CEOIronman wrote:
You want it back? I thought that the idea was to give it away.
You're too clever by a half.
Let me break character and explain a few things that you don't seem to be grasping. 300 of your customers contributed their hard earned money in a tremendous show of support for the struggling professional triathlete. Thousands more from all over the world used social media to voice their support. We admire, respect and appreciate the talent, hard work and dedication of these athletes and the value they add, in terms of excitement and atmosphere, to the events we choose.
Someone with the same respect for these athletes may have approached our little stunt like this: "We respect our athletes and value the input from our loyal customers. Ironman understands that there is room for improvement in developing our talented pros and we are working internally and with select members of the pro ranks toward a better way. Thank you to the donors for supporting these 7th place finishers. As an organization we recognize your support for the socioeconomic well-being of the athletes and we will consider your voice moving forward."
Instead, we got something similar to,
"DON'T YOU HAVE A JOB?" IM Canada was an outlier and it might be fair to say that Lake Placid was an outlier too. We chose that particular event to stage the stunt because Mark lives in NY. Debating one event versus the other is probably silly, so let's look at the bigger picture.
According to Fortune, since the acquisition of Ironman, Providence has increased its revenue 7 fold to $150 million per year. Furthermore,
according to Triathlon Business, you just borrowed $240 million in order to pay Providence a $220 million dividend. Now, it is probably close to impossible to quantify the value added by pro triathletes, but based on my personal observation of your advertising strategy, they seem very important to you. Your Kona broadcast is focused on marketing the pro athletes. More focus has been on them than the sob stories as of late.
- Have pro prize purses increased since the Providence acquisition? Has the increase been anywhere close to 7 fold?
- Regardless of the other events going on, is it morally reprehensible to pay a pro athlete roughly the equivalent of 1 (of >2500) entry fee for 6th place and NOTHING for 7th place?
You seem like an arrogant leader of an arrogant organization. The confiscation of Ray Bothelo's 7th place check by Jeff Edwards, your VP of Operations for North America, was an interesting metaphor for your approach to your customer. As a man was slumped over, having just given everything he had for over 9 hours, a volunteer (probably unpaid) helped him hold the check. They stumbled together with his support toward your executive Jeff, who snatched the check from the volunteer and bent it in half. Jeff then walked it over to a garbage can and disposed of it. One of your customers (me) who cares about the athletes (Ray Bothelo) spend $80 dollars on that check, $500 on a flight and >$500 more on prizes/merchandise and shipping for our 30 donors. That would have been an amazing keepsake for Ray to remember this weekend of legend. And Jeff, who seems to be an arrogant fucking asshole, modeled perfectly the attitude and value system of the WTC in that single act of customer disservice.
You owe Ray Bothelo and the 300 donors who care about people like Ray an apology.
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