. But the pros racing Kona, giving credence to the WTC brand, is marketing and sponsorship, for which they are not paid much. That brand is what people sign up for.

If not pushed, should WTC pay the pros out of the kindness of their heart? Maybe not. But WTC should recognize the risk that the pros could realize their collective value and head elsewhere for better pay. Or that by paying them and further increasing their brand they could make even more money....more event sponsors, more media coverage, etc.

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Chris Harris

I sure watched when Lance was racing. Put him back in a race and I am all eyes.

.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

Let him go-

I think what people fail to see is a multitude of things and the trickle down effect on what pro's do for this sport, for this distance. unlike any other sport (except running) we get to race against these guys, same day, same conditions, same distance. I will leave bullet points for people to understand what I mean to discuss.

• We have ZERO encouragement for athletes at a younger age to become pro's because the pay sucks. Without elite level/pro racing at ANY distance then the races will become just another thing to sign up for. The system has to be fixed to have a collective movement where younger athletes want and will move toward the longer distance. Someone used the PGA tour as an example. Pro's get 4 (and Players Championship and FEDEX CUP) majors they shoot for. they have to qualify for all of them. We need bigger events where pro's can qualify for these where the pay is bigger and people are attracted to watching these. WITH that you need to have sustainability at a lower level so they maintain their career and move forward. I think WTC is missing the boat on this as they have a golden opportunity to highlight the pro's and give them coverage wherein sponsor dollars will increase.
• The more WTC or any other race organization limits what they do for the pro's the more they will start to do less for the age group athletes and what they give us and provide us for an experience we pay a hefty price for. as a consumer we need to be careful and say hey wait, I am buying a product and not seeing the value I once had from this product. WTC like anyone else wants to increase profits. that is awesome. I don't begrudge them for that, BUT I and all the other people who buy their product will suffer for this. It trickles down from the Pro's. The less they value an elite level of racing the less the brand will be special and then it's just another race in town. Look at the clothing in the tents now. It use to be good brands that partnered with WTC to provide gear. now 90% of the stuff is IM branded clothing out of China direct where the quality is lacking.
• when children watch sports they aspire to be the greats of that game...Jordan, Bird, Johnson...Woods, Palmer, Nicklaus...you get it. Why can't we have that with ironman? why can't kids want to have people to watch and look up to and say "holy cow I want to do that!" that is what drew me to this sport, watching Allen, Scott, Pigg, Molina, Tinley battle it out...my first memory of ironman was Julie Moss, watching a PRO on ABC's Wide World of Sports. Hell go back and watch Magnum P.I. I remember the episode they had Magnum racing in Ironman in Hawaii...I was like wow this is a big deal. My oldest son (13) knows all the greats of Ironman racing because it is THOSE people they want to strive to be...not some lawyer or executive that spends all their spare time climbing their way to the top of the AG ladder.
• WTC is missing the boat on utilizing pro's in a big way and I mean BIG. pay per view events, pro only races, country vs. country relay stuff. mix it up and give us some stuff to watch. For the most part people are right. nobody cares really what pro's are doing what because WTC doesn't put emphasis on the battle they are fighting for. i.e. the Kona qualifying race, make it a big deal ( I personally think the way they do it is wrong) and people will take interest in pro's who are trying to make it. Example, Balazs Csoke finished second at IMLP...doubt many people know him but he lives and coaches in our community here and he has a growing presence. Sunday was BIG deal for him and I think its fair to say WTC needs to do better at highlighting pro's who are trying to break through and qualify. It is just as much as a human interest story to learn about a young hungarian boy who moved to switzerland and train and live to go on and become an ironman world champion after moving to the US with very little.
• I personally think there are to many IM distance races and to create a bigger interest they need to make it tougher to get in and do. any, not just WTC, needs to build a brand on longevity and not just strike while the iron is hot. Kona will always be the crown jewel but we need to have other races or series to develop that can be the jewels that help Kona sparkle more.
• Yes, I think it is very important for the pro's to make a better wage and have emphasis put on them to spark change in how we develop athletes over time to want to race this distance or someday IM will be just another local Turkey trot or 10k...the communities NEED and WANT Ironman, it creates wealth to local economies. Ask The Woodlands what they think...yes we get some local gripers and people upset they are inconvenienced for a day but I can PROMISE you that nobody was bitching when they see the benefit from Ironman through their own tax relief because the brand brought in so much tax revenue.

