Fleck wrote:
As a total outsider to this debate...........they should go the golf route.
You have the Masters that doesn't rotate and is more "invite" than it is qualifier..........then you have the US Open which is wide "open" and rotates venue every year. Yes - things have changed a bit, but I was told by a key IRONMAN insider several years ago, that comparisons to "The Masters" in Golf are a good one. The Augusta National Club makes up most of the rules for qualification for The Masters. It is one of the most prestigious Gold Tournaments in he world, with a storied and legendary past, but it often is NOT a showdown of ALL of the very best Golfers in the world. And - because it's just one course - you need to be able to do well on that kind and type of course - all sound familiar??
I know there are those who will call me out for outright blasphemy and sacrilege for what I'm about to say, but I have been an open advocate for IRONMAN, knowing full well this is THEIR decision, and THEIR'S alone, should move the full IRONMAN world championship around the world to different IM race race venues. I know, I know Kona has all the history and the mystique - I get that! But this could be truly win/win.
The Kona course itself is VERY selective - that's OK, but you have to go well on that kind of course, and go well in the high heat and humidity. If you took the top 20 places from a typical Kona IMWC year, and put those same athletes on a slightly different course topographically - perhaps a few more challenging climbs on the bike and in temperate much cooler conditions - how different would that Top-20 Finish order be? My guess is . . . a lot different!
The win/win comes as follows: Rotate the IMWC around and then every 4 - 5 years have it come back to Kona - it's ancestral home. In those years that the IMWC is NOT being raced in Kona and at other venues around the world, IM can have an open IM race there on the legendary IM Kona Race Course, that I'm guessing average AG Triathletes would be willing to pay some good extra$$ to do! Extra revenue can go to profit or to charity.
You are welcome! :-)
Thanks for quoting me on that one.
As the poster of that, I used to compete at a high level in junior golf travelling about. Got my rear end kicked by Webb Simpson once. To us, there were three EQUAL prestigious tournaments each year. Masters, US Open, The Open (UK). We viewed the PGA championship as more "meh". Either way, as a kid, you'd dream of winning any of those three. Those were the three events where you'd pretend with your buds you were putting for the win on the 72nd hole.
Also, golf has the concept of world rankings and a year end winner these days where the majors play a big roll.
To further the analogy, you could have the concept in triathlon of there being two "majors". Kona and other. Both equal, but the Kona one catering more to invite only and to "pro". Like the Masters. The other would also be pros, but would be wide "open".
In golf anyone can start the qualifying process for the US Open that carries better than a 1.4 handicap and goes through qualifying. There aren't a lot of exempt players for the US Open. Pros have to "qualify". Closest I ever got my legit handicap without the club pro over-riding to send folks to some stinky qualifier was a 4.
As a kid part of the excitement was seeing what course in the country would get the Open. Unless you were rich, it wouldn't be your course. But, it could be in your backyard.
I grew up playing and competing all the Pinehurst courses. Our high school districted to play those schools for a year or two. So it was always a "religious" event when the Open came to town.
I think something like Ironman would do well to spread the love away from Kona, somehow.
Even as a person who does bikes/du and not tri, if it were within a decent distance I'd travel to go cheer somebody on. Kona just makes that logistically ridiculous.
I loved golf as a kid. We went to the Senior US Open in Pinehurst and all the regular US Opens held there among a few others. I travelled to play up to 6 hours away. If golf were like triathlon, I
never would have participated in any manner to watch or visit the "championship" with it being as far off as Kona.
The mystique and nostalgia are massive there, but man that's a huge exclusionary thing for people. Ain't no loading up the family car or RV for that.