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Kirk Noyes

Downtubes are for Dinosaurs

Yes!!! Lance is back in this thread!!!

What about your ego? I'd like to see that race around the course at least as much as a professional.

To expand on the golf analogy a bit:

I don't know about you guys but I think golf is probably the most dull spectator sport ever, maybe tying with bowling. Yet, there is millions to be made for the top pros. Why? Because people who play golf as a hobby also are interested in the guys playing golf professionally and will actually sit there and watch it (or crowd around the course to see it live). A golf tournament is a series of full days watching people wander around a course smacking little white balls. Full..... days... kinda like something else we know?

I am guessing that anyone that doesn't actually do iron-distance racing would say the same thing I just did about golf - it is incredibly dull to watch. Like golf, to the people that play it's an important sport.

The WTC has an opportunity here to showcase pro athletes and build it into a sort of "golf" type event. Perhaps with the tiered system of having to qualify for the "major" events that still are needed to qualify for the big show at Kona you can generate some interest. I don't know how they can generate that interest amongst the general population of sports-watchers, but perhaps looking to the pro-golf world we can find some answers. They were able to take a game that is incredibly dull to watch, but has a great number of participants that do it as a hobby, and turn it into a multimillion dollar industry.

Would you like me to buy you a dictionary so you could look up the definition of ego or would a website link suffice?

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Golf (or bowling) as a general concept is painfully boring to watch. But in reality there are thousands of tiny "holy shit what is going to happen" moments. When a guy takes a swing or or a put it's hard not to be captivated for the few seconds that the ball heads towards a tiny hole 300 yards away. Long course triathlon is particularly boring because nothing happens. A fast guy gets on the bike then bikes by himself for 5 hours, then runs by himself for 2.5 hours. Maybe if there were 30 or 40 pros all jockying for position it might have some entertainment value. But right now there aren't enough pros, and those racing aren't of high enough caliber. The most entertaining Kona races were when a fast cyclist was getting chased down on the run.

I care. As did a lot of the other people I was hanging out with at IMLP last weekend. When I did Challenge St Andrews last month, there were a lot of people who were thrilled to be on the same course as the world champ, and were excited to talk to her afterwards.

Just because you think Ironman should be a participation event and not a competition, doesn't mean the rest of us feel that way.

How much media coverage has Rev3 gotten since they dropped the pro field? Yup, zero. You're drastically underestimating the coverage and buzz on social media that a pro field generates.

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And I think you're drastically overestimating it. Nevertheless, what does the pro field generate to the bottom line when the AG field was already sold out 11 months earlier.

We will agree to disagree.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Yup - I agree fully. So how do we make it more interesting? What can we do to make those "ball flying 300 yards" moments happen in long-distance no-draft triathlon?

How much media coverage did they get before?

Apparently it got mentioned on some Twitter or Facebook pages. Which is almost like being on SportsCenter. ;-)

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Rev3 used to be front page news on THIS website every time there was a pro race. I haven't seen any ST coverage on Rev3 races this season since they dropped the pros.

What's Rev3?

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Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
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So your feeling the need to bring up just how much money you make was for what reason, then? Sure, buy me a dictionary but might as well get one for yourself with all that damn money. Then shove it straight up your ass.

Just a guess but I think he was talking about how little money the 99% of pros make rather than how much money he makes (i.e. not much to be "jealous" about)